EMD vs Brandable non-EMD Sites

14 years ago

How many authority sites similar to electric-ice-cream-makers.org have you seen?

Folks will swear by EMDs and I'll agree to an extent. It may be easier to rank them but you have got to consider the cost-effectiveness of such sites before you get into them.

A well-designed authority site with proper SEO is 100x less expensive and at least that much easier to maintain.

Think about it:

If you want to promote 100 products via EMDs, you need to setup 100 different sites. This requires tons of time and significant expense, especially when you factor in renewal costs. However, building a single authority site and doing proper keyword research, allows you to spend on just a single domain. In addition, how much easier is it to add those 100 products as posts vs building 100 EMD domains???

It really is a no-brainer when you factor in cost-effectiveness of the two. Many folks either don't think about this or choose to simply ignore it.

To answer the overall question: brandable domains are invariably a better long-term option and will, in the long term, rank much better assuming proper SEO.

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heavysm 14 years ago

I agree with the cost part, but I also have to add to the long term value of EMD's. I'm just waiting for the day that EMD's hold less weight to regular authority sites (which has arguably already happened - some say it will even more so than it has now). Age of the site has already popped up as a dominating factor, just google any clickbank product, the original site now ranks a lot higher than it used to.

I just can't see popping out 100 EMD's and having to regulate them all when rankings shifts and algorithms change. That feels like a nightmare to me.

The prime example of ranking fluctuations that i use is the keyword "make money online". If you follow that keyword at all you will see that there is one authority site that is almost always number 1 and the other seven tend to jump around like crazy.

Forbes.com was never ranked for that keyword up until a few months ago where it created an article about making money. That article on forbes beat the authority site that was #1 for quite some time. The authority of forbes pushed the biggest dog out of that particular niche out primarily due to it's pr and authority status.

I'm not saying that EMD's have no power, on the contrary they have quite a bit of power. What i am saying is that it will be a scary day when they have less weight and suddenly fall from rankings. Then, for many marketers, it will honestly feel like the sky is falling.
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wegenbelasting 14 years ago

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- heavysm 14 years ago
  
  Same IP's hitting the same page of a same is a no-no for the most part with the current algorithm. But same IP's hitting different pages on your site does help to an extent. I currently have about 5 different seo providers working on a few of my authority sites and same IP's do help on different pages of a site, just not same IP's hitting same page.
  
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  wegenbelasting 14 years ago
  
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  Karson 14 years ago
  
  I like EMDs but if you absolutely can't find one branded will work.
  
  What I really like to do is find a EMD then go hit godaddys closeout list and buy a aged domain with some backlinks or PR and 301 it.
  
  BTW quick way to find EMDs in my Sig.
  
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  heavysm 14 years ago
  
  I don't know, I own a few EMD's but i only really have them for smaller short sighted profit on keywords that are generally easy to rank for.
  
  I think the entire purpose in creating a brandable site is to have it build reputation through its links and content so that in turn lets you attack and all levels of keywords. With most EMD strategies you are simply building as many of them as you can, keeping in mind that if one or more of them get hit by shifts in product demand, algorithm change, or other fluctuations that you have enough of them doing well to keep you afloat.
  
  Overall, to me, it just seems that relying on EMD's is a very short sighted strategy for an online business overall. Though many won't admit it, I'm sure there are several marketers whose entire make money outlook consists of EMD's. I've purchased too many make money WSO's built around pure EMD strategies, so there is some truth to this. On the other end how many WSO's do you see about creating authority sites? I can count those on one hand.
  
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outwest

14 years ago

For all the EMD lovers I still disagree they offer much benefit
for my resort site, I want to rank top 3 on a term "blah blah beach resorts"

I have Blahblahbeachresorts.net

You would think hey great its an EMD u should be top contender

Nope
Even after almost a year I am not even on Google page 1
Granted I am not backlinking it a lot, but the guys who buy EMDs their theory is they are so powerful they really dont need much backlinking

Then why are the top 5 sites for that kw (blah blah beachresorts) why are they not only NOT EMDs , they dont even have the KW in their title, in the url, its not in the domain at all

Why do they rank much higher than me? Aged higher PR backlinks ,
Which is the standard way of ranking for any kw

So whats my great benefit for owning the EMD?
nothing

Thats why I say EMDs only rank if the competition is pathetic
If my backlinks were more aged, higher PR and more backlinks than my competitor on this beach resort kw? sure I might outrank them. But
I think that would be true no matter what my domain was
after all its true in their case , isnt it? they are ranking 1,2,3
without the kw in the domain, the url, the title, the description, nothing

so how important is EMD to this kw ranking? its not important, and these other sites prove it
what IS important is aged higher PR backlinks with anchor text for that kw
(standard ranking factors)

Thats why I say EMD is very minimal ranking factor
a lot of guys on the board seem to think EMD is THE important factor in ranking

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Fluxer

14 years ago

Originally Posted by outwest

For all the EMD lovers I still disagree they offer much benefit
for my resort site, I want to rank top 3 on a term "blah blah beach resorts"

I have Blahblahbeachresorts.net

You would think hey great its an EMD u should be top contender

Nope
Even after almost a year I am not even on Google page 1
Granted I am not backlinking it a lot, but the guys who buy EMDs their theory is they are so powerful they really dont need much backlinking

Then why are the top 5 sites for that kw (blah blah beachresorts) why are they not only NOT EMDs , they dont even have the KW in their title, in the url, its not in the domain at all

Why do they rank much higher than me? Aged higher PR backlinks ,
Which is the standard way of ranking for any kw

So whats my great benefit for owning the EMD?
nothing

Thats why I say EMDs only rank if the competition is pathetic
If my backlinks were more aged, higher PR and more backlinks than my competitor on this beach resort kw? sure I might outrank them. But
I think that would be true no matter what my domain was
after all its true in their case , isnt it? they are ranking 1,2,3
without the kw in the domain, the url, the title, the description, nothing

so how important is EMD to this kw ranking? its not important, and these other sites prove it
what IS important is aged higher PR backlinks with anchor text for that kw
(standard ranking factors)

Thats why I say EMD is very minimal ranking factor
a lot of guys on the board seem to think EMD is THE important factor in ranking

OutWest : I think you cant expect miracles with EMD alone, without all the other proper SEO and back-linking. From what you mentioned i would think your EMD is for a old or competitive keyword with plenty of results.

Safe to say beyond doubt that EMD definitely is good to have, the question how effective would depend on case to case.

I remember reading on this .info .net .cc etc and that they get penalized by Google due to excessive content-farming. Dont know if this still applies.

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NEseO

14 years ago

In my view EMDs have their place, normally for one off little sites to promote a single product, that's it!

Enerally I go for larger authoritative sites. I find a niche with lots of options for products and services, then get a brandable name and then add pages for the EMDs so brandablename.com/keyword. Also this way, with good interlinking and backlinks then a new page for a new product can rank within a week sometimes rather than waiting over a month. Plus if you have high pr links going to the homepage then some juice goes to all the inner pages too!!

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lovboa

Banned 14 years ago

The people who go after EMDs are the same people blindly trying to rank a site as fast as they can and looking for any help they can get.

In the long run, it does not matter what your domain is AT ALL.