I will admit I can be a miserable old sod but some things really do wind me up. One of my major pets hates is how the same SEO debates seem to reappear time and time again on affiliate forums. Perhaps the greatest offender is the debate on the extra bonus in regards to rankings of exact match domains. I simply hate this debate! To be honest I’m sick and tired of it. Before I start to rant let me quote what Matt Cutts has stated about exact match domains on many occasions.
“Owning a keyword match domain name is going to carry some weight in Google for the foreseeable future”
So there you have it! Straight from the main man himself! You would of course think that the above statement would put an end to the debate but I’m sorry to say this is not the case. The doubters simply check a key phrase in Google then offer a counter view as an exact match domain is being outranked by a non exact match domain. This is of course crazy! Matt Cutts did not state that owning a keyword match domain has immense weight, he simply said some weight.
Rather than debating a known fact that keyword match domains in Google’s algorithm do indeed get a boost, which we know is true. We should try to find out how much they are weighted in the Google algorithm as this is the key. For example, breaking this down to the very basics. Let’s say that exact match domains are weighted to an extent where they are credited with 50 links of x quality and the top 5 search results have over 100 links of x quality then of course the exact match domain is going to rank BELOW them. This ties in with the scenario when some purchase exact match domains and are disappointed when they don’t rank top 3 or even top 10. Remember exact match domains get credited with extra weight which is not a guarantee to rank top 3.
So there you have it!
