Does owning EMD really helps in SEO?

I don't do SEO, I do parking but I noticed without a doubt that, emd domains (with all other parameters being similar) somehow bring more traffic.

Now, traffic -afaik- is one of the major metrics of G's algorithms which helps websites ranking higher.

Furthermore,
I have very close friends, who do seo for a living, who confirm from their experience that emd's help a lot.

In the end of the day though, no-one is in G's mind except G, right?

No. It doesn't matter.
Most people buying GEO Names are clueless small business owners, more than 90% of whom will drop the names.
But how else will you pitch?


Now when you google advertise, having an EMD or a call to action can increase CTR on the ads thus bring the ad cost down, but anyone who is already advertising on the Google Adwords most likely spend a lot of money on online marketing for his business, and for improving Google Adword CTR, you can use any GTLD or even Hyphens...

EMD have no benefits. EMD is also a handicap when you want to expand your business beyond your niche or location.

You could only know by looking up emd's that are developed (not fake developed sites) and checking their ranking. Good luck finding 2-3 words EMD's that are developed so its not easy to run tests.

If I were a customer looking for masks and both mask/masks.com and HeyRandom.com were selling masks, I would instinctively go to mask/masks.com to buy my masks. Provided they are equally good.

chenzen said:

If I were a customer looking for masks and both mask/masks.com and HeyRandom.com were selling masks, I would instinctively go to mask/masks.com to buy my masks. Provided they are equally good.

Click to expand...

But if you just searched "masks" or "mask" on Google and Hey Random had better SEO practices in place and was ranked number 1......bet you and most others would be buying your masks from that site.....

https://www.smartinsights.com/searc...son-of-google-clickthrough-rates-by-position/

NickB said:

But if you just searched "masks" or "mask" on Google and Hey Random had better SEO practices in place and was ranked number 1......bet you and most others would be buying your masks from that site.....

https://www.smartinsights.com/searc...son-of-google-clickthrough-rates-by-position/

Click to expand...

We are assuming everything else other than the domain name itself is equal. The site design, seo, service etc etc.

blogspotter said:

No. It doesn't matter.
Most people buying GEO Names are clueless small business owners, more than 90% of whom will drop the names.
But how else will you pitch?


Now when you google advertise, having an EMD or a call to action can increase CTR on the ads thus bring the ad cost down, but anyone who is already advertising on the Google Adwords most likely spend a lot of money on online marketing for his business, and for improving Google Adword CTR, you can use any GTLD or even Hyphens...

EMD have no benefits. EMD is also a handicap when you want to expand your business beyond your niche or location.

Click to expand...

This is an excellent post one of the best on this topic. This explains why outbound Geo domains sell in the $100 to $300 range, small business owners that have no clue .. excellent point from you!

SEO is only one aspect of value.

An EMD is also about advertising, marketing, and credibility.

All things being equal are you going to choose DallasHomes.com or KellySellsHomesInDallas.com?

Having a quality domain establishes instant credibility.

Brad

An EMD is obviously valuable if searcher includes the TLD at the end

But seriously, I think people are more inclined to click on the EMD over a vague domain in search results. It appears more credible.

chenzen said:

We are assuming everything else other than the domain name itself is equal. The site design, seo, service etc etc.

Click to expand...

Not seeing anything above about "assumptions"........The thread title is "Does owning EMD really helps in SEO?" not what your feelings are about EMD vs Other domain Name

having an EMD does give you any significant advantage or really help at all anymore when in comes to SEO, I read somewhere from a Google employee it has marginal benefits, but that is all.......very marginal - will try and find the article.....

But it still boils down to SEO and what you or a company does - you could have the greatest EMD in the world but without proper SEO you will be relying mostly on type in / Social Media (if your doing it right) traffic while your competitors are outranking you and getting all that SERP traffic for all the various keywords they are ranking for........

The 2nd question the OP asks is why an EMD is important to an end user which @bmugford covers above.....very well I might add....

My answer is YES.

My Website ranked good for Dropcatch Software within a few months.

NickB said:

Not seeing anything above about "assumptions"........The thread title is "Does owning EMD really helps in SEO?" not what your feelings are about EMD vs Other domain Name

having an EMD does give you any significant advantage or really help at all anymore when in comes to SEO, I read somewhere from a Google employee it has marginal benefits, but that is all.......very marginal - will try and find the article.....

But it still boils down to SEO and what you or a company does - you could have the greatest EMD in the world but without proper SEO you will be relying mostly on type in / Social Media (if your doing it right) traffic while your competitors are outranking you and getting all that SERP traffic for all the various keywords they are ranking for........

The 2nd question the OP asks is why an EMD is important to an end user which @bmugford covers above.....very well I might add....

Click to expand...

He already answered himself when it comes to the title.
"As far as I know this no more works since 10 years ago or more, so..."
The real question is, if it's so, why should EMDs should be considered better for the end users?
That's what we are trying to answer here.

Yes it really helps if you owned swimwear.com don't you think your store would have a direct advantage over other branded swimwear businesses. The only arguement is people see a brand which they worked or paid for every position they have and want to out rank it. Fact is a site with better content can out rate it but apply all the same work to a generic name and reap the advantage.

lock said:

Yes it really helps if you owned swimwear.com don't you think your store would have a direct advantage over other branded swimwear businesses. The only arguement is people see a brand which they worked or paid for every position they have and want to out rank it. Fact is a site with better content can out rate it but apply all the same work to a generic name and reap the advantage.

Click to expand...

]

There it is folks..........good, original, regular content is king so says Google themselves

Brandability and SEO are 2 completely separate subjects....imo

To build a strong Brand you need to do SEO - the Brand/domain can be whatever the hell you want it to be.....from a domainer perspective obviously you want the domain to be short, concise, easy to remember, a great EMD that stands out from the crowd etc etc - that's why companies pay good money for top tier domains but in reality it makes no difference to Google what you call your site for SEO purposes.......

Someone who knows their sh*t could get ChickenSwimming.horse to the top of Google for a swimwear website for certain relevant keywords.....awful awful brand, but hey Google wont give a dam........

There is still a type in value to consider eg someone just guesses generic word adds the dot com direct into the address bar. Nothing to do then with google.

CraigD said:

An EMD is obviously valuable if searcher includes the TLD at the end

But seriously, I think people are more inclined to click on the EMD over a vague domain in search results. It appears more credible.

Click to expand...

That EMD has to be a category killer for me to click on it. Most of the Geo EMDs that most people outbound are usually some long 3-worder or 4-worder domains that I won't touch on an SERP page.

I guess that's why most of these companies use them as forwarders. So, in a way, they are not completely clueless.

EMDs absolutely matter with SEO and increase search rankings if you have a real site with real content.

EMD was one of the main SEO factors like 10-15 years ago, but Google has been diminishing its importance more and more. Now maybe in the end of top 20 factors.

bmugford said:

SEO is only one aspect of value.

An EMD is also about advertising, marketing, and credibility.

All things being equal are you going to choose DallasHomes.com or KellySellsHomesInDallas.com?

Having a quality domain establishes instant credibility.

Brad

Click to expand...

Boom! Exactly what I came here to say.

BRAND AUTHORITY people.

Focusing only on SEO in your sales pitch is small-minded. That's not where the real value lies in EMD names.

If you want to be the #1 place to buy any product or service, and that product or service accounts for a major amount (or all) of your revenue, then owning the .com of that product/service is huge.

Use it to advertise.
Use it in promotions.
Re-direct it to your site.
Keep it out of competitors hands.

If you want customers to associate your brand with a specific offering, then owning the EMD is a big deal.

The difficulty with EMDs is to actually get people to see them, once people see them a good EMD has the advantage of getting noticed amongst all the other choices that they can click on because people already identify with the keywords in the domain since it's already imprinted into their brains from past experiences.

Knowing that and trying to maximize their revenue, the search engines have been trying to reduce the EMDs visibility and effect for the past decade or so in order to give an advantage to Brands which have no other choice but to advertise in order to get noticed (at least until they become famous).

I recently registered:

HeatingAndAirConditioningSystems.com

and

HeatAndAirSystems.com

That's what people are searching for in the little search engine in their minds and so they identify with them once they see them, if they are allowed to be seen that is

IMO

oldtimer said:

HeatingAndAirConditioningSystems.com

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Oh wow isn't this a 5 words domain?
Do domains like this actually sell?

For example, when we search for "Los Angeles real estate" on google, we find that "losangelesrealestate.com" is located on the ninth page and "luxuryhomeslosangeles.com" On the first page. so I think EMD is not mattered for SEO.

Emd works.