Ever wondered exactly how important your site’s address is to your site’s success? You might have changed to search engine-friendly URLs as a part of your SEO efforts, but studies have shown that your domain name can have an impact on every form of traffic for your site.

Your search engine optimisation consultant is likely to work with your URLs to make them as search engine-friendly as they can. You can discuss this with us at SEO Consult. There is only so much an SEO professional can do, however. The best thing you can do is choose the right domain name. Research has shown that the right domain name should be an exact match domain.

In a simple study, a catchy domain was compared to an exact match domain name. The traffic of the two was measured on a monthly basis over the course of one year. You can probably guess the result. Not only did the exact match domain outperform the catchy domain, it did so by a significant margin. Here’s what the study revealed:

Exact matches are more successful than quality content

The site with the catchy domain was packed with interesting, quality content. The exact match domain, on the other hand, was a simple page filled with advertisements. Most of the content hadn’t been touched for months at a time.

Exact matches tend to build business quicker

The study showed that over the course of a year the exact match domain site went from around 23,000 clicks a month in January to a high of 92,000 clicks in December. The catchy domain site, however, went from 20,000 clicks in January to just under that in December, with a high of around 22,000 in March. Although some allowances have to be made for the individual approaches and appeal of the two businesses, the exact match domain achieved a huge result without any extra marketing.

Exact matches are seasonal

One interesting thing the study showed was a significant fluctuation in traffic for the exact match domain. Although traffic grew overall, the exact match domain experienced a dip in February, a steady decline between March and June, another dip in July, and a sharp decline from 92,000 to 60,000 clicks between December and January. The catchy domain, meanwhile, had a fairly steady flow of traffic. It’s an indication that if you’re relying only on your exact match domain without any SEO, you could be in trouble now and then.

Get an exact match, and you may not have to worry about the search engines

The study indicated that sites with exact-match domain names get lots of direct traffic. This takes the pressure off a little for those sites when it comes to the search engines. Of course, a smart site will always try to top its competitors in the search engine results. Having an exact match domain name also gives you an edge when it comes to SEO, as your main keywords are built into the very foundations of your pages. There’s a reason you often see exact match domain names at the top of the SERPs.

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