The value of exact match keyword domains

[djbaxter]

Google's Matt Cutts Talks Down Keyword Domain Names
by Aaron Wall, SEOBook.com
March 11. 2011

Take a look at what Matt Cutts shares in the following video, where he tries to compare brand domain names vs keyword domain names. He highlights brand over and over again, and then when he talks about exact match domains getting a bonus or benefit, he highlights that Google may well dial that down soon.

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Now if you are still on the fence, let me just give you a bit of color. that we have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, & some people have complained that we are giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains. So we have been thinking about at adjusting that mix a bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given 2 different domains it wouldn't necessarily help you as much to have a domain name with a bunch of keywords in it. ~ Matt Cutts​

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[ac2dc4lite]

i always put key words in the domain. i also read somewhere that we shouldnt but more than 3 or 4 keywords there.

anyway if the brand name is very big and well known like: cnn, coca cola, walmart and so on, than i think there is no real needs to put keywords in the domain because everyone knows what these brand names have to offer and when they will link to these sites they will also link with keywords and it will happen naturally.

 

[bigcat1967]

I think this was part of the new roll-out.

Anyway, yeah - I always did put the KWs in the url...but my future sites will be more of branding since Google will not favor one over the other. I guess that makes sense.

However, what about internal pages? I still might put KWs in there...

 

[SupNY]

They are so beneficial but exceptionally hard to find these days, unless your creating a market yourself for something and your url matches your marketing plan to create a market for something.

 

[melovemoney]

I agree that exact match keywords in domain are very powerful - but I also think that they should be. You don't believe it's justified minstrel?

I think that an aged domain is even more powerful though - domains that have been around for several years and are registered for several years to come.