Almost Exact Match Domain - Still Good for SEO?

[onlinehustla]

Quick question for your SEO guys: let's say your targeting the keyword "real estate investment". For SEO purposes, would you rather have the domain name realestateinvest.com or the exact match domain with an extra word at the end like realestateinvestmentguide.com? My friend thinks the shorter is better because 'invest' is close enough to 'investment' that Google still bolds it (and thus it's essentially an EMD), but I believe that even though it gets bolded it's still seen as a weaker match by Google than the EMD + extra word since the full word investment isn't there.

Thoughts?

 

[BassHead]

If it's going to be a branded/money site the shorter the url the better imo. Also, don't lock yourself into an seo is the only thing that matters mindset. Think about return traffic and if your users will remember your url.

 

[Pheasant]

Nah man, you'll wanna get those keywords out of there or you'll get emd-penalized. Sloth update of 2013, emd's are no good anymore.

 

[Doc]

I would not say that EMD are no good, BUT they are help to a higher standard. Personally I would go for a short, brandable domain name. Let your copy and back links tell google what you are gunning for. Way too easy to over optimize a page if your URL is an EMD.