Both domains were purchased for their exact match domain characteristics by their buyers. “I work in an industry where the search term “vacation rentals” is used over 100 million times each month,” said Kugler “Even if we were to gain just 1% of that search volume on a monthly basis because of the domain it would have been worth it.”

Asked why he didn’t simply buy a lower priced dot com and work towards investing the half million in brand recognition Kugler was quick to refute that with his own position. “When you have a ‘first’ in the industry – anything, you pick it – I would agree with you. Be it eBay, Yelp, Uber, etc. These companies are called neologisms and they have the market cornered. With industries such as Blake’s and mine, there is so much competition out there we both dialed in on what customers are actually searching for – and it is working. For 10 straight months now, we have been on the first page of Google for our desired search term.”

The website DropThe.com^[4] confirms Kugler’s statement with screen captures and monthly followups, highlighting not only the success of his website but also many others who are similarly targeting exact matches for their industry with gTLDs. Even Amazon has jumped on the gTLD bandwagon with Amazon.Jobs – currently the #1 position holder on Google results with the search terms Amazon jobs – Jobs at Amazon – Work for Amazon – Amazon Careers and much more. 

“Google says they do not rank exact match domains like they used to, but I am going to have to disagree with that. There are numerous scenarios where the very thing they are saying will not happen, is in fact – happening. From home loans to Egypt travel to cannabis club there are endless examples of exact match domains who are all landing on the first page of Google.” said Kugler

Asked how first page positioning has affected his own site and growth he replied “Our initial goal was to achieve 1,000 vacation homes for rent by the end of December 2018. We exploded past that number in August 2018 with a listing located in Cabo San Lucas. By the end of the year we were sitting on 1500 listings with 3000 clients. For 2019 we have set our goal to 5,000 listings. Being on the first page of Google helps that immensely and allows us to conserve our marketing dollars for more targeted results. Ideally, we intend to broaden our search terms to expand our market outreach. If we are able to get similar results for Kissimmee vacation rentals or vacation rentals in Emerald Isle, that would be ideal. As we are very new, it is going to take some time, but we will get there. I am absolutely 100% certain of it.”