Does it help to have keywords in a domain?

Question: How important is it to have keywords in my domain name?

Answer: Having keywords in the domain IS very helpful, as we will see when we look at website structure. For very competitive searches (e.g. reverse mortgage calculator, online coupons, etc.), you’ll often see MANY websites for which the domain contains the keywords.

That said, a domain containing keywords isn’t the only factor for SEO purposes. Other factors (on page SEO, content, website organization) and off page factors (links, social mentions, freshness), matter a great deal, too.

Finally, in 2012, Google rolled out what was called the ‘EMD’ update (Exact Match Domain). What EMD did was penalized ‘thin’ exact match domains – websites for which the keyword query matched the search, but the website itself did not have a lot of content, did not have many backlinks, did not have good social signals, etc. So in sum the domain itself is just one factor among many for good SEO.