Google and Exact Match Domain Names

In the past, it has been evident that the words in your domain name had a huge effect on your Google rankings for those words. Therefore it made sense to try to include your keywords in your domain name where possible – although as with everything, balance is important. You also had to take into account your company name / brand and how big a presence and draw that was. Of course, it’s also no good making a nonsensical keywords stuffed domain name.

However, recently Google have been making a big deal about the fact they’re going to be adjusting their algorithm to change all that.

On Twitter, Matt Cutts announced: ‘Minor Weather Report: small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality “exact-match” domains in search results.’

What that suggests, is that where people have bought a domain name solely for the keywords in includes, in order to rank highly for that search term, but not put a decent website up there (just leaving a single page or very sparse or duplicated content), the keywords in the domain name will no longer be enough to keep it afloat.

Of course, if as well as having keywords in the domain name, a website has a wealth of great content, then it shouldn’t be affected by the EMD (each match domain) change to the algorithm.

As is always the case, the way to achieve and maintain good quality listings is by having the best website, with the best quality, unique content. Every time Google makes a change like this, it benefits those of us who play by the rules and makes life a little harder for those gaming the system.

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