SEO CheckList

This is probably one of the latest and largest buzz in SEO recently. This post in SEObook generated a big response from SEOs all over. The debate on whether an exact domain match with a specific keyword or key phrase boosts one’s ranking in the SERPs has, in my own humble opinion, reached its zenith. A lot of questions have been raised before regarding said issue and both sides — those who believed it to be true and those who don’t — have had their say on the matter.

Prior to this, domainers thought it was best to use exact matches because people tend to enter keywords into the URL box and type the “.com” after it. This was, perhaps, true during the early days of the internet when people aren’t used to using search engines yet. During the more recent years, however, a lot of speculation cropped up about exact name matches ranking higher in the SERPs, so what used to be just simple intention of making it easier for internet surfers to remember a domain name turned out to be very fruitful and profitable.

Now, WHY do exact name matches rank high in the SERPs?

1. It serves as anchor text. Using anchor texts in SEO is game of relevancy, people. Since exact name match is, obviously, relevant, it boosts your rankings.

2. According to the article in seobook, it might be because exact domain names are brand-associated.

Getting exact match domain names would be difficult (not to mention expensive) if your niche is already saturated. You can avail them by buying from individuals but take note it might even reach five figures. People who have the foresight on what would be hot in time have it lucky because they can avail of domains for $5-10 a pop and build a brand around it. Now THAT’s the way to do it.