domain name = exact Google keyword match...

[terryhenry]

Still leaning about all this so I have a question that I am sure has been posed before so apologies. Anyway, I have a number of domains that I have acquired whereby the exact phrase (series of keywords) attracts >20,000 matches per month so if you typed in that phrase followed by .co.uk then they'd land on my homepage. Anyway, my question is
a) will that guarantee I will get some direct type in traffic and
b) as my domains are an exact match how much will that contribute to its search ranking, if at all

Any insight/help gratefully received.

 

[ScottJ]

a/ I don't think so
b/ Yes Google gives weight at present to exact keyword domain, also Google still relies heavily on anchor text and therefore any link to your domain will be domain + exact match keyword and be more natural and beneficial.

 

[terryhenry]

thanks Scott.
How much weighting do you think Google gives to the domain being an exact match, ie 10%, 50%! realise its an impossible question to answer but....
ie, how important is it for your domain name to 'fit' the site's content?

 

[ScottJ]

For me it's paramount - it may change in the future, if it does there is still enough time to acquire a prime generic and use it's weight to rank and achieve authority status in your niche. No question that Google will have to use other indicators apart from domain name exact match and anchor text in the future but for now that's the deal and in all likelihood will always be a large part of any algo. The problem being with most social indicators of quality they can be gamed and the stakes are very high so nothing will change overnight.

 

[stevebrowne]

I agree with Scott; but I would say that if you get xx,000 exact searches, then you will likely get a small fraction who just type it in. I have a number of domain names that only registered, are not parked and do not appear in any search engines, and they get (small amounts of) traffic. Obviously the more words in the phrase the less likely this is!

But also, direct match domain names can potentially give users more confidence on what will be on the site, and can help with your click through rate.

 

[andydw]

I am about reg a domain according to keyword search.
They are a very small niche but sit well with a couple of other domains I have.

One problem is that the top search result for my niche is a 4 word phrase - 2,000 exact per month. (v small niche...) Is 4 words in a domain too many?

The same phrase minus one keyword only gets 260!

If I use this site and "Acorn Domains Keyword Research" for example which is going to rank well/better/look spammy....

AcornDomainsKeywordResearch.com

AcornDomainsKeyword.com/Research

AcornDomainsKeyword.com/Keyword-Research

Hope that makes sense...!