Solutions to Exact Match Domain (EMD) Problem

It’s obviously a bit troubling times for EMD owners. No one likes to be at the center of an SEO witch hunt. It’s all fine and good to do spam reports, until it hits your site, or targets your niche or competitive advantage. One of the best competitive advantages has always been the ability to stay under the radar and keep your mouth shut (though I sometimes fail to fail at what I preach).

The solutions are the same as to many of the problems with Panda and Penguin. It’s a tough time to be a site owner, and admit that you were “over-optimized” and start back peddling a bit, but it’s G’s world – we just play in it. How many times has Google said it? Focus on the user. You may have always scoffed at doing “what’s good for the user,” but with engagement metrics that suggestion has turned into a requirement. We'll continue to focus on both how to make our websites better for users and Google with more actionable execution taking advantage of how user's interact with our sites via search engines. 

There’s still plenty of advantages to EMD’s, and we should continue to see instances of their success, but it’s hard to build a generic commercial intent keyword brand. You gotta have the chops to back it up!

We all know ranking for generic commercial intent phrases is valuable, or we wouldn’t be targeting them.  In order to stand up to the scrutiny, you’re going to have choose your favorite EMD’s, and let those other pipe-dream microsites die their slow painful death. It’s important to know when to pull the plug on a losing web property. Any good web entrepreneur has plenty of failures on their resume.

A few things to consider for solving problems with EMD sites:

1. Disavow all public knowledge of SEO
2. De-optimize
3. De-link
4. Prioritize your SEO efforts – you can’t win the battle on all fronts anymore
5. Focus on quality of quantity (with site indexation)
6. Redesign and Rebrand (maybe it’s time to get a mascot for your .org)
7. Innovate ways to improve user engagement metrics
8. Develop a social presence and improve your social mentions
9. Diversify your backlink profile
10. Diversify your anchor text
11. Okay – I’m (kind of) kidding on rule #1 - #3

You know who hates on good EMD's most? The people who don't own them. You know why? Because they've always carried an advantage with them. While this advantage is diminishing, there is still a tactical advantage in spending some money up front for a great exact match domain name that describes exactly what you do and acknowledges the generic commercial intent of your visitor.

EMD's will always receive lots of hatorade because the majority of people don't own them. Toolman at webmasterworld said it best: S.P.A.M = Sites Positioned Above Mine. There’s plenty of SEO’s who could make Silky Johnson look like Tony Robbins. Don't participate in the hate, and don't feed the trolls.

Very few people are going to come out of the woodwork, and “extol the virtues” of an exact match domain, and put their website under the ever scrutinous eyes of search engineers, and a community that often prefers to focus on failure instead of offering opinion for improvement. As usual, I enjoy being the exception to the rule, and figured I’d pitch in my two cents. 

How to find and buy an EMD (and avoid being a hater)

1. Type in whois.sc/yourkeyword.com/.net./org (this will redirect you to domaintools whois search for the targeted phrase)
2. Identify if the domain is owned by a domainer or owner and do some further research
3. If there is no established website - Write an email and ask if the domain is for sale.
4. If you get a response – offer approximately 40% of the asking price, or propose one high enough to not offend the seller.
5. Meet in the middle if .com is worth it.  if .net/.org offer 2-10% of your .com price
6. If there is an established site, check the other metrics, and be prepared to pay much more.
7. After EMD “death” be prepared to pay more for domains in the aftermarket after their “rebirth”

For more on domaining, check out the domainer myths.

Take my opinion on EMD’s with a grain of salt. No, I didn't test my theories like Pete. This is just my experience. I have bought a fair share of them thinking they were a great buy for future projects, or just to invest in and sell in the aftermarket at a later date. We’ve been warned of the “death of EMD’s” for a long time. I just hope EMD's continue to suffer the same type of death that SEO constantly battles with: one that is curable with creativity, innovation, and execution.

Resources:

• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/are-exact-match-domains-in-decline
• http://www.seobook.com/exact-match-domains
• http://www.seobook.com/should-you-buy-exact-match-domain-name
• http://www.seobook.com/category-killer-domain-names
• http://www.seobook.com/googles-matt-cutts-talks-down-keyword-domain-names
• http://www.standingdog.com/blog/why-exact-match-domain-names-are-good-or-bad-for-seo/
• http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/10/googles-exact-match-domain-name-patent-detecting-commercial-queries/
• http://www.winningtheweb.com/value-exact-match-domain.php
• http://www.elliotsblog.com/exact-match-domains-can-be-brands-2692
• http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4480480.htm
• http://upmarketdns.com/highest-sales/
• http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm
• http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/post-penguin-emd.html
• http://www.hmtweb.com/marketing-blog/google-over-optimization-penalty-exact-match-domains/
• http://www.standingdog.com/blog/why-exact-match-domain-names-are-good-or-bad-for-seo/
• http://www.webmasterworld.com/domain_names/3019742.htm

Source : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/

Posted in: EMD,Exact Match Domain,Google Updates,On Page SEO,SEO,SEO Audit