EMD but with dashes | Still SEO effective?

ramenman

Power Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
631
Reaction score
113
Hello everyone, im trying to figure out if i put [ - ] in between the words in my domain, if it would still ne considered a EMD.

For example,

come-getsome-money.com

would that still count, as if it were a domain named comegetsomemoney.com or even come-get-some-money.com?

Please and thank you! Thanks for all related replies!
 
EMDs aren't as effective anymore. You would be better off with a brandable domain.

Cheers!
 
yes it is still a version of EMD and 99% will be slapped by google as useless.
 
Last edited:
They are still effective i know plenty of niches where people are using EMD's and ranking #1. It just depends. I have EMD's already ranking for #1 so def not 99%. But, thanks edgematch you still gave me a answer :)
 
keyword with dashes isn't EMD OP (if the keyword doesn't contains dashes itself) , about EMD still effective
the EMD sites slapped not because EMD but because the spammy backlinks .
 
They are still effective i know plenty of niches where people are using EMD's and ranking #1. It just depends. I have EMD's already ranking for #1 so def not 99%. But, thanks edgematch you still gave me a answer :)

Those sites are not necessarily number one just because they're an EMD...however an EMD does still have an influence in my experience.
 
It's not that EMDs are slapped, it's that EMDs are no longer given an advantage in ranking. Yes, you can rank an EMD with no problem but it wouldn't be any easier than ranking a brandable domain. So why not use something your visitors can actually read and remember.
 
Last edited:
I dont know why ppl keep repeating the same trash that everyone spread without testing. EMD still has strong ranking signal to google, but they need to have strong content and strong backlink, they just dont rank as before without a single backlink and thick content they could hit page 1 with minor effort.
 
The EMD with dashes is considered a hyphenated Exact Match Domain. I think with a .com with one dash is o.k. but I would stay away from other dashed extensions.
 
I used EMDs, I using them NOW and will do the same in the future.

EMDs work if:

a) You are adding quality content
b) You are adding at least 15-20 pages
c) You are not over-optimizing it for the keyword from URL
 
You will NOT be slapped for using an EMD. You will also NOT receive any additional SEO benefit from using your keyword in the domain. Only choose an EMD if it is brand-able and not-spammy sounding and appropriate to the site.
 
It's only EMD if someone searches for "this-is-an-example" as opposed to "this is an example" Notice how those two phrases are not identical?
 
ive used a - on an emd and it was still effective
 
Lol at the people insisting EMDs no longer work. A lot of EMDs got slapped not too long ago, but this wasn't due to the domain.

Think about it - who's likely to own EMDs? That's right, people trying gain good search engine rankings. And what were people aiming for good rankings doing prior to last year's updates? They were building links like crazy.

You can look at the fact that a lot of EMDs have lost their ranking and come to the conclusion that EMDs no longer work. Or you can look at it logically & realise that owners of EMDs were much more likely to be engaging in 'bad' practices than owners of non-EMDs, and that's why so many got slapped.
 
I think some people are overrating the EMD update. It just removed an "unfair" advantage from EMDs, not remove most of the advantage.

It's not an EMD, but it's still going to help with ranking. Having your keyword as or in your domain name is still pretty helpful for your rankings.

Even if having keywords in your domain name didn't inherently increase your ranking, having keywords in your anchor text will. If your domain is "come-getsome-money.com" backlinks to your naked URL will be giving you a bigger boost (for the search term "come get some money) than if you had a non-keyword domain name.
 
OP: hyphens (or dashes) are okay to place between KWs in the URL. PERIOD.

Google interprets a dash as a "separator" between words. Just like a space between words in the body of the page.

The only thing you need to avoid are underscores. Google interprets them as a "joiner" and will combine adjacent KWs into one - effectively mucking up your ranking.

On the EMD is bad thing floated here - @watley is correct. There's no longer an advantage for EMD. But, if all other ranking factors (proximity, PR, title, etc) are equal, EMD will influence your ranking against competitors. It's another placement of the keyword after all.
 
EMDs still work in the context of having a larger set of main keywords--6,7,10 or more, so that the site does not reek of a one-trick pony to Google. That plus the other ranking factors will give the domain name an edge, especially for micro-niches with under 5k searches/month.
 
Back
Top