Exact Match Domains for Poker Affiliates
By admin on Jul 21, 2009 in Domaining
Lately there has been a lot of buzz on the forums and blogs about exact match domains in the poker and casino affiliate market. It’s obvious that exact match domains are extremely valuable for affiliates, but there is more to the story than meets the eye. This article is going to define an “exact match” domain, discuss why they are valuable, and help dispel a few myths about exact match domains.
What is an Exact Match Domain?
In my opinion, an exact match domain is any domain that contains the keyword(s), and only the keyword(s) in front of .com, .net, or .org. There cannot be any dashes, numbers, letters, or other words in the domain. The domain also cannot be any other extension unless you are targeting a regional search engine. For example, a .ca domain could be exact match if you are targeting the google.ca engine, but would not be exact match if you were targeting the google.com engine.
If you were targeting the term “poker sites”, the only exact match domains would be pokersites.com, pokersites.org, or pokersites.net. Some domains that wouldn’t be considered exact match include poker-sites.com, pokersites247.com, or pokersites.info.
Some affiliates like to debate that domains with dashes in them are just as valuable as domains without dashes, but all of my experience says that’s not true. I own numerous domains with and without dashes, and to be frank, the ones with dashes basically suck.
What are the Benefits?
The main benefit behind having an exact match domain is its power in the Google search engine. Even for a highly competitive term, an exact match domain with a few decent links pointing towards it will rank in the top ten or twenty results very quickly.
Another benefit of having an exact match domain is the ability to gain great anchor links from quality directories. Most good directories force you to use your site’s official name as the anchor text of the listing, and if you have an exact match domain you will get a very relevant link. For example, if you listed InternetCasino.org in the Yahoo directory, you would get the anchor text “Internet Casino”, which would further help you rank for the term “Internet Casino”. If your site was InternetCasinoHub.com however, your link would be “Internet Casino Hub” which wouldn’t help your ranking quite as much.
One Word vs. Two Word vs. Three or More Word Domains
Something that I haven’t seen discussed much is the value of a one word exact match domain vs. a two words or more exact match domain. In my experience, the one and two word domains work the best. Those are the ones that usually get the top ten or twenty ranking right away, and gain ground from there. Three word domains can also work, but four words are really pushing it. At that point the site starts to look spammy, and the domain will lose a little bit of its effectiveness.
One thing I really haven’t experimented much with is exact match domains with “modifiers” in them. For example, I’m curious to see if Google would give a domain like BestPokerRooms.com a boost for the search term “best poker rooms”. I suspect you would still get a boost, but not as much as if the domain was OnlinePokerRooms.com.
Buying Exact Match Domains
Another point I would like to discuss is the price of exact match domains. Nowadays you won’t find any great exact match domains available for registration fees – most of these can only be acquired in a private sale. You will most likely have to pay a premium for a big ticket exact match domain, but I highly recommend it. Even if you have to pay $10,000 for a highly prized domain, you are much better off doing that then buying a generic domain and investing $10,000 into links and content.
This article was written by Mike Wittmeyer who is a very successful poker affiliate, and contributor here at PAU.
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16 Comment(s)
By Kevin on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Great article guys!
By admin on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
This was a great article packed with some really good information Mike. I have noticed lately how much weight google has been giving to exact match domains.
By MJ on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I agree with most of this but I think it’s also obvious that’s only a helping end and not the end of the world.
Internet-Poker.co.uk is an obvious discrepancy I think of, it’s a .co.uk without any KIDS and holds the authority rank for US poker terms, althought that site is so strong in so many top phrases – it still is just an obvious point that anything can rank for anything if done right.
That said I’d rather start with the exact match obviously both for branding and for the search engine boost (which may or may not be a termporary thing we are experiencing).
One thing I can say for sure, is exact match domains have been extremely consolidated the last couple of years. The oppurtunity to even find an exact match that is for sale, even if it’s for $100,000 – just isn’t there very often anymore.
Awesome article Mike.
By Greg Powell on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
This is an excellent article Mike! A lot of people ask about domain names and really stress over it. Good insights!
By Jeremy on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Great article (and domain) Mike!
By John Goldie on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Excellent article Mike and I totally agree with you about the value in ranking power of exact matches. I just recently picked a very good one up and can attest that everything Mike has written is 100% true.
Another thing I wanted to point out is that everyone thinks that these domains have become very consolidated and they have to a certain extent, however there are still ALOT available if you use the right resources, put in the time and have a moderate budget. That’s all I’ll say but I am sure you can figure it out.
The other random point I will through in here that tons of people have talked about is acquiring these domains. From my personal experience, expect 95% idiots who want 10 to 1,000 times the actual worth of the domains. This is hard to deal with and can be very discouraging, but as with anything the more you try the better chances you have of finding a gem for a reasonable deal. Another tip is always to talk to the seller directly and avoid any 3rd party services such as Sedo or BuyDomains since these services charge a large fee for handling the transactions.
Anyways that’s my 2 cents and good luck!
By John Goldie on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I also wanted to say with regards to Internet-Poker.co.uk that you need to consider that this is an old site that started dominating these keywords long before they are as competitive as they are today.
Hitting a keyword first or very early and continuing to buy links for it will almost guarantee you top ranks for a long period of time. For example, I used to have a PKR specific site that I built 6 months before PKR opened and it still remains in top positions today with little effort to the site.
I am just saying that I think this article is useful for affiliates who want to tackle a very competitive niche without having to start from the ground up and with a KID you can compete much more easily with established sites such as Internet-Poker without having to start from scratch.
By Mike on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
MJ,
Yeah great point. I should have clarified that anything can rank for anything, it’s just a lot easier this way. I knew someone would bring up Internet-poker.co.uk, but like you said that site has so much authority anyways that the domain isn’t a big factor.
By MJ on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I take back what I said about consolidation, I wouldn’t want new affiliates to get the wrong idea. I was referring to ultra premium exact matches like pokersites.com and the like referenced here.
I’d agree with John G that there is tons of exact matches still out there especially in smaller niches, I had to check out my own domain profile to realize I own a bunch already.
An example of a small exact match might be “pokerbountytournaments.com” or “shorthandedsngs.com” and tons of other types of phrases that are still available in large numbers.
By Mike on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Yeah I agree with you John. A lot of domains are taken already, but if you are willing to send out a few hundred emails you’ll find a good one for a fair price.
By Steve on Jul 22, 2009 | Reply
I’d like to question the assertion that the value is only in com/net/org. Do you have actual proof that it doesn’t extend to info/biz/ws etc, etc?.. other than the general community feeling on the lesser extensions
By Mike on Jul 22, 2009 | Reply
I’ve personally never created a site on a non .com/.org/.net domain, but I based that point on what I’ve seen in the SERP’s and what some of my friends have told me.
An interesting test would be to take two exact matches, one .com and one .info or whatever, and point a link at each one and see what happens.
By Steve on Jul 23, 2009 | Reply
I suspect the only real/concrete proof would be to get an exact match .com/net/org and the same exact match in one of the lesser extensions …..build each with different but equally strong page titles, descriptions,and content…and then get a number of the same high PR links in to both and see what happens.
Not an easy one to do.
Until someone proves it in that way, or comes up with a valid looking alternative proof method, I’d offer for debate that it looks like there’s going to be at least some question on the subject.
By Simon on Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
I just wanted to echo what John said about some of these domains not being quite as far out of reach as you would think.
I had a read through of this last week and out of curiosity went off hunting for an exact match domain and managed to secure bestcasinoonline.com for less than $100.
I’m fairly happy with that given the number of searches Google reports running for the phrase over the course of a month.
You do need to be flexible when hunting for domains, as the real grade one domains will all have gone. However, I’m constantly suprised at just how many good, exact-match domains can be picked up elsehwere for a reasonable price.
By JR on Dec 13, 2009 | Reply
Nice article. I wish more people shopping for domains would read it. A few additional points that are pertinent.
1. Age of the domain – A domain registered in 1997 vs. a domain registered today. The 1997 domain is given clout.
2. 2 word domains are usually better not because it is just 2 words, but rather the order of 3 words is often easier to jumble, therefore potential traffic may be lost to competition with the same words in a different order.
3. Don’t forget “type-in” traffic. Domains with GOOD keywords will get visitors from day 1. And those visitors WILL convert to customers. WHY? Because they didn’t randomly find your site by randomly clicking along a few links, but rather they typed in exactly what they were looking for. (and hopefully you’re offering whatever that is).
4. Evidently “.org” is given a bit of clout as an “authority”.
5. Can potential customers remember your site name? The “recall” factor is a major factor, and the main reason that a short domain, or a domain with strong keywords is so valuable. Two options exist – a domain that is something really very different that requires money to brand it with creative advertising to build recall, or back to the keyword thing. Keyword domains are worth their weight in gold.
All of this of course is in addition to a site that has a lot of CONTENT which is KING.
A good domain becomes more and more valuable over time as more and more people become net savvy, and more and more cell phones become internet capable.
I’ve been buying and selling domains for 10 years, and do currently have some gaming domains I may be convinced to sell.
By pokerprop on Jun 22, 2010 | Reply
Solid article however for sake of argument poker-sites.org and pokersites.org are both likely to attract the same anchor text.
Also the downside to exact match is they might be more likely to fall victim to over optimization penalties which seems to be rearing its ugly head more often again with tons of exact matches dropping an average of 8 spots recently and a few falling way off like 50 spots. So while it has benefits it also has risks.
Back on other topic:
There are many reasons not to use a -, but from my experience SEO doesn’t seem to be one of them. I will sometime in next few months test that theory perhaps using something like craps-online.net or similar.
Anyways very solid post and thanks for making it. Nice site btw.