Most niche blogging or niche site building courses recommend using an exact match domain name for the website. An exact match domain name is a domain name that is exactly the same as the keyword phrase that the website is targetting. It is normally also recommended to only go for COM, NET or ORG exact match domains.
For example, if your keyword phrase is “best value gps”, then an exact match domain is “bestvaluegps.com”, or “bestvaluegps.net”, or “bestvaluegps.org”.
However, you will often find that the exact match COM, NET and ORG domains of good keyword phrases (phrases with income potential and low competition) are already taken. Does this mean that you forget about the keyword phrase and move onto something else? Certainly NOT!
What can you do if an exact match domain is not available for a particular keyword that you want to build a website around?
An exact match COM, NET or ORG domain is not essential to get a page 1 ranking. As long as the keyword phrase is INCLUDED in the domain name, you get still get a ranking boost.
Here are 4 things you can do if an exact match COM, NET or ORG domain is not available:
- Register the INFO exact match domain
I have several INFO domains that rank page 1 for my target keyword phrase – don’t believe statements that INFO domains are no good.
eg. mytargetkeywordphrase.info - Register the keyword phrase with dashes
eg. my-target-keyword-phrase.com - Add a word to the beginning or end of the keyword phrase
The best additional words to use are those known as “stop words”. These are words that Google ignores, such as AND, BY, FOR, THE, WITH, A, BEST, GUIDE, PLUS, PRO.
eg. thetargetkeywordphrase.com, targetkeywordphraseguide.com - Register the keyword phrase with a non-relevant character such “x” or “v” on the end
eg. yourkeywordphrasex.com
All of these domain name strategies work, but if I had a preference I would probably use option 4. Having an unrelated letter at the end of the domain name is as close as you can get to the real thing if the exact match COM, NET and ORG versions of the keyword phrase are taken.
For a good example of this in practice do a Google search for “tinnitus miracle” (without the quotes). The top search result should be “tinnitusmiraclev.com”.