Did Google kill domaining?

[Krane65]

I didn't realize EMD doesn't matter anymore. This sucks. Why is everyone so hell bent on people not being able to make money off of domain names. It's no different than people hoarding other things and selling them for a profit... That along with the new gtld's is the final nail in the coffin IMO. Now it's just time for the burial and funeral.

 

[DomainVP]

I think most people that consider themselves domainers exclusively miss the 'big picture' when it comes to an EMD within SEO.

With Googles current ranking algorithms one thing matters above all; anchor text of links on popular trustworthy sites. Yes there are a about 25 actual things that matter when it comes to SEO, but this is the most important.

So where does the EMD come into play...

Let's say you have chosen a brandable domain, and people use your target service as the anchor text when linking to your site.

Fubbsie [dot] com could be anchored as 'medical supplier' or 'medical supplies, or 'catheters', etc...

However...

Catheters [dot] com is more likely to be anchored as 'catheters'; and thats why having an EMD is so important.

Having an EMD will greatly increase the conformity of the anchor text that people will use for your site, which means if you own Catheters [dot] com, and are exclusively selling Catheters; you will rank in the SERP much better over time to the point where you will be the online authority for Catheters.

[Devils advocate: yes anchor text variety matters and you don't want overwhelming conformity; but using the above example 'get catheters' and 'buy catheters' is a higher quality anchor text than 'supply site' or 'medical supply store']

The intrinsic value of a EMD is that people will also just naturally view your site as the authority for the given exact match keyword.

Yes, gone are the days of the EMD boost; but to tell you the truth, any SEO that tells you that having an EMD doesn't matter is an idiot. Sorry to be so harsh, but that's the truth. If you can get your EMD, and you can afford it... do it.

EMD's matter... and as the rest of the world becomes more accustomed to the new search algorithms and SEO's get their head out of spammy backlinks and private linkwheel blog networks, EMD's will pick up again.

Maybe not 'long tail' EMD's, but definitely ones that are less than 10 characters that have over a 10k/mo search value.

It is just absolutely disturbing to me that some people don't see the value in domains that have EMD searches of 10k+. Even if 20% of those searchers came to your site and converted into a 10$ sale, you are talking about roughly $20k per month. Sure CPC and competition matter, but just because Google ad metrics are low does not mean that you can't take a niche and turn your site into some kind of service provider for that niche.

People don't "get" domains yet... everyone here on this forum does in some capacity... but in general people have no idea; which means the bulk of businesses in the world still are clueless when it comes to online.

The next 5-8 years are going to be very big for good .COM domains; both EMD and brandable... why do you think Google has gotten their registrar up and running; there's money in them waters!

 

[AEProgram]

I think most people that consider themselves domainers exclusively miss the 'big picture' when it comes to an EMD within SEO.

With Googles current ranking algorithms one thing matters above all; anchor text of links on popular trustworthy sites. Yes there are a about 25 actual things that matter when it comes to SEO, but this is the most important.

So where does the EMD come into play...

Let's say you have chosen a brandable domain, and people use your target service as the anchor text when linking to your site.

Fubbsie [dot] com could be anchored as 'medical supplier' or 'medical supplies, or 'catheters', etc...

However...

Catheters [dot] com is more likely to be anchored as 'catheters'; and thats why having an EMD is so important.

Having an EMD will greatly increase the conformity of the anchor text that people will use for your site, which means if you own Catheters [dot] com, and are exclusively selling Catheters; you will rank in the SERP much better over time to the point where you will be the online authority for Catheters.

[Devils advocate: yes anchor text variety matters and you don't want overwhelming conformity; but using the above example 'get catheters' and 'buy catheters' is a higher quality anchor text than 'supply site' or 'medical supply store']

The intrinsic value of a EMD is that people will also just naturally view your site as the authority for the given exact match keyword.

Yes, gone are the days of the EMD boost; but to tell you the truth, any SEO that tells you that having an EMD doesn't matter is an idiot. Sorry to be so harsh, but that's the truth. If you can get your EMD, and you can afford it... do it.

EMD's matter... and as the rest of the world becomes more accustomed to the new search algorithms and SEO's get their head out of spammy backlinks and private linkwheel blog networks, EMD's will pick up again.

Maybe not 'long tail' EMD's, but definitely ones that are less than 10 characters that have over a 10k/mo search value.

It is just absolutely disturbing to me that some people don't see the value in domains that have EMD searches of 10k+. Even if 20% of those searchers came to your site and converted into a 10$ sale, you are talking about roughly $20k per month. Sure CPC and competition matter, but just because Google ad metrics are low does not mean that you can't take a niche and turn your site into some kind of service provider for that niche.

People don't "get" domains yet... everyone here on this forum does in some capacity... but in general people have no idea; which means the bulk of businesses in the world still are clueless when it comes to online.

The next 5-8 years are going to be very big for good .COM domains; both EMD and brandable... why do you think Google has gotten their registrar up and running; there's money in them waters!

thank you! thats one a single word domain thats a keyword is priceless, I have one such name on flippa now, but it seems avg person there doesnt get a damn thing

 

[carob]

New research shows new gTLDs ranking better than others - with the extension being treated as part of an EMD - even though Google said that would not happen:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/22/google_new_gtld_seo_boost/

But that is exactly what these new studies show. Total Websites goes to some length, complete with screengrabs, to demonstrate that Google is taking a domain's ending as an equivalent to an "exact match domain".

 

[AEProgram]

New research shows new gTLDs ranking better than others - with the extension being treated as part of an EMD - even though Google said that would not happen:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/22/google_new_gtld_seo_boost/

people are only kidding themselves with this nonsense

 

[newdandy]

recently i' doing well with 2words brandables.

 

[disaac81]

people are only kidding themselves with this nonsense

In time I do believe the 'some' of the new gTLDs will become more valuable, the future will likely see an internet where everything has an extension, so people can type in spicy.coffee for example. Computers have taken us away from true code, difficult things... its all changing to make it all 'look' and 'feel' more un-techy.

The time period for these new gTLDs success will probably be seen within the next 5 years. Things are changing to fast, everything is becoming automonous \ automated. I am just glas I was born in the time to see both the beginnings of networked pcs to the world being run by inter-connected smart bots (bit unrelated but hey!).

 

[SearchEngineZ]

I'm with Google - new gTLDs makes no difference.

The few that have actually been used for a website (as opposed to domainers speculating) are probably companies that put the time and effort into promoting their sites. It could just be that they have to try harder because they are not a .com.

Google will never favour one TLD over another except for penalising any that are mostly used by spammers, or promoting country codes for local and geo searches.

Could you imagine the chaos if Google started favouring .website?? And it wouldn't be of any benefit to Google or searchers.

IT IS POSSIBLE that Google's algorithm is mistakenly giving gTLDs a boost for their generic word - perhaps super.ninja will rank higher than superninja.com for "super ninja", but if that is the case they will soon fix it.

 

[SpareDomains]

I'm a keyword .com guy cause they have sold well for me over the years. Do have a stash of brandable .coms as well but I prefer keyword brandables over just a made up word and have gotten quite a lot of end user interest on a few of them as well.