Top SEO's are recommending brandables not EMDs

[DomainVP]

If you want to learn SEO I recommend dropping into the channel of josh bachynski. His SEO show is underrated, and has some excellent advice when it comes to how to execute great white-hat SEO.

One of the things he is recommending to his viewers is to go with short brandables within any extension, yes even the new gTLD's.

In his intro video he is advising to pass on the 'expensive' exact match $5k - $50k domain names and go brandable. Then start advertising via social etc...

This does come from an SEO expert an not so much a branding expert, but I thought that it was interesting to hear for recommended SEO practice for 2016.

Your thoughts?

 

[MisterSoft.com]

If anyone on this forum doesn't know what an EMD is... they should logout and never come back.

@Shane Bellone
Please chill. There are novice and new members over here. Not everyone Smart-As* like you :D

 

[S-B]

@Shane Bellone
Please chill. There are novice and new members over here. Not everyone Smart-As* like you :D

I WRITE IN BIG FONT!

 

[Domain Galleria]

What do you guys think would happen if you have an EMD with quality content?

 

[deez007]

@MisterSoft - I'm confused, what gave you the impression that I DIDNT know what an EMD is and that I didn't know about Google updates?

 

[deez007]

What do you guys think would happen if you have an EMD with quality content?

EMD's are nice to have but simply do not carry as much clout as they used too. Quality content trumps just about everything these days. Good onsite SEO and Quality content is King. Add some high quality back links and you have a trifecta. A good, aged EMD would simply be the cherry on top...not a must have but more of a nice to have.

 

[Domain Galleria]

I have mini site (.online) currently ranking 2nd, 3rd and 6th and 7th on google's first page. EMD is an added advantage in my opinion

 

[enlytend]

From a branding perspective, especially my perspective, owning the exact match of your service or product is a must if you can afford it and it's not taken by an operating brand.

Yes and no.
If you can grab a "category killer" domain that's relevant to your business, go for it. You can't go wrong there.But if its a longer phrase? You actually confuse and dilute your branding.

Let's say you're a lawyer and you get "PodunkInjuryLawyer." The lawyer across the street gets "PodunkInjuryAttorney." Someone across town has "PodunkPersonalInjuryAttorney." See the potential for consumers to get them mixed up? But if you focus on marketing your actual practice name to build awareness, people will remember your brand.

(If that's actually a term that pays the bills and it helps you rank, it may be worth it, but I've seen companies brand or build minisites on emd's that get little to no traffic or get non-converting traffic.)

I'm listening to the whole thing now and one thing in particular irked me at the start. "EMDs are risky", wait what!?

I'm guessing his point is that you're at risk of over optimizing on page SEO, but I mean if you're over optimizing on page SEO then you're doing just that and you'll get a smack down from Google regardless. On page SEO has and always will be about just enough but not too much.

Not just on page - anchor text in links to your site. Too high a percentage of exact match anchor text can set off red penalty flags. Easier to overdo it and look like you're spamming.

However if you're not in a spammy hiche and you have strong brand signals on your site (like if this is a genuine business), you have a lot more leeway. They won't slap someone for using their brand name, but they need to be convinced it's really your brand name. They get suspicious if your "name" is "BuyDietPills" "PaydayLoansHere" or "BestHostingCoupons."

From an seo point of view before anyone could build out an emd, get some traffic from google and make some money.

The quick money grab sites were precisely why Google dialed back the importance of EMD's. Brands and businesses were complaining loudly and repeatedly directly to the webspam team.

It's still a ranking factor, just not like it was. For those of you who don't remember the web pre 2010, you could put up a site on an emd and outrank big brands for that keyword - even for fairly competitive terms, without a lot of links.

 

[iAchilles]

Not just on page - anchor text in links to your site. Too high a percentage of exact match anchor text can set off red penalty flags. Easier to overdo it and look like you're spamming.

However if you're not in a spammy hiche and you have strong brand signals on your site (like if this is a genuine business), you have a lot more leeway. They won't slap someone for using their brand name, but they need to be convinced it's really your brand name. They get suspicious if your "name" is "BuyDietPills" "PaydayLoansHere" or "BestHostingCoupons.

Good point. But as you alluded to, if you're generally doing whitehat seo and building a genuine site you'll normally end up with a wide variety of traffic sources and anchor text. You've little to be concerned about in this sense and I feel he is overstating the risk. Once you stray into grey and darker territory then I'd agree with him.

 

[iowadawg]

Remember those days of seo contests?
Where one would try to get on page one of google and stay there for some new and foolish term?
Like "green balls on purple grass near the yellow printers"?
So easy to take any new term (phrase) and get google to rank it.
Like within 24 hours and it would stay number one!
People would pay big bucks to rank so they could win the contest.
I mean like thousands of those good USD bucks...to me.

 

[HotKey]

What do you guys think would happen if you have an EMD with quality content?

A new acronym would have to be invented.

 

[techname]

For serious business, you need a brand, not a set of words. I thought it's clear to everyone. Facebook is called FaceBook and not TheBestSocialNetwork. Apple is called Apple and not TheBestGadgetsAndComputerFirm.

What about Lawn.com ; )

 

[Recons.Com]

For serious business, you need a brand, not a set of words. I thought it's clear to everyone. Facebook is called FaceBook and not TheBestSocialNetwork. Apple is called Apple and not TheBestGadgetsAndComputerFirm.

What about Coupons.com? Escrow.com? Diapers.com? Blogger.com? Booking.com? SlideShare.net? Weather.com? SpeedTest.net? ExpiredDomains.Net? MultiPageRank.com? BulkSeoTools.com?

 

[golan]

By the way, EMD stands for: “Exact Match Domain”
It is a filter Google launched in September 2012 to prevent poor quality sites from ranking well simply because they had words that match search terms in their domain names. When a fresh EMD Update happens, sites that have improved their content may regain good rankings

And like 10 years before Google launched this filter, SEOers were already using EMD's. And call them EMD. And the meaning was - keyword match.

And why do you shout. We hear you well bro.

 

[golan]

What about Coupons.com? Escrow.com? Diapers.com? Blogger.com? Booking.com? SlideShare.net? Weather.com? SpeedTest.net? ExpiredDomains.Net? MultiPageRank.com? BulkSeoTools.com?

These - yes. I can't disagree.

BUT: they all are pure online businesses.
You can't open a shop on Oxford Street and name it "Men Shirts". Or "Best Books". This is no name, you will lose to your brand competitors.
That's what i was trying to say.
Well maybe Diapers is the only one from your list which fits also for offline biz.

 

[enlytend]

What about Coupons.com? Escrow.com? Diapers.com? Blogger.com? Booking.com? SlideShare.net? Weather.com? SpeedTest.net? ExpiredDomains.Net? MultiPageRank.com? BulkSeoTools.com?

I wasn't the one who wrote that (and I'm not familiar with the last two.) but as I said earlier...

If you can grab a "category killer" domain that's relevant to your business, go for it. You can't go wrong there.

This conversation is turning into apples and oranges - I think we all agree there's a market for emds, and they still have some value as a ranking factor. The original topic was whether an EMD increases risk from an SEO standpoint and whether that means someone building a site should go with a brandable instead. Depending on what it is and what you do with it, it can, but like anything else in life you have to weigh the risks vs the benefits and look at both in terms of your goals.

And, contrary to the thread title, "Top SEOs" I know of are not running around telling people to use brandable domains - for most clients the domain is the least of their problems.

 

[frank-germany]

apple having their brand as domain

and EMD
those are 2 different stories

 

[iowadawg]

Best Books sounds like a darn good name for a physical bookstore!

 

[Recons.Com]

I strongly believe top and not so top seo experts are doing disservice to business owners.

Many of those are clueless that domain names and websites are not just about search engines.

One of my clients wanted an exact match domain for her next niche activity, her seo told her she does not need to spend around $1500 for the name, because the search engines don't put that much weight on it.

Those limited minded people don't understand that coupons.com name goes much beyond search engines and if business starts with exact match like that it is hard for mycoupons.com greatcoupons.com couponistic.com etc. compete with them because of instant authority, memorability, natural traffic etc. that comes with it.

In financial world, there is a belief that if someone started with retail banking it is hard to retrain that person for investment banking, financial analysis etc., because of the narrow tunnel vision that job develops. I see seo experts developing the same "professional sickness"....

 

[frank-germany]

if you listen carefully
he switches from seo to ppc
and mixing it

 

[GoKaizen]

Brokers don't like EMDs!

https://www.namepros.com/threads/an...ing-justification-for-premium-domains.930258/