What Is Exact Domain Match? How Does It Affect my Website’s Ranking?
Despite once being considered the ‘bad guy’ of SEO, Exact Domain Matches have increased with popularity, particularly since Google released an algorithm specifically targeting them, and improving websites’ rankings as a result. Today, SEO Sydney explains what exact domain match actually is and how it is constantly affecting your website’s ranking.
What are EDMs? Put simply, it’s when you get an exact match for what you’ve written into Google. Businesses have the ability to buy their EDM so that their website has a higher chance of being ranked when those particular words are being used. Yet despite being so straightforward, there has been a lot of contention over them, and whether they can really benefit your business and online users at the same time.
If you are planning on investing in EDMs, it’s important to understand the bonuses available, as well as the traps, to make the most of your income.
Firstly, as tempting as it may be, don’t scrimp on your domain name; aim to spend between 10-15% of your overall budget. This will make a difference both in the short and long term.
Furthermore, avoid second level domains; .mobi, .travel etc, because it isn’t worth your money. These domains aren’t respected on the internet, are easily forgotten, and because of their obscurity, are often considered spam.
Secondly, if you want to understand exact domain matches and how you can utilise them for your business, it’s important that you know the difference between them. For example, any domain with more than a single dash is highly likely to be spam, and therefore should be avoided.
This is also the case with multiple hyphens; while one is fine, two or more are often associated with companies that are trying to trick search engines into a higher ranking. A big no-no.
Thirdly, you have to determine how many words is the right number for your domain name; as a rule, no more than four is ideal. While in theory more may seem better, as it has the ability to generate more hits, in reality it’s confusing and cluttered for the user; a sure deterrent for your website.
If you are looking to use EDMs safely, check out this article on how to use them safely, or get in contact with an SEO expert here with us at SEO Sydney – providing professional and proven SEO results for our clients.
