Is this a stupid idea?

[KevinC]

Of course this is all hypothetical...

...but lets assume I want to do the following.

You tell me if I'm being foolish.


- Say I have a successful branded E-commerce site. It's 10+ years old and well branded, people know it by name in the industry. It's in the "wearble widget" space. current domain is houseofwidgets.com

- I am considering purchasing "wearablewidget.com" and using it as my domain for the E-com site.

- I'd still leave it branded as "House of Widgets", just our domain would be "wearablewidget.com"

- the domain is expensive, $xx,xxxx



I know KW domains aren't the be all end all like they used to be, but are we still seeing an noticeable boost for Exact match KW domains in google? Provided the actual website is high quality, with engaged users and customers.

Would it provide a little extra boost?

Do I end up confusing my users who were used to my previous domain?


Is it foolish to spend $xx,xxxx on an exact match domain these days?

[martinibuster]

When was the last time you purchased something online from an exact match domain?

[KevinC]

I haven't, but I rarely shop online.

That said there's lots:

EMD Owned By
Diapers.comAmazon.com
WebHosting.comAT&T
CloudComputing.comDell
RentalCar.comEnterprise Rent-A-Car
History.comHistory Channel
BoneLoss.comMerck
OfficeSupplies.comOffice Depot
Plumber.comRoto Rooter
Clothes.comZappos

[martinibuster]

I don't believe that list matters. What others companies do has little relevance. What does have relevance is how many of those companies are top of mind with consumers?

What matters is what EMD have your purchased from? Your answer is none. Likewise for me, none that I can recall. While we may not be typical, I suspect our experience, our intuition is correct. You question the validity of the EMD for your purpose, you are unsure. There's a reason why you are unsure. What is it?

IMO, what matters is what kinds of sites people feel comfortable whipping out the credit card. What contributes to that trust? Does this need for trust change under different circumstances, where a transaction is of little cost perhaps or must be swift?

[lucy24]

I really don't care for the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" line, as it implies there are only two states of existence, broke and non-broke. But honestly, if it ain't broke...

[KevinC]

Well anytime Amazon does something E-commerce related, I would say it does matter. They bought diapers.com for something like $500M

As well those examples are fortune 500 companies, so again I would say it does matter.

But a sample size of two people doesn't mean squat. One thing my decade of experience working and selling online has taught is that intuition is often wrong. It's reason we A/B test instead of just going with our gut.

My main concern is the price tag, a 10% boost in search traffic would pay for the domain in a few months, it's still a lot of dough.

My feeling is once a user is actually on the website, it's the website design, branding, structure and other trust factors that will persuade the customer to buy or not.

While certainly a crappy website with a EMD isn't going to instill trust. I think it's a little too simplified to suggest that a EMD would actually be off putting.

But seriously I'm 50-50 on this, haven't given domains much though since around 2010

[Leosghost]

I run a lot of KW1KW2 dot coms..( around 50 of them )KW1 being an item of apparel..KW2 being a particular material which the items are made from..

Each sells our own brand ( our label and TM ), own manufacture, luxury items..

Obviously I also own our own "label" as dot com and other international tlds..

In my experience, most people when searching for an item ( in apparel )..search KW1KW2..

A 10 % boost in search traffic is a lot nowadays, but an EMD can bring that, if you can make back the cost in anything under two years, I'd go for it..However, first I'd go back over the logs ( which you'll have kept ;) for your current site..look at the logs from the period before G began withholding search terms that brought visitors..and see if in the "search terms" the keywords in your prospective purchase did in fact lead traffic to you..

[KevinC]

thanks for chiming in, I was looking for someone who's actually been there done that.


If I could ask, so you have your site domain as:

kW1KW2.com

but you still brand the company and website with your company name.

(it's possible to have a company name that doesn't match your domain)

Meaning if you owned cartires.com -- you website and company could still be branded as dave's car tires


Leosghost - pm incoming

[martinibuster]

Ah, just for the record, I have EMDs as well. I'm not speaking hypotheticals.

[KevinC]

thanks for clarification M-buster. How are they branded?

[Leosghost]

Replied..:)
As an example of the way I'm set up..( staying with your "tires" example )..it would be
trucktires.com*
cartires.com*
bustires.com*
biketires.com*
quadtires.com*
and so on, and so on...

truck-tires.com*
car-tires.com*
bus-tires.com*
bike-tires.com*
quad-tires.com*

and so on, and so on..

the hyphenates all redirect to the no hypenateds..

the brand..marked on each item sold ( both inside and outside, <=remember I'm in "apparel" ) Dunlup..Com/UK/FR/etc**

*I would refer to these as "funnel EMDs"
*I would always buy the Country TLD of any country that we either manufacture in, or sell to, or are based in, Domain names are cheap..protect your brand, Buy the EMDs ( KW1KW2 ) that people actually type in when searching for what you sell..eventually you may become a go to "brand" for those items, and they'll put your brand name domain directly into the address bar or, as is far more likely directly into Google search

HTH :)..

Sometimes it is also worth buying an EMD, in order to prevent a potential competitor getting it and diluting your potential traffic..

[tangor]

For larger clients with real skin in the game we generally pick up the "six before" and "six after" which come nearest. This is for protection, not expanding the original target site. That's the one we want to grow. And, once or twice, that "before and after" might hit one that reaches five figures.

[KevinC]

six before and six after? I don't follow that one..

[tangor]

Near typos, near match, near brand... it is not specific, other than there might be a confusion (or drain) by users, and not necessarily a true six above or six below. Just whatever it takes to make sure that all typos, near match, and near brand end up at the desired target, or cannot be used to dilute the target site with missed opportunities.

widget-red.tld
red-widget.tld
widgetred.tld
redwiget.tld
fancyredwidget.tld

and in some cases pick up the .org and ,net, too of same variants

Sometimes a true redirect will be used, but most often the landing page will display "It appears you wanted "example.com" if so, click here." And show a one paragraph and logo of the example.com so the user is confident to click through to your desired destination site.

[Shepherd]

but most often the landing page will display "It appears you wanted "example.com" if so, click here." And show a one paragraph and logo of the example.com so the user is confident to click through to your desired destination site.

That's good stuff Tangor, we are always playing with different stuff on our "supplemental" domains.