Lots of business owners get excited when they are able to buy a domain name that matches the exact product or service they are selling – guess what, this could be an absolute waste of time & money. Google introduced an exact match domain update to its algorithm around 2012 to help combat the volume of poor quality websites and ‘spammy’ content that was being generated by the digital marketing industry to help websites achieve good rankings.
In the example below, I break down the steps that domain name sellers are taking to try and get people to buy these domain names plus whether it is even worthwhile considering as a business owner.
What is an exact match domain name and should you buy one?
There are millions of domain name combinations available that can match your service or product
An exact match domain name is just what it sounds like, a name for a URL that exactly matches the product or service that a business offers. In the early 2000’s this was a method used to rank websites quickly & generate organic search results. The practice is still used today even after Google introduced countermeasures through updating its algorithms since early 2012.
Examples of exact match domain names would include things like;
- luxuryboatdealer.com.au
- usedboatseller.com.au
- luxury-boat-management.com.au
- partyphotographer.com.au
- plumber-near-me.com.au
In the example above, one of my clients in the boating industry received an email offering to buy an an exact match domain that had become available. Very cleverly the email looks somewhat professional, informative and trustworthy to a certain extent. On the surface it seems like a good idea to pursue. Although this is where every business owner needs to take a moment to reflect & consider their digital marketing strategies (whether established or starting out) as well as any potential benefits to owning yet another domain name if you have one already.
Jumping in without doing your due diligence can cost your business time, and money & end up delivering very little value, let me explain why.
Do exact match name domain names help with seo?
Having the domain name only – no. People don’t type URL names when searching in 99% of cases.
Having the domain name & building a new website – quite honestly it depends.
Sounds like I am being another digital marketing consultant that can’t commit 100% to an answer, but whether an exact match domain can help with your seo performance really is a case of ‘it depends’ because it all comes down to your execution. See, Google has released more than ten major search algorithm updates in the last five years alone and now considers hundreds of factors before ranking a site, that wasn’t the case in the ‘old days’
Therefore, just the name of your URL isn’t the only thing Google is considering before it decides if, where or how to rank your website. All the basics have to be in place like fast loading speed, correct page structure, high quality content, online citations from reputable sources, high quality backlinks as well as many other factors – actually there are over two hundred estimated areas that are looked at.
So your domain name might help to some extent but if is left blank or the website you build doesn’t stack up you’ll have little chance of getting found online. Plus don’t forget, you can get one million people to your website, doesn’t mean they will choose your service or buy your product. So you have to keep in mind this isn’t just a task of getting lots of people to see your business, you have to present a credible reason for them to want to do business with you.
There is a lot of debate online as to whether an exact match domain name can work & there will be opinions for or against, just like any marketing strategy or new idea. The most important thing to focus on is whether you are delivering something of value to potential customers, how unique / sustainable is it & do you have a strategy to build long term brand equity? If you can’t answer those clearly you could be wasting your time.
Still not convinced? See what Google themselves have to say about the idea.
why do some people promise it will work?
You will find loads of people in Facebook Groups, Forums or other places that will tell you this strategy can still work. Sounds really silly right after I have just written all the information about how it doesn’t. Although put things into perspective.
If someone buys a domain which is plumber-hurstville and the only content on that site is all about a plumber’s services then it stands to reason it may get found in the local area for that. If they fill the site with thousands of words, the right headings, links and photos then it stands a good chance of getting found in the area.
It will work because the content being focused on a single topic and a combination of words, headings, images & links to Hurstville related topics or locations. It may end up looking like a blog website and may not convert visitors into leads, even though it may win some keywords.
If you speak to someone that swears by exact match domain names you have to ask them about the sites they have built, maybe there are all in very small niches, for local areas & therefore the % chance of them working was going to be high anyway, irrespective of the domain name.
So it is important to put things into context & have perspective when assessing these scenarios.
How credible are exact match domain name resellers?
In the email pitch that my client received it starts out explaining the opportunity, the costs, the process to buy the domain & then finishes off with their justification for taking this type of action.
Interestingly there isn’t a single case study, example or proof that this domain naming methodology actually works, nothing. The only validation they attempt to provide is a link to a playbook article written in 2012 by MOZ.
That piece of information is now ten years old, the digital world moves rapidly so you have to question the validity of referring people to a piece of information that is that old. Even MOZ have written newer articles on the topic.
Yes, there are hundreds of online articles, even ones written in the last 12 months, about using exact match domain names. So any business owner should do their own research before they feel pressured into purchasing one.
How much does an exact match domain cost to buy?
I laughed when I read this email because they highlight a range of prices & nothing specific that relates to the domain name they are trying to sell.
Apart from the lack of personalisation it shows they are mass email blasting thousands of existing website owners hoping to get people to engage with the information.
They do this by ‘scraping’ your details from your existing domain name registration details & putting people into groups based on industry or keywords. They have no idea who you really are & much of what gets sent out will end up in spam or junk folders.
What should you evaluate when you see the pricing?
a) The domain name has become available so in some instances it might be possible to buy it for $10-$30 if you check yourself. In this case it is a business trying to make money from it so most likely they are holding onto it.
b) If you are clever you might be able to come up with your own variation that is relatively close to the name and buy it yourself for around $20
c) If the owner of this ‘highly valuable’ domain name was really clever they’d be selling it for hundreds of thousands of dollars if it was truly worth that much.
What does ‘resource level’ really mean?
This is just plain and utter rubbish. Let’s break it down into two core components;
a) The work involved in changing domain name ownership; this is essentially administration work where a few details are entered into the domain registration set up to switch it from one person to another. It takes no more than a few minutes to complete so that a new ownership certificate can be generated for the new owner.
b) Levels based on industry / location / competitiveness; this sounds logical but digging a bit deeper they haven’t even provided where this particular domain name they are trying to sell actually sits in their scale. Nor is there any justification to show why or how different ones are evaluated. Most likely this is just a ‘fishing’ experiment for them to see what they can get away with charging people.
So essentially they are attempting to try and build value in what they are offering, but this is basically rubbish because the email has been sent generically to probably hundreds of people in the boating industry, it isn’t personalised & they are using a fairly generic ‘script’ rather than anything specific that positions the true value of owning this domain name.
Is it good value?
In this example there was no previous website running that was related to the industry or service, so there is no chance of getting a helping hand in the form of existing traffic. Looping back to my earlier point, a domain name normally costs $10 to $20 to register per year for most of the common ones, so can you really justify spending up to $995 or more just for a generic name that’s easy to copy?
Don’t forget, it you actually plan to use the domain name to put a website on it then you have to factor the cost of getting a site built & ensuring the right amount of search engine optimisation is carried out so that it can actually get found. Just having the name isn’t enough anymore.
Does a domain name have any actual real value or authority?
What the heck does domain name authority mean?
Guess what, every domain around the world is given a Domain Rating (DR) which is a relative score that is provided to try and rank or assess the quality of that website.
Your DR can change over time as a site grows, becomes more trusted and ranks better around the world. You can even check the DR of a website by using tools like the one from AH Refs here.
In the case of this domain that was being offered for sale we can see it was getting less than 20 out of 100 as well as not having any links or backlinks to the site. So perhaps this site was never really being used for anything other than to be sold to the next person.
Some business owners might be thinking ‘wow I can buy this really great name that will help me grow my business’ when in fact the reality might be far from it.
There might be other examples where there was an established brand or website that did have traffic and that is a different scenario completely.
Do domain name quality scores mean anything
You might also hear the term domain name quality score or Domain Authority (DA) which is a similar idea to DR where it is some type of score or quality rating given to a site. It is all a load of rubbish. Go read any of Google’s guidelines and you will find that DA / DR are not mentioned anywhere in any policy, guideline or information about building or growing a website.
These ratings have been created by other industry bodies to try and put some type of measure on a website’s quality by using metrics like backlinks or organic traffic. Although this is all estimates based on 3rd party information, none of it actually comes from Google themselves.
I have seen lots of sites that have really high DR/DA scores but when you start asking questions about the average time on site that visitors spend or number of pages per visit, the metrics are really poor. It means all the traffic is absolute b.s and most likely just bots or from an internal network of sites made to look like they are all getting traffic.
What is the point of buying another domain name if you already have one?
Brand protection
Some business owners might consider buying more domain names and/or variations of their business name, products or services to try and protect themselves from others trying to copy or mimic what they do. It is common practice for a brand to buy multiple versions of a domain e.g .com, .com.au, .net etc as well as brand, model, nameplate or other names. If you are able to trademark or patent your ideas then it becomes easier to prevent others from trying to come up with similar ones.
Starting a new business
Buying an exact match domain name might make sense if you are starting out from scratch and building a new business, although you should consider the long term brand equity this may create. So for example, luxuryyachtmanagement.com.au may not hold as much cache as something unusual like Luxurio where you are created a unique brand like Apple, Samsung, Lego etc where the name doesn’t mean anything specific but can be crafted over time.
Building a business around a unique name also means it is less likely someone will either try to or want to copy it, but using generic names, phrases or terms can be very simple to replicate and harder to register for things like Copyright, IP protection, Trademarks etc.
Buying a domain just to own it
In some situations you might be thinking to buy it just so you can own it. Ok fair enough, but I have already demonstrated how easy it is to come up with lots of variations using similar phrases, keywords or TLD’s. So how valuable will it really be?
Keep in mind nobody in the world will be typing an exact URL into Google, so what is the point of having lots of domain names, especially if there is never going to be any content on the site. Think about how most people search online, they will type into Google things like ‘yacht management company’, ‘yacht management Sydney’, ‘company that manages yachts’ and most likely never, ever type in a URL, it’s just not the way people search for things.
Can you check a domain's history?
Without realising it you could be buying a domain that was already used before. In the example pictured, a local jewellery company in Australia couldn’t figure out why their website traffic wasn’t increasing.
One of the things I helped them uncover was more than 2,000 old website pages from a previous website. Google Search Console was reporting these as 404 Errors or broken links.
So from Google’s perspective the website had about 20 pages of content that was live and over 2,000 broken links. This is a hinderance to getting a site ranked as it looks like it hasn’t been maintained as people may be trying to go to those old links still.
Doing a check using Google’s free tools can help uncover a domain’s history, if it has one, so that you can do the necessary clean up.
The checklist for business owners when buying a domain name
- Do I already have a domain name?
If you already have a domain name what will be the purpose of having other ones, similar ones or variations on the existing name? Will they be used to build sites on or just to protect the brand? - Is the domain name unique?
Is the domain a fairly generic, general word or phrase that everyone uses or is it a unique name like your surname, made up brand name etc? How likely or easy is it for someone to come up with something similar? - Was this domain name being used before?
If so, what DR rating does it have, what traffic did it used to received, what keywords did it rank for, what backlinks does it have (or are they all old/broken now). Are any of these actually useful to your business? Perhaps it is a competitor that is closing down which could be opportunistic. - Do you intend to build a site on it?
Have you already prepared cost estimates to get a website built that has the necessary search engine optimisation work carried out so that it will help you get found for people looking for your products or services? - How will this fit into your digital marketing strategy?
Once you have figured out all the questions above, how will this fit into your overall digital marketing strategy. It doesn’t make sense to potentially spend up to $995 (based on the pricing in the email proposal) to not have a clear strategy that will make use of it.
Does a domain name have to match a company name
No, your domain name does not have to match your company name. While having a domain name that matches your company name can be helpful for branding and recognition purposes, it is not a requirement that is made by anyone or any policy that exists. There are lots of slight variations of company names vs domain name, think of Amazon’s domain name is “amazon.com” while their company name is “Amazon.com, Inc.” Similarly, Google’s domain name is “google.com” while their company name is “Alphabet Inc.”
When choosing a domain name, it is important to consider factors such as availability, brandability, and search engine optimisation. It is also important to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and easy to spell. Ultimately, the most important thing is that your domain name reflects your business and helps your customers find you online. Whether or not it matches your company name is less important than these other factors.
You want a name that ideally will be used over a long period of time, is easy to remember and can be trustworthy. The majority of people will choose something that is the same as their trading name but don’t forget you can have a trading name like Business Pty Ltd that is trading as UniqueMe.com.au for argument sake. So ultimately your website doesn’t have to match your business name, especially if you are a holding company trading under multiple brands.
Shoud you use a Domain name traffic estimator?
You might think that using a domain name traffic estimator is a good idea, but be careful. Yes there are tools like SEMRush or others that can try and estimate the traffic going to a domain – but it is just that, an estimate. Unless you have access to Google Analytics & Google Search Console for that domain you have no real idea as to the actual traffic.
Don’t forget – its not all about visitors to a site, you have to be able to see where they are coming from, what geographic locations and how they are engaging on the site to even know if it is useful traffic for you or high quality.
There would be no point buying a domain name that someone says used to get 10,000 visits per month if you are a business in Sydney selling services locally but that site had traffic generated from Los Angeles for example. Or if that site had huge organic traffic to a handful of pages relating to cleaning products but you sell construction equipment.
It takes a long time for Google to re-index a site, so any historic performance is in some cases useless and if your new site isn’t built correctly it won’t get indexed correctly & you won’t rank for the things you want to get found for. So the whole exercise becomes a waste of time.
how much are domain names worth
A domain name is worth as much as anyone is willing to pay for it. Sounds silly but that’s the truth really when you think about it. Sure someone who owns something popular like imagine www.iphone.com might try and sell it for millions but if nobody else is interested in buying it or doesn’t see the value then it will just sit as a domain name with no website for years.
So how much a domain is worth is really dependent on how commercially viable it might be for someone to use and make money from. Big brands will protect their own names, trademarks, model variations etc. Domain squatters will sit on popular service or location names hoping someone is silly enough to buy it.
That is why it makes sense to create something unique, only pay $20-$30 per year to have the domain registered & focus on creating great content and building a brand from it rather than spending thousands on some fancy name that may not help you achieve anything.
Is having a keyword in a domain name good for SEO?
Maybe
If you have a hyphenated domain name like name-name.com.au then it will be ‘read’ as two separate words, so if one of them is a keyword this can be helpful.
Although don’t be fooled.
If the rest of your website doesn’t have good quality content and lacks the right technical SEO set up then it won’t help achieve much at all. The way Google indexes websites these days means that the domain name only makes up a very tiny consideration as it looks at more than two hundred other elements to consider whether the site or a page should rank higher than others.
Having a keyword in a domain name can have some potential benefits for SEO, but it is not a guarantee of improved rankings.In the past, having a domain name that exactly matched a high-traffic keyword could help a website rank higher in search results for that keyword. However, search engines have become more sophisticated and now place less emphasis on exact match domain names.
Today, having a keyword in a domain name can still help signal to search engines what your website is about and may help with overall SEO efforts but there are so many other factors that contribute to SEO, such as high-quality content, backlinks, user experience and even site loading speed.
Using a keyword in a domain name should not come at the expense of creating a brandable and memorable domain name. It is important to balance the potential SEO benefits of using a keyword with the need to create a domain name that is easy to remember and stands out in a crowded online landscape so that you can compete online.
While having a keyword in a domain name can potentially benefit SEO, it should be viewed as just one factor among many in a comprehensive SEO strategy.
What are the most valuable domain keywords?
There are no valuable domain keywords
If your website developer or agency says there are, then go find someone else to do the work for you. As I have just explained the keyword in the domain name might help a little bit but if the rest of your website doesn’t have good quality content and lacks the right technical SEO set up then it won’t be any value to you at all. The way Google indexes websites these days means the domain name only makes up a very tiny consideration as it looks at more than two hundred other elements to consider whether the site or a page should rank higher than others.
So the statement of ‘most valueable domain keywords’ just doesn’t make any sense really, not in today’s online world because keywords in domain names don’t mean as much as they did maybe 5 or ten years ago.
I hope that provides some clarity around your decision making process when thinking about buying a domain name. I love helping business owners figure out ways to grow their business, not get caught out paying for useless digital marketing advice or getting ripped off by contractors or agencies.
Contact me for a free consult session to see if using a marketing consultant could help your business.
