Exact Match Domain Values

The Google EMD update

When the news came out Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that Google is going after “low
quality” exact
match domains (EMD) to ensure they do not rank well in the Google search
results. Matt said this algorithm update only impacts 0.6% of
English-US queries.

There certainly is a lot of talk from webmasters that their quality site got hit and that Google left a low quality site ranking well. You can check out the thread at WebMasterWorld.com and there are 604 comments on the topic.

Of course more things than just the EMD factor what Google is calling “low quality” You may have good content but a bad link profile, spammy anchor text and links from what Google sees as a bad neighborhood.

Seems that since the Google EMD update there is a lot of hyperbole and panic from some domainers. One comment on Namepros said, “personally i think this update has made many domain names value drop to zero.

anything like (example purposes only)

chainsaws.com

woodsheds.com

fishtanks.com

usbleads.com

blankdiscs.com”

Another poster wrote that three end users all replied back not interested because of the EMD update. That seems to be an outlier experience as most domainers don’t find that many end users who are that up on a recent Google update. Now to be fair the names were not mentioned so there is no way to know the quality.

Of course some have used exact match domains to try to put up a low quality site and get Google love because of the perceived boost that an EMD received. You need to know what is going on with Google, but Google does not soley determine the value of a domain.

An exact match domain can be very useful in ways of branding and marketing. WilliamsFishStore.com can still make good use out of a domain like Fishtanks.com for use in their advertising and for memorability.

Diapers.com is the first result for the keyword search diapers, no problem. Heck Fish-Tanks.net yes a hyphenated emd on a .net is on the first page for fishtanks. Why ? Because it is has unique content created by the site owners not an Amazon store or a few spun articles and some adsense.

Selling three or four word long tail domains may prove harder as some business owners only read one article and think there is no value or benefit to buying the domain. Try to move out of those at a profit. Flipping out of an $8 reg for even $50 to  $100 and try to buy some two word domains from those domainers who are down on their EMD domains.

Someone said that Google is to blame for ever allowing these EMD’s to have a superior ranking ability in the first place. Google is our partner whether we like it or not and they can even affect possible domain buyers in the process. Don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket and educate buyers on all the advantages of your domain not just ranking in Google.

Where do you come out on exact match domain values ? Up, down or the same ? Leave a comment.

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