EMD, low quality, thin site ranks #2
- SEO |
After I heard about the Google "EMD update" I thought to myself thank god now that thin quality crappy site sitting perched at #2 for a keyword phrase I have been going after will get kicked to the curb.
Not so. The rankings haven't budged, other than, guess what, yes, my own site! I have the .com EMD, it is very high quality, I am an expert in the subject matter, and the few back links are natural and legitimate.
This low quality EMD site is the .net version of the domain (neither of us use hyphens), it's a wordpress site with just a home page with 4 spammy paragraphs (the only words bolded in the paragraphs are the exact keywords), a privacy page and a contact page. The title and H1 are nothing but the exact keyword phrase. The meta description is just "keyword phrase discussed here". As far as I can tell, this page has no backlinks.
FYI the #1 site is high quality and has been at #1 for a long time. I feel my site, in terms of quality could easily be #2 and eventually I expect to overtake the #1 spot. In the long term I still think my site will get there, the more I churn out my own original high quality content and get more established within the niche. I take my own photos, write all my articles, and I do my own web design. Everything other than using Wordpress is 100% original by me. It still could be considered "thin" at this point, but definitely is of higher quality and provides much more value than the #2 site. One more thing, my domain age is 2 years old now - the #2 is under 1 year!
So let's compare feature by feature
My site (ranked #9):
.com EMD no hyphens
High quality all original content
Keywords are used but not overdone
Domain age over 2 years
A few natural backlinks
Their site (ranked #2):
.net EMD no hyphens
Low quality thin content
The one single page of content is obviously keyword stuffed
Domain age under a year old
No backlinks
Just wanted to share my experience! I know of at least one very low quality, EMD "thin" website that took no hit at all.
If I can make my own guess while I'm at it and posting here, I get the feeling lately that Google is playing games with the top 10 spots. Almost as if they are saying "put at least one non-.com domain in the top 10, have at least one youtube vid, at least one big-name ecommerce page, 1 web 2.0, 1 facebook page if possible, 1 or 2 totally random sites, and let the rest work itself out.
Thoughts?
Not so. The rankings haven't budged, other than, guess what, yes, my own site! I have the .com EMD, it is very high quality, I am an expert in the subject matter, and the few back links are natural and legitimate.
This low quality EMD site is the .net version of the domain (neither of us use hyphens), it's a wordpress site with just a home page with 4 spammy paragraphs (the only words bolded in the paragraphs are the exact keywords), a privacy page and a contact page. The title and H1 are nothing but the exact keyword phrase. The meta description is just "keyword phrase discussed here". As far as I can tell, this page has no backlinks.
FYI the #1 site is high quality and has been at #1 for a long time. I feel my site, in terms of quality could easily be #2 and eventually I expect to overtake the #1 spot. In the long term I still think my site will get there, the more I churn out my own original high quality content and get more established within the niche. I take my own photos, write all my articles, and I do my own web design. Everything other than using Wordpress is 100% original by me. It still could be considered "thin" at this point, but definitely is of higher quality and provides much more value than the #2 site. One more thing, my domain age is 2 years old now - the #2 is under 1 year!
So let's compare feature by feature
My site (ranked #9):
.com EMD no hyphens
High quality all original content
Keywords are used but not overdone
Domain age over 2 years
A few natural backlinks
Their site (ranked #2):
.net EMD no hyphens
Low quality thin content
The one single page of content is obviously keyword stuffed
Domain age under a year old
No backlinks
Just wanted to share my experience! I know of at least one very low quality, EMD "thin" website that took no hit at all.
If I can make my own guess while I'm at it and posting here, I get the feeling lately that Google is playing games with the top 10 spots. Almost as if they are saying "put at least one non-.com domain in the top 10, have at least one youtube vid, at least one big-name ecommerce page, 1 web 2.0, 1 facebook page if possible, 1 or 2 totally random sites, and let the rest work itself out.
Thoughts?