Before we start, I want to make it clear that in the eyes of Google, .com, .net, and .org have the same value. Meaning Google will rank you the same whether you have one of these three endings, known as TLD’s(Top-Level Domain). So if you are hung up on ONLY getting a .com, this may not be the read for you. We are about ranking and making money.
An exact match domain, or “EMD”, is a name that matches a term searched a lot in Google. Some examples would be domains such as creditcards.com or pharmacy.net. These domains are valuable in 3 main ways:
Example
To put it simply, exact match domains are the easiest way to rank for a specific keyword. Although it does not have to be exact for the term. For example, wikihow.com(one of the biggest websites in the world) only has articles about “how to”, so for any “how to” query typed into google, they usually rank in the top 5.
As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to obtain a good domain name or EMD. Therefore you may have to make some concessions such as;
There are 3 ways to go about this;
It is easier than you think. To handle the monetary action, you are going to want to use Escrow.com or PayPal (although I recommend Escrow.com over PayPal, as they hold the funds until the website has been transferred to your account at GoDaddy or whichever registrar you would like it to be sent to).
After completing the purchase, the buyer will have to buy a “transfer” from GoDaddy (or whichever company you have an account with) and that will begin the process. After the transfer has been purchased, the seller will receive 3 types of codes via email. These codes are used to confirm the transfer.
The three (3) codes are;
Depending on where the domain is, it should take between 24 hours to 7 days to complete.
There are three (3) primary things to look for when searching for a domain name;
Go to SEMrush.com. You can use the free version to quickly get this information by typing in the term you want to write about.
After typing in the search query, click on ‘Ad History‘ on the next page. I used the term “make a website”.
As you can see, there are ten (10) advertisers for the phrase “make a website” and over the last year, there has been a healthy stream of advertisers for the keyword. This would be a great sign if you were planning on creating a website based on those keywords.
(Sample List of Advertisers)
When I decided I wanted to make this website, I didn’t have the domain “makeawebsite.org” at the time. So I went into my typical search of trying to find a name with a budget of $1,000 (If I found something great, I would have paid more but didn’t want the pressure of making this site my full-time job). I began my search with my usual routine as above and typed into SEMrush what people were searching when they were looking for information about building websites on their own.
This is what I found;
First off, you notice that it is just about a 50/50 split between people typing in create vs make. So whether or not Google thought it was a synonym, I would have to roll with one or the other. You obviously know what happens in the end, but in my search for the domain, there was absolutely nothing available.
I tried getting a dash with domains like “create-websites” and everyone wanted a lot of money. I went onto Sedo.com and found this domain for sale. It stated that there was no purchase price, so I had to make an offer. I always offer $100 in this type of scenario, as to not bid against myself.
The owner came back with the price of $300, which I was very happy with. I was actually ecstatic, as everyone else wanted upwards of $5,000. I agreed immediately. Sedo.com handled the sale and I transferred it to my GoDaddy account and was later confirmed. I realized how good of a purchase it was when during the course of building the site (8 months later), I was offered $2,000. I gracefully rejected.
For more information on “How to Choose a Good Domain”, click here.