Exact match domain or EMD is a term frequently used in SEO. It refers to a domain name containing one or more keywords representing the main query that you wish your site to rank for.
In SEO, the keyword is an essential element. It must be carefully selected to be representative of the site’s theme, searched for by internet users and accessible to the competition.
Once the most relevant keywords have been selected, they need to be judiciously placed on the website to work on the semantics. These keywords must be cleverly inserted into textual content, in titles, title tags, and URLs.
To further optimize a site’s search engine ranking, it’s also possible to insert one or more keywords directly into the domain name.
For example, the domain names www.houston-plumber.com, www.car-rental.com or www.marketing-training.com are exact match domains.
The advantage of an EMD is that you get domain names with explicit keywords that leave internet users in no doubt as to the site’s theme. When obtaining backlinks, the links will also often be on the URL, therefore containing the target keyword.
Thanks to this method, the website can benefit from an SEO boost.
For niche markets or local queries, EMD is a good practice. However, while it’s not really a black hat SEO technique, Google has tended to weaken the impact of EMDs on website ranking in recent years.
Using a domain name based on a targeted query can also damage a brand’s reputation. In fact, from a long-term perspective, it’s often better to opt for a “brand-oriented” domain name in order to strengthen a company’s reputation.
In all cases, the EMD technique must be used judiciously to avoid over-optimization, which could result in penalties from Google.
