EMD and TLD domain question. please help

When doing key word research i understand that its best to find an exact match domain. But what if the domain is taken and I have to add a couple extra characters at the end. Will that effect much ?
like for example my keyword would be "blank blank blank" and the domain would have to be "blank blank blank TX" . In the google keyword tool the first one shows as higher searches and higher cpc and the one with the addition of "tx" at the end is a little lower.

how much of an effect will this have when it comes to ranking and conversions ?
Should I try to keep the first one and just find a different TLD extension like .info or .net instead of the .com ?

this is just my $.02, but I personally stay away from .info. I only use .com, .net or .org. I have a couple of local lead gen sites and when i'm trying to get an emd that every variation is taken, I then try and get the highest searched term as an emd with something at the end. Either a letter or site. For example, say the highest searched term is dallas DUI lawyer, I would try and get DallasDUIAttorneyx or DallasDuiAttorneysite.

Another thing i do is try to get an aged domain that is at least 5+ years that is ever remotely within the category that i'm targeting. Ie: Dallas DUi Attorney and there are no emd that look good, but there is a duidefender.com and it's 7 years old, i'll run with that. (this is a pretty close example to one I bought today)

When you buy an aged domain do you have to buy it off a person? are they expensive? most existing domains i see sell for hundreds of dollars


is that the same as buying a domain on backorder and bidding for it ?

and also when you add a letter or "site" at the end does that effect the ranking negatively ? specially if those extensions arent part of the phrase search or exact google search ?

whats wrong with . info ?

Polishfarmer,

I would take HighRishJohn's advice and just purchase the next closest domain name with the .com TLD. From a technical standpoint and as far as search engines are concerned, there isn't much difference between a .com and other TLD's however from a user's perspective, .com's are typically the most trusted. I'll have to admit that even as experienced as I am with computers and the internet, I still can't shake the feeling that a site is not as credible when it has a TLD that isn't one of the more popular ones such as.com, .org, .net or .edu.

Also, you should check out the website that your previously targeted domain is applied to. It may be easy to out rank it if it is using questionable tactics or just has thin content to begin with.

Here are some tips from SEOMoz on EMD's,

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds

Hope that helps,

Shawn