Question on exact match domains and related longer tail keywords

[Ryan O'Connor]

Hey Guys,

I tried looking through and searching before I posted this (might be a bit of a noob question) but couldn't find anything that covers my question specifically.

Say hypothetically you owned:

partypokerbonus.com but partypokerbonuscode.com and partypokerdepositbonus.com we're also available, would you want to buy those domains and build out sites for them as well?

My thought being that if you owned partypokerbonus.com then that is the most succinct and probably valuable exact match and you should be able to easily rank high for the search term party poker bonus code or deposit bonus.

If you are of the opinion that you should snatch up similar .com names in a niche you think is valuable, at what point do you stop? Following this same hypothetical situation would you also get partypokerbonuses, partypokerdepositbonuscode, codes, bonuses, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[pokeraussie]

I think it would be counter productive to register extremely related long tail keywords just to target different terms. That would mean you would have to do link building for each site. The shorter keyword (core keyword) is going to be the toughest to rank, so you want to try and get the EMD for that keyword. Then you can target the other related long tail stuff on the same site, they won't be difficult to rank and its extremely easy integrating the new pages on the same site since its highly relevant.

[parttimepoker]

It's probably worth it to buy them just to block other people from having the exact matches. Also, if you have trouble getting the main site getting to rank for one of the long tails that you have a domain for, you can always develop it at that point.

Of course, your example is a fairly high volume, solidly converting keyword set. I'd be less inclined to snatch everything up for more general, lower volume terms.

[PLP91]

In the last Google Panda Update exact match domain names became a less important ranking factor.

[ak]

In the last Google Panda Update exact match domain names became a less important ranking factor.

Was great while it lasted

[casdir]

It used to work so well in the late 90's, and early 00's, but not really anymore. Google is always changing though, keyword domains might come back again in the future.

[casinodave]

In the last Google Panda Update exact match domain names became a less important ranking factor.

Even if this was true, less important does not equal no benefit from emd.

[leporello]

Obviously there is still and always will be a benefit from EMDs as a ranking signal as Google favours brands and the domain name is essentially a brand signal. It's definitely harder to rank them than before but I'd still pay good money for any EMD ahead of building some generic website. Links are still the biggest ranking factor and you can't get a ton of EM links without tripping a filter on a generic domain. With an EMD, you have much more room to manoeuvre...

[MJ]

EMD .coms are as strong as ever, I've only noticed a decrease in other extensions - and only slightly. I'll keep building my KIDS, everyone else is welcome to keep building their vanity domains please