Exact keyword phrase in the domai

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Brett Saltalamacchia: Hi, I need some help establishing a first spot ranking for a desired keyword. I'm quite puzzled that the site I am doing work for isn't first yet, it's second. However, the first spot is taken by a website which has the exact keyword phrase in it's domain..
  
  Rumours are going about that 'exact keyword match' in domain name doesn't affect SEO, when infact it does - the site I am doing work for has a much better link profile that the site taking the number 1 spot. I have been building links for the last couple of weeks, worked on my anchor text optimisation for that keyword and I am having no luck. It's like Google is giving that website the advantage just because of their domain.
  
  Meh - any ideas for over taking a site which has he exact keyword phrase in the domain?
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  Pankaj Asopa: Probably the other site has google adsens? 
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  Brett Saltalamacchia: I'm talking about the organic listings +Pankaj Asopa ;
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  Toni Anicic: Based on what you wrote you've been doing I'd be surprised if you don't get penalized soon. But back to the question, EMD (exact match domain) is a ranking factor. Google just has a love hate relationship with EMDs and tends to tune down or up their influence every now and then.
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  Pankaj Asopa: In my knowledge what google does is, it matches the search query and if it is there in the domain name it will show that site first..as it is direct impact to the keyword..though i am not sure just sharing what I know, everyone please correct me if I am wrong.
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  Brett Saltalamacchia: Not at all ;+Toni Anicic ;.
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  Nebojsa Djukic: I'm checking rankings of dozens of keywords each day and I'm 100% sure that domain name is still a strong ranking factor. It's very usual to see a website with EMD ranked very high.
  
  If your website is much better than the website on the position 1 and you have better backlinks you'll probably outrank it one day. That could take months even years. ;
  
  In the meantime I would be very content with the second position. ;
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  Rotimi Orimoloye (Orims): +Nebojsa Djukic
  I'm not 100% sure you're checking the right keywords for this experiment.
  
  What phrases are you checking?
  
  EMD would almost certainly rank very high for phrases like "how-to-catch-a-portuguese-man-o-war" or "electronic arts".
  But when you come to queries like "Buy sneakers", things could get a bit tricky.
  
  +Brett Saltalamacchia ;
  "building links for the past couple of weeks" seems like you are aggressively trying to manipulate search engines. And they could pick up that signal and flag your site for it.
  
  However, if you are doing the right things, and your webpage really does have more citations than the EMD above it, then a couple of weeks may not be enough time to judge.
  You will probably eventually overtake them effortlessly. ;
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  Richard Hearne: Is the EMD also a brand?
  
  In my experience moving from 2 to 1 in competitive niches is exponentially more difficult than moving up to any other position, so you may just have a lot more to do.
  
  If the EMD aligns with brand signals that becomes even more difficult again.
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  Neeraj Pandey: Google does give value to EMD.. The reason being so simple... When you type a query in search box it does not know whether you are looking for a website or that is your keyword to find the result of relative websites. But I have also seen that if you dont give space in keyword it will surely show you that EMD and if you give space may be the EMD website doesnt come on top .. Now it depends upon that EMD means IF it is good and quality website it will come in ranking and only if it is not then it will not turn up. so google does give value to EMD but upto the limit it starts spamming or not quality website