May not get to page 1 after few days, but a few weeks + content will outbeat a brandable + content any day (from my findings)
I agree; it's not just the domain name or just the content, it's a combination of both that makes or breaks the strength of your seo. I have many examples and experiments from over the years, but I'll give you just one:
I wrote a lot of original content for one website, about 40 pages and each page with around 2k work count minimum, long articles and not quick minisite content pages. This content went onto four different domains (one at a time, not concurrently), all dot coms, the platform was the same (Wordpress blog) and I never did any seo or marketing past simply building the site, so you can consider 'all development being equal' and only the domain changed.
The first domain was a two word brandable, not a search term, 13 letters long. The highest traffic ever received was somewhere over 200 uniques per month. So after a couple years I changed to a shorter brandable, two words, not a search term, 6 letters long, and all the same content. For the next couple years using that shorter new domain, it still didn't break 300 visitors per month.
Then I switched to an exact match domain (hand regged), a 'how to' domain that was five short words, total of 18 letters long, a term that received about 5000 exact monthly google searches; after another 2 or 3 years, and adding a little content to the blog, it still had below 300 uniques per month and never got even close to google page 1 in the serps. Actually, for this one I did do a tiny little marketing, had a Twitter account and posted new blog article links there to my site. That's pretty much where my visitors came from, not much action from the engines. Still, very low traffic. Really hard to get a 5-word domain/search term to be 'seen' in the serps even if it is exact match.
Then just over a year ago, I decided on yet another domain name for the same content. Bit the bullet, paid x,xxx for a nice exact match for my niche content, aged since 2001, many extensions taken. Only 3 words, 12 letters long, and monthly google searches about 2k. Not a lot, but it was a tight name and really attractive to me. So, yet again, I moved the same content to a new blog at that domain. Added a few more content pages.
The site shot onto search engines' page 1 spot within a couple months. It's now less than a year later and my uniques go up each month (will hit around 2.5k this month). I still do no seo to speak of for it, no marketing or Twitter for this one. It's on google page 1 in the serps, same for the opposite arrangement of the terms, and same for shorter versions in the serps (minus one word, any word). For example, if my domain was LoveMePlease dot com (it isn't), it's coming up page one for love me please, please love me, love me, etc.
If I didn't have strong content, this strong serp showing wouldn't be happening. Much of that is due to the content. But I was getting virtually zero visitors with 2 brandable domains and 1 long 5-word exact match domain, over a period of 6 or 7 years with the same content. Then on one short 3-word exact match domain, within a couple months it was page 1 everywhere. I know 2.5k isn't a lot of visitors, but this was a good series of domains to exemplify this experiment of emd's vs non-emd's, since it was over a long period of time and over multiple domains, using the same content, and clearly shows a sudden and large increase in traffic and serp rankings.
I have other examples, but the short story for me is:
An exact match domain that is not too many words long, in dot com, and has perhaps other things going for it like age and other ext regged, etc, is clearly given weight over brandable domains in the serps.
It's not a black and white answer, but *in my personal experience with my own websites*, I can say:
Given that all other things are equal, like same content, seo, and marketing, then a good exact match domain in dot com can entirely make the difference in your website placing or not placing well in the serps. A 'good' emd seems to have a lot of 'built in' seo to it, if all other things are done well.
)
