Is it worth buying an exact match domain for SEO?

The short answer is not any more. Read on for the longer answer.

An exact match domain is pretty much what it says, a domain that has your exact keywords in it.

Over the last few years, it has become common practice for marketers to buy domains that match their keywords to rank for that keyword.

For example, to rank for Colchester dentist they may buy a domain name called colchesterdentist.co.uk, build a site, add the relevant content to it and then add backlinks to it to rank.

In the last month, Google announced that they will be rolling out an algorithm change that will “reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains” from showing up so highly in the search results.

This doesn’t mean sites with keywords they hope to rank for in their domain names will not rank anymore. it just means that Google are targeting low quality sites that are currently reading well on the back of an exact match domain.