The Myth of Exact Match Domain Names
Whenever you undertake training in Internet Marketing, you get the advice that when you chose a domain name for your website, it should match as closely as possible the theme of your site i.e. be an Exact Match Domain (EMD). You may be advised that this will improve your rankings in Google.
However, when you check the results of a Google search you will often find that an EMD is not top of the list, but yes one may be found on page 1 or 2. This is because Google picks up the PAGE TITLE rather than the domain name. This forms the top line of the search results. Next comes either the meta description if one is used or relevant text from the page. This forms what Google calls a 'Snippet'.
As an example, I entered the keyword 'flower arranging' into Google. This returned 1.9 million results. Ignoring the paid ads at the top of the page we have to go down to result 6 before we find the EMD called 'www.flowerarranging.me.uk'. The number one result was DIY: Flower Arranging - 8 Basic Flower Arrangements. It was on the domain save-on-crafts.com. The DIY part was the page name and it had been saved with the file name 'eigbasflowar.html'. If your website is focused on a very small niche then certainly strive to get an EMD. However, if you have wider interests then your domain name should reflect the wider range of offerings as in the domain name above.
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Thanks for the post. Great information: 'Google picks up the PAGE TITLE rather than the domain name'.
GREAT post! This is a matter of confusion with some marketers.
You are right on target, here. Well done!
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Nice article. I'm struggling with this right now. This will certainly help.