Are exact match domains even useful in 2016?

Okay, so I managed to get my hands on an okay keyword and I have a .org exact match domain... But I'm seriously considering to just not use it at all.

When I check long tail keywords on Google, exact match domains are almost never in the results... And from my personal experience whenever I see a howtoloseweightfastreviews.com domain I immediately lose interest and skip it. Basically, I'm having a hard time finding any websites with EMD on the top in any niche, but instead I land on lots of big, authority websites with lots of related niches.

Are EMDs of any use nowadays at all?

I have few EMDs ranking good.

Well I don't think it can hurt and it might have some minor effect, but consider real people. Will they visit a site that feels professional or branded or will they click on thebestbluewidgetsintheworld.net instead?

I have a EMD XXXXXXXXXXXXforsale . com that i launched yesterday which has 2400 searches per month. Without doing a thing it appeared on the 3rd page of google.

if you use an EMD > do not use the main kw on the anchors , use lsi kws instead or long tails

if you are using a PMD > keep using the main kw as an anchor at the minimal

If you are going to turn them into authority sites, you should be fine.

BUT... if you expect a nice SEO boost just because you use an EMD, those days are way over

You will not see a quick boost with exact match domains like back in the good old days. If the domain is new and you place many links to it then expect a longer time to rank an EMD. Let them age and treat the seo process carefully. In the long run it will not harm your efforts to build an authority website.

In my point of view exact match domains are even useful in 2016, as they are the shortcuts for ranking.