Exact match obsession - I'm out! maybe you should be too?!

[JMOT]

I've come to the personally thought provoking decision that I no longer MUST seek out the exact match domain of choice for any future project AND I must stop pissing money up the wall on my obsession with exact match domains....

This rant has 2 key issues:

1) forking out for high value exact match domains
2) aimlessly registering and buying any exact match extension in niches i'm interested in now or for future.

Both these issues have many a pit-fall...

- What I've spent on them in last 18 months I could have ranked ANY domain in ANY (minus insanities like viagra, poker, car insurance and a few others) niche and have another site doing £xxx,xxx a year in profit!

- if/when Google levels the playing field so so many affiliates/businesses will be crying into their cornflakes playing catchup.. if they know how and can afford to!

- Just how many URLs can you actually successfully develop, rank and earn REAL money from unless you have an industrial setup and bank balance to match?? Real money imho = £xx,xxx a month in profit

- how many domains are in the "development queue"?? yeah right... 90% of what most people develop is fit for the shredder and will earn a pittance because so little has been invested into the site and user experience...

- most people including me have unrealistic value expectations on the domains they hold... i guess thats natural... but if you wont sell to someone at fair & realistic market value your little asset is in fact a little hole in your pocket... the more of those you have the more it becomes a big problem!

Until I have so much money that investing £10k to £150k+ on a generic is neither here nor there or at least I have a multiple of that amount as marketing budget to make a REAL SUCCESS of the project its simply a fools game unless you are prepared to not be greedy and flip quickly for generous margin. Look at Gold.co.uk as a prime example...£42k paid.. wanting £200k+ now to flip... but then Barry is loaded so thats his luxury!

Just look at how many non exact match domains rank and earn successfully!!! Thats my whole point...

Yes you lose certain CTR in PPC and potentially SERPS but then big whoop?!

You get to the top of serps with LINKS.. because at the end of the day LINKS are what drive sites to the top of Google etc. Links is what you should be spending your money on be it a well thought out PR strategy or seeking out high quality relevant blog posts yada yada whatever...

But then Links and seo opens up a whole different discussion lol

I feel so much better now

Edit: I ranted to Frank about this the other day lol

 

[woopwoop]

I feel the same way about most of what you said. i never completely bought into exact match and still like brandables on my development pile.

... have another site doing £xxx,xxx a year in profit!

I'm almost that ambitious!

...Real money imho = £xx,xxx a month in profit
- how many domains are in the "development queue"??

If only I had more time to develop!

 

[wb]

Not much to add really except I agree

For less competitive areas, exact match domains make it easy to get ranking quick and can often be the main keywords so are memorable too. When an area is competitive enough to need a great deal of links though, I would much rather have a memorable domain which is brandable for the long term (e.g. a nice single word) over an exact match.

 

[domainseller200]

Nice to see you getting this written down after our MSN chat yesterday - I am surprised there was no reference to me in this post somewhere.

You know it makes perfect sense in the long game mate, and I am glad that you also agree with it now

 

[boxfish]

I completely agree. I use exact match for quick wins but all my 'proper' sites are based on decent 'brandable' names.

 

[domainseller200]

I completely agree. I use exact match for quick wins but all my 'proper' sites are based on decent 'brandable' names.

There is such thing as both

 

[boxfish]

There is such thing as both

That's true, it's just not the be-all and end-all as some make out.

 

[domainseller200]

To be honest what I have said may be taken out of context as I would always develop a generic over a brandable every day of the week

There is no such thing as a brandable domain to be honest, and anyone that disagrees is kidding themselves.

Unless you plan on spending big time on branding exercises and advertising, then no name is brandable - generic or not

 

[JMOT]

There is no such thing as a brandable domain to be honest, and anyone that disagrees is kidding themselves.

Unless you plan on spending big time on branding exercises and advertising, then no name is brandable - generic or not

The second part of that is totally true

 

[wb]

Brandable domains to me are ones which wouldn't necessarily be searched for as a keyword but are still generic words. So by that, I don't mean random words like Yahoo or Google but quality ones like Barry's Gold.co.uk or Accessories.co.uk.

Quality single words and phrases should hold a strong value because of all the other factors (not including the 'exact match' bonus).

 

[edo]

Hey JMOT.

You're right to concentrate your firepower on fewer names and exact match domains are not THE answer to ranking, but I also think you're seriously underestimating their SEO power.

Frank's - Hi Frank - underwear site for example is well designed and has very strong on-site SEO, but his page 1 competitors have way more links so you can't tell me he isn't getting serious Google love for his underwear.co.uk domain name.

Remember: the brandability of a domain name is only part of its worth. Every time someone links to underwear.co.uk the keyword "underwear" is picked up by Google which gives the site relevant, keyword-rich link love.

Cheers,

Ed

 

[JMOT]

Hey JMOT.

You're right to concentrate your firepower on fewer names and exact match domains are not THE answer to ranking, but I also think you're seriously underestimating their SEO power.

Frank's - Hi Frank - underwear site for example is well designed and has very strong on-site SEO, but his page 1 competitors have way more links so you can't tell me he isn't getting serious Google love for his underwear.co.uk domain name.

Remember: the brandability of a domain name is only part of its worth. Every time someone links to underwear.co.uk the keyword "underwear" is picked up by Google which gives the site relevant, keyword-rich link love.

Cheers,

Ed

Hi Ed... yes you are 100% correct but i'm not underestimating their power and that is one of my main points... the day when Google levels the playing field and exacts no longer get any extra lift.... I have several highly ranking exact domains on stupidly competitive terms myself but as you can see, underwear.co.uk is no longer no1 (for me anyway) and actually none of my other exacts are no1 (yet lol) as the competitors are very very strong and longer established..

Exacts dont and cant rule on everything hence my reasoning not getting caught up on them anymore

BTW if I can buy the right exact match URL that fits the niche or category to a T then of course I will but I wont die trying or pay over the odds anymore cos the reality is.... you dont need em to be successful...

 

[johnnyboy]

This post is a bit long-winded but I want to try and explain myself clearly.

Brandable domains are definitely the way forward in my opinion if a new company was planning to operate online for several reasons. One would be the fact that once a company using a brandable domain name has been operating for several years, it will have built up many loyal and repeat customers, who will search for the company in search engines by their brand name and not by the generic product(s) they sell. This will make it easier for the customers to find their site as competitors are not going to spend their online marketing budget on optimising their site on another company's brand name. Those sites that use a generic domain name are primarily going to optimise their site for and bid on the keyword that is contained in the URL, and so will many other companies operating in the same industry, meaning it will face stiffer competition in search engines.

Another reason is that obviously only one entity can have a generic domain for a specific product or service so any competitors entering the market will either have to buy that generic domain or come up a decent brandable name fit for their business; in pretty much every case, it will be the latter.

My third reason is more of a personal one, but I'm sure there are others that might feel the same. Having a marketing educated background, something doesn't quite sit right with me with regards to having a purely generic domain name, such as gold.co.uk or laptops.co.uk, if an established company (serious about their business) uses it as their main website. It's the lack of imagination and creativity behind the branding and that would put me off slightly in dealing with them, whether it be becoming a customer or doing business deals with them (if I were running a business). It's probably because most websites that I have visited that use a generic domain name haven't been anywhere near as good as an established company operating in the same industry that has just used a brandable domain name. Of course, any domain will work if effort was put in, but serious businesses are not going to spend stupid amounts on a generic when the same funds can be used to develop a brandable and get it ranking well.

If search engines do level the playing field with regards to domain names, the only real benefit I can see with a generic domain is that it will get type-ins. But then again, who searches for a product or service by typing in the address bar? Even then, the website that appears is probably more than likely created by someone who has more money than business sense.

I'm now off to do a big, fat, greasy turd and take a shower...simultaneously.

 

[woopwoop]

...There is no such thing as a brandable domain to be honest, and anyone that disagrees is kidding themselves.

Unless you plan on spending big time on branding exercises and advertising, then no name is brandable - generic or not

Partly agree but...

Here are a few examples of what I have in my to develop list that I consider brandable (all couks):
dotting (domaining website)
visionwear (specs, contacts, sunglasses)
utix (gig tickets, or a service that people can order tickets to be printed for their event)
campusbooks (uni books!)
closingdate (competition website)

Other names like the ones below (and maybe the last few above) blur the line between generic and brandable (or maybe I've been doing this for so long that generics look like brandables! - or maybe there is a set of domains that are brandable generics, lets call 'em brenerics):
budgetgifts
specialbreaks
topreviews

Does anyone else have brenerics?

 

[edo]

>Hi Ed... yes you are 100% correct

Thank you ;-)

>...the day when Google levels the playing field and exacts no longer get any extra lift....

I agree it will happen, but while the sun shines make hay and use their power.

>I have several highly ranking exact domains on stupidly competitive terms >myself

That sounds to me like proof of their SEO power

>but as you can see, underwear.co.uk is no longer no1 (for me anyway)

It's number two. Watch Frank put up a few new blog entries and it'll be back at number one within a fortnight. Btw I'm not stalking him ;-)

>and actually none of my other exacts are no1 (yet lol) as the competitors >are very very strong and longer established..

And you'd have absolutely no chance of even getting close to them without the exact match working for you imo.

>Exacts dont and cant rule on everything hence my reasoning not getting >caught up on them anymore

They don't rule on everything as they are often up against established High street chains who throw silly money at linkbuilding and get free links by virtue of being a brand. My point is that without the exact match boost our kind of websites would get nowhere near the big boys. As you said, this won't last for ever, but make use of it while it does.

>the reality is.... you dont need em to be successful...

True if you have a six-seven figure budget. But who does?

Cheers,

Ed

 

[JMOT]

>I have several highly ranking exact domains on stupidly competitive terms >myself

That sounds to me like proof of their SEO power

>> True but I've fought my way to where I am tooth and nail and hoping whatever benefit i might get will carry me over them soon

>and actually none of my other exacts are no1 (yet lol) as the competitors >are very very strong and longer established..

And you'd have absolutely no chance of even getting close to them without the exact match working for you imo.

>> Thats tbh totally not true... several other TLD;s on the same terms are nowhere to be seen... exact match doesnt guarantee u high rankings if the keyword is really competitive!!

>the reality is.... you dont need em to be successful...

True if you have a six-seven figure budget. But who does?

>> You dont need to spend that much to rank anything exact or not on pretty much any but the most highly fought after terms.

You just need to get the "right" links and keep getting them...

 

[wb]

Having a marketing educated background, something doesn't quite sit right with me with regards to having a purely generic domain name, such as gold.co.uk or laptops.co.uk, if an established company (serious about their business) uses it as their main website. It's the lack of imagination and creativity behind the branding and that would put me off slightly in dealing with them, whether it be becoming a customer or doing business deals with them (if I were running a business).

Agree with all except the above quote. Domains alone don't make a brand as there are far more elements to branding than just the word, so I think it's quite a subjective (but very reasonable) comment.

There are plenty of great domains which haven't been utilised to their full potential, but equally there are companies using generics to create brands. One example way of using them being National Accident Helpline's website Underdog.co.uk where the domain is used for the address and overall 'image' but they keep it linked to the main business. Another way being something like Cheap.co.uk where the name is continued as a theme throughout the website on its own.

 

[johnnyboy]

Agree with all except the above quote. Domains alone don't make a brand as there are far more elements to branding than just the word, so I think it's quite a subjective (but very reasonable) comment.

Yeah, wrong use of terminology; what I meant was online brand name. I understand the term 'branding' encompasses names, images, ideas, products etc. when consumers think of a brand. Basically everything they associate with the brand.

 

[JMOT]

One example way of using them being National Accident Helpline's website Underdog.co.uk where the domain is used for the address and overall 'image' but they keep it linked to the main business.

Yes the theory on that is sound but the practice imho actually relates in this very case of trying to push perception out to consumers that the govts planned implementation of the Lord's Jackson & Young reports are damaging to the "little man" or in this case... the "underdog"...

 

[dougs]

seo etc

50% of all of our company spend is on marketing......content and getting links.....simple model and has not changed.

But I still have lots of exact match domains not developed

Doug