Exact Match Domain for SEO am I doing it right?  Is this a good domain to buy?

Yes.

First of all, bravo for cashing in on other people's addictions. LOL. :-) But seriously, exact match domain names have value when they're exact. If you could register http://Suboxone.com, you would benefit because: 1. While the correlation is weakening (see 's answer for a great chart that was recently shared on SEOMoz), there is still a positive SEO benefit to owning a domain that matches the search query. 2. People want to link to and/or share the "official" site, and if you own the keyword as a domain name, you appear to be official (even if you aren't). 3. There's a synergy between exact match domain names, CTR (both organic and paid), bounce rate, and time on site...for whatever reason, I consistently see that exact-match sites are slightly better in all of these metrics than similar sites with domains that aren't exact match. (NOTE: This is purely anecdotal, but it makes sense to me so I'm sharing it here). Having said that, I think that all bets are off when it comes to spammy exact match domains, i.e. http://what-is-suboxone.info. That's a good domain from a keyword matching persepctive, but from a consumer's perspective, that looks like the kind of site that gives your computer an infection. http://WhatIsSuboxone.com sounds a touch spammy to me. Additionally, I think a brandable domain name is almost more important than an exact match domain (again, see 's answer)...if you registered http://PainAddictionCenter.org, you won't be exact match, but you tell people exactly what you do in the domain name and you gain a ton of credibility b/c you sound like a non-profit or something. BTW - If I were you, I'd snag a .org instead of a .com for any consumer help or consumer advice site I was building. So to answer your question, I'd say you're kind of doing it right and kind of not doing it right. My advice is: 1. Think about your audience and your mission - do you want to explain what suboxone is, or do you want to be the web's #1 site for people trying to kick pain pills? 2. Why build sites for each and every addiction? Why not build one site for them all? From an ROI perspective, this is usually more profitable...it's easier to build 100 links to 1 site than it is to build 100 links to 10 sites. 3. Speaking of links, what content or tools are you going to offer that will be worth linking to? If you can come up with some really valuable content ideas or a fantastic, game-changing tool that will help your target audience, that might inspire a new domain name idea. 4. When you're using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool for keyword ideas, be sure to set it to 'exact' match rather than 'broad' match, as you get some really misleading data on the 'broad' setting. I just punched in "what is suboxone" and got a monthly search volume figure of 1,900, not 368k. 5. "What is" search terms are low intent and generally have low commercial value. I would encourage you to think about this some more...who searches "what is suboxone" - someone contemplating rehab, or some college student writing a report? 6. Google has started to show answers for search terms with low commercial intent. For example, if you search "albert einstein" on Google right now, you'll see a quick bio and a few pictures top right. There's every reason to expect Google will do this for "what is suboxone" at some point. Bottom line: I think the wheels are turning in the right direction, but I don't think you've got a good plan yet...at least that's my quick, off-the-cuff read. Good luck to you!

Few points: - The query 'what is suboxone' gets 1,900 exact match searches per month according to GAKT. If you are trying to do an EMD play that is a very small piece of the overall suboxone pie. - If you go in this direction, I would probably recommend to get a name that includes 'suboxone', but not necessarily pure exact match. I think having the key term 'suboxone' gives you a bit of EMD-type lift, but equally important, it sends signal to searchers that you are focused on this topic. - Building a 'pure' brand name - e.g., Yahoo, Google, Yelp - that achieves name recognition on it's own is very, very, very hard to do. Since you are not a seasoned brand builder, I would avoid that challenge and do something more intuitive / simple. - There are tons of possiblities in terms of variants on 'suboxone' that could yield a great name for you - e.g., 'mysuboxone'. You could also try hybrid word forms - e.g., 'mysubox' (neither of these is available, but just illustrating the idea). - Above said, you've got a blatant trademark issue with any name that actually includes the word 'suboxone' which is a trademarked brand name. Maybe the trademark holder will welcome use of the term for a positive usage such as you envision, but you run considerable risk that they could petition for the name via UDRP and yank it out from under you. That suggest you should seek some sort of permission from them before launching a site that includes their trademark. This point argues for using something that does not contain the term 'suboxone' or obvious variants thereof.

A lot of great answers here, however most of them are more opinion than fact (mostly because, that's all we could have at this stage).  As mentioned, the SEO power of EMDs is shrinking constantly, so I would avoid doing anything with that solely in mind; however, the domain you're suggesting is actually pretty good and doesn't feel spammy to me (movies do questions for domains all the time and I think they're fun). Anyway, I would basically say, yes, you're doing it right, but I wouldn't sweat it too much because other things, like the content of the site itself, are the real draw. Good luck!

I agree with .  If the audiences for the micro-sites/EMD sites are going to overlap, better to skip the EMD sites, get one branded, easy-to-remember domain and concentrate on that.  Focus on using your specific substance keywords in URLs and titles of boards and other content.

At this point, exact match domains are pretty much dead as far as SEO. Last I checked, Google has started penalizing the really spammy domains. Example:http://www.bluewidgets.com - Basically benign. Won’t help you, but won’t hurt you.http://www.really-awesome-blue-widgets-4-u.com - Bad move. You’ll get penalized out of the gate just for using something like this.

I actually don't think the domain sounds spammy. I also think the talk about EMDs losing influence is overblown. If your site is good, having keywords in the domain will help. That said, there are a couple of reasons I wouldn't pick up this domain: 1. The copyright issue. Your domain could be taken away at any time (probably when you draw attention to yourself by ranking for the target term). 2. Looking at the search results, I think it would be tough to get traffic for that term even with an EMD. You've got the official site, WebMD, the FDA, etc. on the first page, plus a big Google information box in the sidebar (meaning people can get an answer to their question without even visiting a website). Since you already have a Facebook group, I would go with a nice brandable name that will appeal to them, and then target keywords through your articles.

Hi - you should really sort this stuff out first of all - you can't really optimise a site well unless you have a clear understanding of your target market or market segment, and the benefits you'll be providing to them. The broader the scope of your site, the more difficult it'll be to rank well relatively quickly for the relevant terms.  Not to mention the time and effort it'll take you to actually generate the content to display authority on all alternative addictions compared to one specialist area.  My advice would be to do the keyword research and focus on suboxone for now.  Understand your market and cater for it - that'll give you an idea of just how much work is involved on one topic.  You can always umbrella brand later on should you decide to expand... As far as EMD's are concerned, they're only ever useful for that one exact query, and are increasingly less valuable as google gets better at understanding the content and language of your site.

Quick answer: -Exact match domains are favored by search engines, you should register the one you mention if available, if you need to buy it instead from its owner, it should be worth the money . Very high search voulme. -Once you have a couple or more similar sites, you can brand under one name and redirect existing traffic from your domains there.