An exact match domain is a domain name that matches a search phrase word for word, such as quietfireworks.com for the query quiet fireworks. Until 2012 the match alone helped such sites rank. Google then introduced a system to stop giving extra credit for it, and that system is still listed among Google's ranking systems today. The domain no longer ranks you. A good site on it still can.
What changed in 2012
In September 2012 Google released an update aimed at low-quality sites whose main asset was a domain that matched a lucrative query. It affected a small share of searches, but it ended the era in which a thin site could rank on its name alone. Google's current guide to its ranking systems still lists an exact match domain system whose job is to make sure such domains do not get too much credit.
What is left
Two things, neither of them a ranking bonus. First, the words in a domain appear in the result and can earn clicks from people who read them as a promise of relevance. Second, people linking to the site tend to use the domain name as anchor text, which happens to describe the topic. Both are modest, both are real, and Google's guidance is that keywords in a domain alone have hardly any ranking effect.
When it still makes sense
For a focused microsite with a single purpose: a free tool, a comparison, a product line that deserves its own home. A clear, descriptive domain that names the thing is easy to remember and easy to cite, and the site on it can be built to answer exactly one query well. That is a legitimate strategy, and it works because of the site, not the name.
It also has a cost. A brand-less domain is harder to grow beyond its phrase, and a business that splits itself across several such sites splits the links it earns too. Use them for satellites, not for the main business.
When it is a mistake
Buying a keyword domain, pointing it at a thin page and expecting it to rank. That is precisely the pattern the 2012 update was built to catch, and it has not stopped catching it.
Sources
Where this shows up in the tracker
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Related terms
URL slug
The URL slug is the part of a web address after the last slash that identifies the page, such as wedding-fireworks in yourbrand.com/wedding-fireworks. Google recommends readable words separated by hyphens. It also says the keywords in a URL on their own have hardly any ranking effect, so the slug is for clarity, not for gaming.
Branded search
A branded search is a query that includes your business or product name, such as your company name plus reviews, opening hours or a product. Non-branded searches are everything else. Branded traffic measures whether people already know you; non-branded traffic measures whether search is finding you new customers. Reporting them together hides both answers.
Topical authority
Topical authority is the industry's name for a pattern everyone in SEO has watched: a site that covers one subject in depth, and earns links for that subject, finds it progressively easier to rank for new pages within it. It is not a score Google publishes, and for ordinary web search it is not a system Google has named. It is a useful description of how several real signals add up.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a link. Search engines read it as a description of the page being linked to, which makes it one of the clearest signals of what a page is about. Descriptive anchor text helps. Identical, keyword-stuffed anchor text across many links is one of the recognised marks of bought links.