SEO required to rank an exact keyword matched domain?

[Neverhadanickname]

Hi all,

Hoping to get some advice on a business I'm currently pursuing.

I'll use painters as my target business service as an example here.

The gist of it is purchasing domain names of the exact keyword string that is entered into Google.
e.g. person enters "painter in canberra" into Google.
Will the website "www.painterincanberra.com.au" rank well with minimal SEO due to it being the exact match of the keyword?
If the person searching this keyword is on a machine within Canberra does this affect search results, or is machine location irrelevant?
The website is not going to be content rich (pages upon pages), nor do I expect people to remain on the site for any extended period of time (two big ranking factors for Panda/Penguin).

I will be looking at speaking to a SEO expert on a professional level sometime in the near future so the more I can understand now the better!

Any information is much appreciated!
Thanks!

[Vossy]

Hi Never Had a Nick Name.

Exact match domains, all other things being equal, will help your ranking for the particular search.

The search engine owners say that EMD's are now less important, it's surprising how many you see around. In fact there is a business who's business model is based on this - registering sites like brushfencingsydney.com.au and leasing them to business owners.

I think this practice is now diminishing because the search engines are paying less and less attention to the domain name and the "thin" sites they create.

So your approach of only a few pages and high bounce rate is probably not a strategy for success. Authority and Relevance count more - much more than domain name.

You can see this in a search like Painter Sydney where this site paintersydney.com.au is missing from the first few pages.

If you are still going down the EMD route you might want to include content and relevance as part of the tactic.

Also consider - is it better to build your brand online -something that you can trademark and own.

Lastly, make sure you get the right search term for the EMD name. I don't see a lot of people putting "in" inside the search term - they appear to enter - painter, then if Google is not giving them local results (increasingly they are) then they start entering the local area.

Hope that helps. Cheers

[seocourse]

The gist of it is purchasing domain names of the exact keyword string that is entered into Google.
e.g. person enters "painter in canberra" into Google.
Will the website "www.painterincanberra.com.au" rank well with minimal SEO due to it being the exact match of the keyword?

No. No without content and proper SEO.
You may rank, but not dominate.

If the person searching this keyword is on a machine within Canberra does this affect search results, or is machine location irrelevant?

The machine connection is relevant.

The website is not going to be content rich (pages upon pages), nor do I expect people to remain on the site for any extended period of time (two big ranking factors for Panda/Penguin).

No content = fastest way to guarantee a site will not rank.

[Neverhadanickname]

Thank you very much for your insight Vossy and SEOcourse.

If you wouldn’t mind replying to a few other things regarding feasibility/required SEO, that would be great!

The domains I have acquired do contain the term “in”, however I have been gathering results via the Google Keyword Tool and am getting healthy local numbers for terms which include “in” as a keyword i.e. “business in location”.
I have also acquired both singular and plural domains i.e. painterinlocation and paintersinlocation. Whether I can implement this somehow to reinforce presence, I don’t know (I am quite new to this).

I am targeting international locations and the industry I have selected is both lucrative and prevalent.

I have also acquired the relevant international domain extension e.g. “DE (germany)” as well as the “.COM”. Once again, whether I can use this to reinforce presence is still unclear to me. I imagine if somebody from a town in Germany enters “maler in brandenburg” I would think the “.DE” site would populate foremost, or am I incorrect?

The general business model is not unlike the one you mentioned, the only difference is instead of leasing, the intention is to promote select businesses within the area as a form of bolstered marketing. As such, the only content I initially intended on using was going to be re-directs to a business’s own website and/or their relevant contact information.
I realise this is certainly inadequate, so including info/pages such as pricing per business, supplier/deals (for both painters an clients), relevant consumer information, reviews, business location maps (with functionality such as the “get directions” tool offered by Google Maps).
Would a site that includes these features rank better?

I am also thinking about link building via creating Linkdin groups specific to industries and approaching individual businesses to join. Is this something that would work? (Once again, amateur here).

Thanks for any info 

[seocourse]

I doubt u can rank a site with that strategy.
If u are just redirecting pages and not adding unique, valuable content... though very though .

I understand the model... rent a site model.
So yes, it make sense, but it doesn't work for SEO purpose.
Your page becomes a thin page, with thousands of outbound links and no uniqueness, no real content, no authority.

You may have a rich domain name = cool.
I can outrank you with my non related domain name just with more content and Authority.

If you want to rank really, you need to put content, unique content....

This is an example:
http://www.topbusinesscoaches.com.au/

Domain name rich = yes
Exact domain name = no
Each page = unique content
Each page = keyword rich (with the name of each coach)
Valuable content = you bet
Content "size" = pretty big, each page is around 3000 words
Social links = yes.

Result? = ranking.

I hope it helps.
Your idea in theory is nice, but it doesn't work well SEO wise in 2012.

[Mrs Fox]

Originally Posted by Neverhadanickname

Thank you very much for your insight Vossy and SEOcourse.

If you wouldn’t mind replying to a few other things regarding feasibility/required SEO, that would be great!

The domains I have acquired do contain the term “in”, however I have been gathering results via the Google Keyword Tool and am getting healthy local numbers for terms which include “in” as a keyword i.e. “business in location”.
I have also acquired both singular and plural domains i.e. painterinlocation and paintersinlocation. Whether I can implement this somehow to reinforce presence, I don’t know (I am quite new to this).

I am targeting international locations and the industry I have selected is both lucrative and prevalent.

I have also acquired the relevant international domain extension e.g. “DE (germany)” as well as the “.COM”. Once again, whether I can use this to reinforce presence is still unclear to me. I imagine if somebody from a town in Germany enters “maler in brandenburg” I would think the “.DE” site would populate foremost, or am I incorrect?

The general business model is not unlike the one you mentioned, the only difference is instead of leasing, the intention is to promote select businesses within the area as a form of bolstered marketing. As such, the only content I initially intended on using was going to be re-directs to a business’s own website and/or their relevant contact information.
I realise this is certainly inadequate, so including info/pages such as pricing per business, supplier/deals (for both painters an clients), relevant consumer information, reviews, business location maps (with functionality such as the “get directions” tool offered by Google Maps).
Would a site that includes these features rank better?

I am also thinking about link building via creating Linkdin groups specific to industries and approaching individual businesses to join. Is this something that would work? (Once again, amateur here).

Thanks for any info 

Country-code domains like GE is one of the major ranking factors. Google makes it clear that such domains will help them rank sites better for localized searches. Google also looks at "local addresses & phone numbers on the pages, use of local language and currency, links from other local sites, and/or the use of Google's Local Business Center."

[Neverhadanickname]

Thanks SEOcourse.
It looks like I'll have to go back to the drawing board with this one...
If I were to have a unique page for each business similar to the website example you posted then that would be a start. I'm sure I could think of relevant content to add. 3000wpp might be struggle though!

Thanks Dr.
Considering the site will be primarily visited by locals of the specific town, it will definitely contain local phone numbers/addresses etc.
I also planned on having geo-specific content within the site. A section of background may be an image of a certain geographical feature/location within the area that locals would immediately recognise. I realise since being an image this would have zero SEO benefit (or would it?), it was more-so to connect with visitors of the site, and for my potential clients who would be approached to purchase an advertising space.

[Shane Walker]

Hi Neverhadanickname! It’s Shane Walker here!

In regards to exact match domains, they do rank a little bit easier but still require a fair bit of work. The recent changes to the Google algorithm have made EMD’s don’t rise to the top as easily as they once did.

What you really need to be sure of is whether you want a brandable domain that people will remember or an exact match domain. Given the fact that they both take about the same amount of work now to rank for, it is probably better to go with a brandable domain that people will remember as opposed to an EMD.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

[Zava Design]

I might have to take some time to do some proper research on this one day soon-ish...

In my view you can do either an exact match domain, or simply have the keyword phrase within your sub-pages/folders (eg. domain.com/keyword-phase-here).

From doing some random Google searches on various keywords (did a lot of it a few months back) they seem to perform equally well.

But overall, as mentioned above, page content will provide far more SEO juice for a page.

And that's something else to understand: Google ranks pages, not sites.

And agree with this 100%:

What you really need to be sure of is whether you want a brandable domain that people will remember or an exact match domain. Given the fact that they both take about the same amount of work now to rank for, it is probably better to go with a brandable domain that people will remember as opposed to an EMD.

[Neverhadanickname]

Thank you Shane Walker and Zava Design

So if I were to create a brandable domain and use this as my "hub" page, and then create multiple sub-pages using my keyword phrase, this kind of method will still rank?
E.g:
My central hub will be:
www.brandablebusinessname.com
My sub-pages will be:
www.brandablebusinessname.com/paintersinlocation1, www.brandablebusinessname.com/paintersinlocation2
etc etc etc

My website now has many pages of content thanks to all the "paintersinlocation" sub-pages.

I have a couple of questions if you wouldn't mind answering:

1. The keywords being entered into Google now exactly match my "sub-pages" instead of my main page. Although there is a lot of content within the website, it now caters for multiple cities from the entire country. Is the lack of a "concentrated location" going to affect the rank? And more importantly, if somebody searches "painterinlocation1" will www.brandablebusinessname.com/paintersinlocation1 display in the search results due to the Geo-specific location of machine address, or will they be presented with the hub page, and then have to navigate to their location manually?

2. I feel the marketability of the website to potential businesses may be adversely affected, as I no longer have (what I thought was) my trump card; a keyword rich domain specific to their industry and location. Can I still utilize these acquired domains somehow to bolster marketability via a redirection tactic of sorts?

3. The cost of the website to build now that it is content rich.
My initial plan was to build one extremely well built and attractive website with minimal data. I would then simply replicate the website and only adjust the content for all my other sites, keeping costs down.
By building a larger website, what is there to consider regarding initial build cost, maintenance costs, hosting etc...? I know this is the wrong forum, but I'm hoping somebody has an idea.

Thanks for your time! Much appreciated!!!