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advice Google’s John Mueller Cautions Against Keyword-Rich Domains

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Keyword-rich domains may harm a website's long-term success, warns Google Search Advocate John Mueller. Here are five reasons why.
Keyword-rich domain names were once thought to be an effective way to increase a website’s visibility and improve search engine rankings.
However, there are several reasons why keyword-rich domain names can be detrimental to a website’s success.
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Here's what he said literally:

I'm not a fan of keyword-keyword domains, but YMMV. Random thoughts:
  • everyone thinks you're a spammer
  • changing business focus, or even expanding, is harder
  • you have no brand name, there's nothing that people can search for which "obviously" should show your site. You're always competing, you're not building value with long-term users.
Source:

 
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Everyone thinks you're a spammer? He sounds like another angry person that couldn't afford a good keyword name.
 
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You need to know the history of EMDs (exact match domains) in Google's results so you can fully understand what's going on.

Before Sept 2012, Google gave a "boost" in the rankings to domains that were EMDs. So if you had Keyword.com you were given a boost if in rankings if someone searched for "keyword".

In Sept 2012, Google rolled out the "EMD Update" algorithm update, which got rid of the boost. So, rather than getting a boost for using keyword.com for 'keyword', there was no boost available. Every domain supposedly is now created equal.

But, Google has a lot of ranking factors, one of which is related to 'anchor text' of links pointing to your site.

If you have Keyword.com, then there is a VERY good chance that other sites linking to you will think of you and mention you as being "Keyword", thus you actually get an indirect ranking boost. The anchor text of links pointing to you include "keyword" or "keyword.com", which helps your rankings.

That is why it's still important to buy and use a keyword rich domain name. It helps your rankings in Google 'indirectly', not because of the fact that Google is giving you a boost for having the keyword in your domain name.

By the way, it's important to note that Bing appears to give you a boost in rankings for "keyword" if you're using something like keyword(.com) as your domain name.
 
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Google warns? Whatever... flowers.com is flowers.com no matter what Google warns.
 
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Google is no longer the King. There are many places to advertise on right now.
 
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Here's what he said literally:

I'm not a fan of keyword-keyword domains, but YMMV. Random thoughts:
  • everyone thinks you're a spammer
  • changing business focus, or even expanding, is harder
  • you have no brand name, there's nothing that people can search for which "obviously" should show your site. You're always competing, you're not building value with long-term users.
Source:

This is a pretty awful take by John Mueller.

I will go ahead and let Hotels.com, Cars.com, and others know that they don't have a "brand".

In all seriousness, not everyone wants or needs a brand. If you just sell a product or service sometimes it is just more efficient to advertise that.

It can cost a lot of money to build a "brand" from scratch. In many, or most, situations an end user is likely better off just buying a relevant domain.

A quality domain does a lot of the work itself when it comes to establishing credibility.

Brad
 
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Yep. What this Mr. John Mueller does believe in is Google+, which he links to in his Twitter bio. However, that Google+ profile stopped working several years ago, because the service was discontinued by his employer.

Nothing to see here folks.

8849d5330e7191c46ec6a8de16eb514c.jpg
 
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That's a very lame and simply a wrong statement.

Best-Running-Shoes.com vs Nike - is he for real, seriously? Three words, 2 hyphens?? )) First of all, it's pretty pathetic to strawman the opponent's idea like this. He should've take it one step further and compare The-Very-Best-Running-Shoes-Ever.com vs Nike.com

Secondly, I guess he should have an idea how many billions Nike invested in its name before a sports brand pops up in everyone's hand once you utter these four letters? You take most of similar short names, again - before they are branded vs RunningShoes.com - and RunningShoes will beat them by a country mile, in all aspects (SEO, memorability, sounding)

Nothing against brand words (I have a few dozen myself) but generally all these ''get your own non-keyword cool name'' points - yeah, again, any idea of an investment needed to develop your own brand, even on a smaller scale? Let alone Nike or Apple...
 
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You need to know the history of EMDs (exact match domains) in Google's results so you can fully understand what's going on.

Before Sept 2012, Google gave a "boost" in the rankings to domains that were EMDs. So if you had Keyword.com you were given a boost if in rankings if someone searched for "keyword".

In Sept 2012, Google rolled out the "EMD Update" algorithm update, which got rid of the boost. So, rather than getting a boost for using keyword.com for 'keyword', there was no boost available. Every domain supposedly is now created equal.

But, Google has a lot of ranking factors, one of which is related to 'anchor text' of links pointing to your site.

If you have Keyword.com, then there is a VERY good chance that other sites linking to you will think of you and mention you as being "Keyword", thus you actually get an indirect ranking boost. The anchor text of links pointing to you include "keyword" or "keyword.com", which helps your rankings.

That is why it's still important to buy and use a keyword rich domain name. It helps your rankings in Google 'indirectly', not because of the fact that Google is giving you a boost for having the keyword in your domain name.

By the way, it's important to note that Bing appears to give you a boost in rankings for "keyword" if you're using something like keyword(.com) as your domain name.
Very well put. In the scheme of things for SEO, it can be good to build brand awareness around a name for branding purposes. That's where the comparisons truly end though with branded names vs EMD names, IMHO.

Keyword-rich domains may harm a website's long-term success, warns Google Search Advocate John Mueller. Here are five reasons why.
Keyword-rich domain names were once thought to be an effective way to increase a website’s visibility and improve search engine rankings.
However, there are several reasons why keyword-rich domain names can be detrimental to a website’s success.
This is a pretty awful take by John Mueller.

I will go ahead and let Hotels.com, Cars.com, and others know that they don't have a "brand".

In all seriousness, not everyone wants or needs a brand. If you just sell a product or service sometimes it is just more efficient to advertise that.

It can cost a lot of money to build a "brand" from scratch. In many, or most, situations an end user is likely better off just buying a relevant domain.

A quality domain does a lot of the work itself when it comes to establishing credibility.

Brad
Here's what he said literally:

I'm not a fan of keyword-keyword domains, but YMMV. Random thoughts:
  • everyone thinks you're a spammer
  • changing business focus, or even expanding, is harder
  • you have no brand name, there's nothing that people can search for which "obviously" should show your site. You're always competing, you're not building value with long-term users.

It makes total sense on why he'd say this publicly. He works for Google, the place where their biggest money maker is in paid advertisement and not so much on the SEO side. It might as well say, "don't spend your money on a EMD domain, but do spend money with our ad platform, so you can build your brand that way."

Unless there are case studies that actually correlate what he is saying that EMDs are actively harming organic placement or even causing higher rises in cost with Google Ads, I'd hypothesis that this is more of a self-serving tactic that helps the hand that feeds him. Not mad at that, but at least that's what I'm seeing underneath the surface or else why would some people pay for exact match EMDs for large sums of money to build a brand around?

Just my personal opinion, but this is a take with a grain of salt until proven otherwise.
 
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So after you prove you're not a scammer you buy them anyway for generic traffic or search/engine.com too expensive.
 
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It's depend on the domains. If it is best-running-shoes.com it is not attractive for brand, every one knows it is only xxx$ domain. It might be a spammy brand..

But if it is Candy.com, Diamond.com, NFTs.com, Crypto.com, Cars.com, Hotels.com , they are not spammy, and every one knows they are big brands. So if you can't buy Top EMDs .com, don't say that they are bad..
 
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But if it is Candy.com, Diamond.com, NFTs.com, Crypto.com, Cars.com, Hotels.com , they are not spammy, and every one knows they are big brands. So if you can't buy Top EMDs .com, don't say that they are bad..
These are not EMD:s, they're Generic Domains (or in case of NFT.com an Abbreviated Domain).

An EMD is something like buyqualitygems.com, rentacaralicante.com, bestloans.net, etc. that's to say SLD's composed of phrases people search for when they're looking for a product or service. And while people might search for "chocolate," chocolate.com is not generally considered an EMD, because it's a single dictionary word, which covered under the class of Generic Domains.

Here, Mueller specifically refers to keyword-rich domains (e.g. domains with many keywords in them), and when you consider that, what he says makes perfect sense. Because if you own rentacaralicante.com for a car rental service in Alicante, aside from looking cluttered (like a spam site domain), if you want expand to other cities, say Valencia and Ibiza, then you might have to re-brand in some capacity.

It makes total sense on why he'd say this publicly. He works for Google, the place where their biggest money maker is in paid advertisement and not so much on the SEO side. It might as well say, "don't spend your money on a EMD domain, but do spend money with our ad platform, so you can build your brand that way."
I made this point in an other thread, but as Google's leading Search Engine Coordinator he can be held legally accountable for lying about how Google's Search Engine works, similar to how a Lawyer, Physician, or Economist can be held legally held accountable for giving you misleading advice in their respective fields of expertise.
 
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These are not EMD:s, they're Generic Domains (or in case of NFT.com an Abbreviated Domain).

An EMD is something like buyqualitygems.com, rentacaralicante.com, bestloans.net, etc. that's to say SLD's composed of phrases people search for when they're looking for a product or service. And while people might search for "chocolate," chocolate.com is not generally considered an EMD, because it's a single dictionary word, which covered under the class of Generic Domains.

Here, Mueller specifically refers to keyword-rich domains (e.g. domains with many keywords in them), and when you consider that, what he says makes perfect sense. Because if you own rentacaralicante.com for a car rental service in Alicante, aside from looking cluttered (like a spam site domain), if you want expand to other cities, say Valencia and Ibiza, then you might have to re-brand in some capacity.


I made this point in an other thread, but as Google's leading Search Engine Coordinator he can be held legally accountable for lying about how Google's Search Engine works, similar to how a Lawyer, Physician, or Economist can be held legally held accountable for giving you misleading advice in their respective fields of expertise.
@Astner this is what Exact Match Domain according to someone I consider as an expert in Domain Name.. Not like what you have said.. 1 keyword if it is exact match like Diapers.com, Insurance.com are EMDs.. Longtail keywords are also EMD but they are pigeon shit, crap domains.. Don't say high price $ domains like Diapers.com, Diamond.com, Insurance.com are not EMDs, they are EMD but not like a trash domain used by spammers

https://www.domainsherpa.com/exact-match-domains/

This is what Michael Cyger said about EMD :

Quote :

And EMD is either a single word like Insurance.com, a phrase like ReputationRepair.com, or a geographic location like LasVegas.com. Reputation-Repair.com and Las-Vegas.com would not be considered EMDs.

I more trust Cyger than some one who said best-running-shoes.com is EMD

IMG_20230219_193621.jpg
 
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Here, Mueller specifically refers to keyword-rich domains (e.g. domains with many keywords in them),
To be fair, it was Search Engine Journal who came up with the term "keyword-rich". In the original discussion on Reddit, OP asked advice about a 2-keyword domain with or without a hyphen.
 
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@Astner this is what Exact Match Domain according to someone I consider as an expert in Domain Name.. Not like what you have said.. 1 keyword if it is exact match like Diapers.com, Insurance.com are EMDs.. Longtail keywords are also EMD but they are pigeon shit, crap domains.. Don't say high price $ domains like Diapers.com is not EMD, it is EMD but not like a trash domain used by spammers

domainsherpa.com/exact-match-domains/
There's a lot of grey-area in what a domain is classified at.

Discord is a brand, and some may consider discord.com a brandable domain, but generally it's considered a generic domain, because "discord" is a dictionary word.

Another example is something like dog.com, which may be considered an abbreviated domain for something like "Den of Geeks," but similarly most people would consider dog.com a generic domain.

Why is this the case? Because the value of domains like discord.com or dog.com are better compared to other generic domains than to that of brandable domains or abbreviated domains.

But even then, this is completely irrelevant because Mueller is saying because he's specifically referring to a "keyword-rich domains," e.g. a domain with many keywords. Diapers.com contains a single keyword, so it can't be considered keyword-rich.

To be fair, it was Search Engine Journal who came up with the term "keyword-rich". In the original discussion on Reddit, OP asked advice about a 2-keyword domain with or without a hyphen.
Why would the context of the coining of the term matter? "Keyword-rich" implies that it has an abundance of keywords. Two-word domains are usually considered short, which is also why most brandables are two words.

The only way we can know for sure is to ask Mueller what he mean by "keyword-rich," but if could hazard a guess it would have to contain at least 3-4 keywords.
 
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The only way we can know for sure is to ask Mueller what he mean by "keyword-rich
My point is, he did not use these words (keyword-rich) on Reddit.
 
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My point is, he did not use these words (keyword-rich) on Reddit.
Yes, but the question was, and I'm paraphrasing: "Do keywords in the SLD give you preferential treatment?" The answer is of course no, since Google's crawlers don't factor in the SLD. What matters is: the site content, the url directory-structure, backlinks, the number of visitors it gets (and how long they stay), etc.

Google has a free guide on how to optimize SEO that I highly recommend.

This is what Michael Cyger said about EMD :

Quote :

And EMD is either a single word like Insurance.com, a phrase like ReputationRepair.com, or a geographic location like LasVegas.com. Reputation-Repair.com and Las-Vegas.com would not be considered EMDs.

I more trust Cyger than some one who said best-running-shoes.com is EMD
In this case I'd have to disagree with Cyger.

Exact Match Domains refers to domains modeled after exact-match search results.

In other words, people might Google [new york car rental] if they want to rent a car in a New York. And if there's a website named New York Car Rental (or contains that phrase), that will be considered an exact-match for that search: because it contains every keyword that's being searched for in the right order.

Back in the day, when SLD did matter newyorkcarrental.com, new-york-car-rental.com, newyork-carrental.net were all considered EMD because they would've given you preferential treatment for the search [new york car rental]. That didn't mean that they were all equally valuable. There are worthless EMD:s, just like there are worthless domains of any other kind.

In this sense best-running-shoes.com is very much a EMD, because it's modeled after the search [best running shoes] on Google, which I imagine is a fairly popular search. The reason I think he uses hyphens (in this particular example) is to make it more legible.

I think it's important to understand that Mueller is not just "some guy", he's the Lead Search Engine Coordinator for Google. If anyone knows how Google's search engine works, it's him.
 
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Yes, but the question was, and I'm paraphrasing: "Do keywords in the SLD give you preferential treatment?" The answer is of course no, since Google's crawlers don't factor in the SLD. What matters is: the site content, the url directory-structure, backlinks, the number of visitors it gets (and how long they stay), etc.

Google has a free guide on how to optimize SEO that I highly recommend.


In this case I'd have to disagree with Cyger.

Exact Match Domains refers to domains modeled after exact-match search results.

In other words, people might Google [new york car rental] if they want to rent a car in a New York. And if there's a website named New York Car Rental, that will be considered an exact-match for that search: because it contains every keyword that's being searched for in the right order.

Back in the day, when SLD did matter newyorkcarrental.com, new-york-car-rental.com, newyork-carrental.net were all considered EMD because they would've given you preferential treatment for the search [new york car rental]. That didn't mean that they were all equally valuable. There are worthless EMD:s, just like there are worthless domains of any other kind.

In this sense best-running-shoes.com is very much a EMD, because it's modeled after the search [best running shoes] on Google, which I imagine is a fairly popular search. The reason I think he uses hyphens (in this particular example) is to make it more legible.

I think it's important to understand that Mueller is not just "some guy", he's the Lead Search Engine Coordinator for Google. If anyone knows how Google's search engine works, it's him.
EMD in domain name industry is what Michael Cyger said. Muler is no one in domain industry.. EMD is a category of domain that is valuable, and domain name expert has categorized that Diamond.com, Diapers.com, Insurance.com, LasVegas.com are EMD domains... And Best-Running-Shoes.com can't be sold as valuable EMD domain. This is domain name forum, so the category used is what recognized in domain name industry, not what people from other discipline said..
 
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EMD in domain name industry is what Michael Cyger said. Muler is no one in domain industry.. EMD is a category of domain that is valuable, and domain name expert has categorized that Diamond.com, Diapers.com, Insurance.com, LasVegas.com are EMD domains... And Best-Running-Shoes.com can't be sold as valuable EMD domain. This is domain name forum, so the category used is what recognized in domain name industry, not what people from other discipline said..
A domain is going to be of a category regardless whether it's valuable or not.

"Exact match domain" was introduced as a term to categorize domains that capitalized on common search phrases back in the day. And back then, best-running-shoes.com would've received preferential treatment for the search [best running shoes] on Google.

The purpose of domain categorization is to determine their value. An EMD is valued off its search volume, a brandable domain on the other hand is valued off its brandability. The extreme case is of course numeric domains, because the value of those are determined by the numbers' significance in Chinese.

And, technically LasVegas can be worthless as well, all you really need to do is to select a bad TLD, e.g. lasvegas.blue.

All Mueller is doing here is telling you (and the entire market) that Google does not give you preferential treatment for using a particular SLD. Not that good EMD are worthless, because (the good ones) still do have value due to their provenance. But if you're starting a company it's a better idea to look at something brandable, like microsoft.com or cloudflare.com over something like bestservers.com.
 
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A domain is going to be of a category regardless whether it's valuable or not.

"Exact match domain" was introduced as a term to categorize domains that capitalized on common search phrases back in the day. And back then, best-running-shoes.com would've received preferential treatment for the search [best running shoes] on Google.

The purpose of domain categorization is to determine their value. An EMD is valued off its search volume, a brandable domain on the other hand is valued off its brandability. The extreme case is of course numeric domains, because the value of those are determined by the numbers' significance in Chinese.

And, technically LasVegas can be worthless as well, all you really need to do is to select a bad TLD, e.g. lasvegas.blue.

All Mueller is doing here is telling you (and the entire market) that Google does not give you preferential treatment for using a particular SLD. Not that good EMD are worthless, because (the good ones) still do have value due to their provenance. But if you're starting a company it's a better idea to look at something brandable, like microsoft.com or cloudflare.com over something like bestservers.com.
The problem is Muller says about Domain with Exact Match Keywords, and some one had connected it to EMD (Exact Match Domains). If it is said Exact Match Domains are bad, I must point out that it is wrong.. If some one said that Diamond.com, Diapers.com, Insurance.com are not EMD, it is another wrong... Michael Cyger's article is a good explanation of what are EMDs?

This thread is full of wrong interpretation of what an EMDs are... That's all, no other thing I need to say...
 
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The problem is Muller says about Domain with Exact Match Keywords, and some one had connected it to EMD (Exact Match Domains). If it is said Exact Match Domains are bad, I must point out that it is wrong.
But that's not what he's saying. He's saying that a brandable domain is better than something like bestrunningshoes.com because the latter will not give you the search engine advantage so often propagated by domineers. The only reason anyone would buy bestrunningshoes.com for a business is if it gave you an advantage in the search results. Which we know is not the case today.

Very few reputable businesses are using EMD:s today, and those who do, e.g. namecheap.com probably wouldn't have chosen that name today.

If some one said that Diamond.com, Diapers.com, Insurance.com are not EMD, it is another wrong.

.. Michael Cyger's article is a good explanation of what are EMDs? This thread is full of wrong interpretation of what an EMDs are... That's all, no other thing I need to say...
There's no formal manner by which you can determine the category of a domain, there's a lot of grey area and it comes down to interpretation. An EMD, to me, has always been two words or more modeled after particular web-search.

In my opinion, any one-word domain is better identified as a generic domain, because that's a better measuring stick for their value.

Let's look at dictionary.com, a 10-letter domain that could be considered either a generic domain or an EMD.

foundation.com is a 10-letter generic domain, that isn't an EMD.

greatfoods.com is a 10-letter EMD, that isn't a generic domain.

If I were to ask you: is the value of dictionary.com closer to foundation.com or greatfoods.com? You'd hopefully say, foundation.com. Why is this important? Because it means dictionary.com is better compared to similar generic domains than to similar EMD:s. The same argument can be used for the domains you listed.
 
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Sounds like he has presented valid arguments.
 
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Maybe he want to say that as soon you have established your brand, Google will filter it like weed from wheat. Forgot that English saying from bible verse.
 
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Maybe he want to say that as soon you have established your brand, Google will filter it like weed from wheat. Forgot that English saying from bible verse.
No. You basically don't have a brand name.

Call yourself "dental surgery" and your company isn't identifiable by that name.

The same reason that you can't register a trademark for the goods and services.
 
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