Buy an exact match domain for product you sell?

[David4431]

Does it make any sense to buy a domain that is an exact match for the product you sell? For example, let's say you sell your own brand of trash cans - let's call the brand "Toter". If you could buy the domains trashcan.com and trashcans.com, does it make any sense to do so? Let's assume that you're already on the first page of Google for your main keyword. Is there a marketing case to be made for buying these exact match domains? In my mind one potential (marketing) reason for doing so is that you can build a couple of niche content websites focused on your product type and refer traffic from them back to your main brand website (toter.com).

I'm not a digital marketing or SEO expert so I thought I'd throw this out there to get input from the marketing experts on this forum. I know that Google does not place a lot of weight on the domain being an exact match for a product keyword but I assume that when potential customers do product research they might still check out a website that is an exact match for their product to get ideas. But I don't really know how it plays out in actuality though. What have you guys seen? Is this a viable marketing / SEO strategy? Do businesses do something else entirely different with these exact match domains? (I've seen them redirect directly to brand websites)

Would really love to hear from the digital marketers / SEO experts experienced on this topic! I can buy the exact match domains for my products for a few thousand dollars but it's not clear to me the value of doing so. Part of me is thinking that just releasing keyword targeted articles on my "Toter.com" branded website might make more sense than acquiring the exact match domains. But another part thinks that I can become more of an authority in my space with these domains if I create content for them. This would be a long term play though since I know it'll take time for the websites to rank. Thoughts?

 

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[circleme]

I'm not a digital marketing or SEO expert so I thought I'd throw this out there to get input from the marketing experts on this forum. I know that Google does not place a lot of weight on the domain being an exact match for a product keyword but

...
everything after your "but" is unnecessary. Go with one domain name, doesn't have to be an EMD. The domain name should contain your brand name. That's all. Pushing content on different domain names besides your main domain will hurt your main domain. It doesn't make any sense. Same applies to redirects.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I always thought that owning a generic domain name (e.i., limos, taxis, trashcans, rockingchairs) was a huge advantage. Turns out, it wasn't an advantage at all, other than something easy to remember.

 

[Andy Black]

From a Google Ads perspective it's hard to defend a brandname such as Best Car Insurance. Every other car insurance company is bidding on "best car insurance" and has it in their ads.

In Ireland one of the highest search terms for car insurance is 123.ie They ran loads of ads on TV and the radio with an annoying little jingle. Now people search for that brandname on Google and no other car insurance brands can put 123.ie in their ads.

Saying that, a relevant domain name can double CTR. If someone searches "blacksmiths dublin" and then it will be helpful to see URL and path: petetheblacksmith.ie/dublin

Sometimes a subdomain can help with Google Ads. Say you've just launch new domain skillshare.com that no-one knows about. Say you run ads for "ai courses" and find there's a lot of volume and potential. You could move your landing page to aicourses.skillshare.com which could get a better CTR.

 

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[BizyDad]

SEO wise I prefer near matches.

Totertrashcans.com

The keyword in the domain does help, but Andy's point about branding applies to SEO as well. You want to create a unique "entity". So a blended domain is what I recommend to clients.

I don't have them buy exact match domains unless they really want to... You can use them to track other marketing efforts... That's about the only practical use I can think of in "white hat SEO" world.

 

[Andy Black]

I always thought that owning a generic domain name (e.i., limos, taxis, trashcans, rockingchairs) was a huge advantage. Turns out, it wasn't an advantage at all, other than something easy to remember.

I'd guess those domains are a huge advantage because they're easy to remember.

 

[David4431]

...
everything after your "but" is unnecessary. Go with one domain name, doesn't have to be an EMD. The domain name should contain your brand name. That's all. Pushing content on different domain names besides your main domain will hurt your main domain. It doesn't make any sense. Same applies to redirects.

That makes sense. I guess in my mind if I was thinking if I could get another website on the first page for my main keyword(s), I can take up more real estate and it would be kind of a defensive play. But pushing content on my main domain to improve its ranking makes a lot of sense as well.

I was also thinking that visitors might perceive any content on the generic EMD "trashcan.com" to be more unbiased if they are comparison shopping. In my mind, the generic EMD would target potential customers who are in the research phase of buying a trash can but are unsure of which one to go with. From your experience doing SEO, do brand owners ever build these marketing type websites? Or is it simply a distraction and hurts their main domain so they don't do it as you said?

 

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[David4431]

I always thought that owning a generic domain name (e.i., limos, taxis, trashcans, rockingchairs) was a huge advantage. Turns out, it wasn't an advantage at all, other than something easy to remember.

Yeah, this was one of the thoughts which occurred to me as well. But my product name is a bit longer and closer to "rockingchairs" or "backyardgazebo" so it's a bit more awkward to type than "limos.com". Also, my product isn't a replenishable so customers don't typically return to re-order (except occasionally as a gift for someone else). So the exact match domain wouldn't necessarily be easy to remember... so kind of another strike against buying it.

 

[David4431]

From a Google Ads perspective it's hard to defend a brandname such as Best Car Insurance. Every other car insurance company is bidding on "best car insurance" and has it in their ads.

In Ireland one of the highest search terms for car insurance is 123.ie They ran loads of ads on TV and the radio with an annoying little jingle. Now people search for that brandname on Google and no other car insurance brands can put 123.ie in their ads.

Saying that, a relevant domain name can double CTR. If someone searches "blacksmiths dublin" and then it will be helpful to see URL and path: petetheblacksmith.ie/dublin

Sometimes a subdomain can help with Google Ads. Say you've just launch new domain skillshare.com that no-one knows about. Say you run ads for "ai courses" and find there's a lot of volume and potential. You could move your landing page to aicourses.skillshare.com which could get a better CTR.

Thanks for sharing a Google Ads perspective because this is something I've thought a little about as well. If I buy the EMD I wouldn't run any ads at all. The goal (or hope?) is that after putting 20-30 articles on it that it would rank for some keywords organically someday and send traffic back to my main domain. I was thinking of treating this as a marketing investment - just buy the domains, hire a writer to create content and let the domain season over time. I don't really know if this is a good idea or not to be honest so that's why I wanted to ask the experts like yourself. I almost bought a content website a few weeks ago that was somewhat related to my niche. It was an okayish website but in the end I passed on it because the traffic wasn't relevant enough. This led me to look into building my own - my thinking was that it might make more sense to build my own content website with focused content than to buy another website that is only somewhat relevant. Then it became a question of do I create the content for an EMD or for my branded website.

SEO wise I prefer near matches.

Totertrashcans.com

The keyword in the domain does help, but Andy's point about branding applies to SEO as well. You want to create a unique "entity". So a blended domain is what I recommend to clients.

I don't have them buy exact match domains unless they really want to... You can use them to track other marketing efforts... That's about the only practical use I can think of in "white hat SEO" world.

Great tips and yeah my main branded domain is a mix between a real word and a made-up word so it is a unique entity.

It just wasn't clear to me if exact match domains had any marketing value. The general sense that I'm getting from the responses is that they don't really. I unfortunately already bought one (different EMD) last week for a product that I want to launch in the future . I got it for a relatively decent price but still probably not the best use of money looking back. Maybe I'll use it to build a listicle with some light blog content or something as an experiment since I already have it.