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What is EMD? Does it still work for SEO?

An exact match domain (EMD) is a domain name that uses the exact keywords or phrases you are trying to rank for in the search engines. EMD are the website names that are used while searching a query on the search engine.

For example, if you own a hospital in Kathmandu or any place in Nepal,. Then the exact match domain related to your hospital would be hospitalnearme.com, hospitalnear.com, etc.

In some industries, people will call their company’s name after the product that they offer, for example, Toilet Cleaners New York.

What is Partial Match Domain?

Partial Domain name(PMD) is a domain name that uses the partial keyword you are trying to rank in the search engines.

Examples of partial matches include having vital keywords like “insurance”, “loans”, or “casino” in the domain name to the beginning or end of the domain, such as casinohub.com, everydaylifeinsurance.com, or easyloans.com.

Partial match domain names are a combination of the main keyword you are trying to target and something that is not related. A number of successful brands have used other words with the main keyword such as “hut”, “hub”, “network”, “market”, and so on.

Does Exact Match Domain Still Work For SEO?

So, should you be using or avoiding EMD for your new website?

We’ll tell you the same thing that we tell our clients and prospective clients.

Learn more about: What is on-page SEO?

Using an exact match domain for your new business can provide a quick win for your SEO efforts, but it can hamper your long term growth, business development, and branding prospects. Whichever way you look at it, you are better off naming your business something that resonates with the goods and services that you are planning to offer. However, it is not necessary to capture the exact match domain to rank well in your chosen field.

Google loves exact match domains, as they do not look like spammy domains. Exact match domains still work for websites and are relevant with good content.

Let me show you some examples of exact match domains that are still working.

1. Hotels.com

It is an exact match domain because the domain exactly matches the keyword result of hotels, which appears on the first page of the search engine. Google continues to dominate the SERPs for hotel searches year after year.

2. Healthy recipes indian

This is another great example of an exact match domain. The domain [indianhealthyrecipes.com] ranks on top of Google for the exact keyword [Healthy recipes Indian] they want to rank for.

3. Bookings.com

It’s an exact match domain because the domain exactly matches the keyword booking, and it appears to rank number 1 on Google and continues to dominate the SERPs for booking searches year after year.

4. Cheap flight.com

You can see for the keyword [cheap flights], there is exact match domain ranking on Google. The site is very relevant to its domain name cheapflights.com where you can check out the flight details.
5. Expired domain
You can see that for the keyword [expired domain], there is an exact match domain ranking on Google. The site is very relevant to its domain name, expireddomains.net, where you can check out the expired domain details.
Summing up
Exact match domains (EMDs) still have a role to play in successful SEO and this includes some target industries and local searches. One has to be careful if they have a large SEO strategy depending on optimizing an exact match domain since this could see initial growth but also be high-risk in the penalty department.

The best advice is to research the industry and see who is ranking on pages one and two of Google. Do they use an exact match, a partial match, or neither?
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