Recent Google Algorithm Change For Emd. The Start Of Nightmare For Emd Site Owner!

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Just a a couple of minutes ago Matt Cutts tweeted that upcoming algo change will reduce low-quality “exact-match” domains in search results.

I think the algo change is already taking place because I lost ranking for all my EMD!

Another series of sleepless night going to start from today.

Source: Matt Cutts Just Announced A Google Algorithm Change | WebProNews
#search engine optimization #algorithm #change #emd #google #nightmare #owner #recent #site #start
  • It's about time - I've been expecting this to happen for several years.
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  • I can see every one with the mentality of going after brandable domain names that people can remember and easily come back to (including myself) feeling pretty good right now. As was said above we knew this was going to happen.

    To base your business on SEO is becoming more and more unwise with each farm animal update.
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    • Where do you live that has farms with Penguins and Pandas?
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  • I feel like people have been saying for awhile to move on from micro niche sites (these are what EMDs are typically used for). A lot of people have been advocating authority sites and I've also started changing my mentality as well. Authority sites get more than just traffic from Google. Once you get to the point where you're an authority site, people are linking to you more, you're getting tweeted etc. Typically with an EMD you're basing your traffic solely on Google.


    That's hilarious lol
  • Banned
    Jeeze, next thing you know we'll all have to focus on user experience to rank in Google.

    :rolleyes:
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    • I really hope it won't come to that...
  • I have always felt that non-EMD authority sites were the way to go.

    The beginning of my autoresponder series actually addresses this very thing.

    Just a gut feeling...Google loves big-ass authority sites...think Wikipedia.

    They figure its a safe bet...and it is...
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  • what us EMD ?
  • Just a reminder. Bear in mind that this won't harm sites with keywords in the domain name. Instead, the change is aimed at low quality sites that might appear in search results because of the domain name.
  • The key thing here is "low-quality" Exact Match Domain sites.


    Google's been trying to get rid of low quality sites of any kind forever. EMD is just another huge flag to Google that shows that a site may be "low quality".


    Of course not all EMDs are low quality. Some are powerful authority sites.


    OK, stings if you've been hit but just another reminder that you must be creating more authoritative sites with useful, quality content, diverse, deep linking (quality) backlinks and anchor text for multiple keywords.


    SEO is not dead but this is another nail in the coffin for "unnatural" SEO
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    • Banned
      The other key here is what is a treasure to you is not a treasure to Google. People here tend to think that all their sites are high quality and Google begs to differ.
  • Funny how every one seemed to miss the operative words here, "low quality".
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    • Banned
      What a lot of IMers consider to be a quality site and what Google and users consider to be a quality site are vastly different. Like, the amount of space between Mercury and Pluto different. So they're right to panic.

      Now, I'm going to find a seat here: http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...cussion-forum/ it promises to be more entertaining than football.
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  • It's google what do you expect. They are, running themselves down to the gutter, just like ebay and people will--and shall revolt against them and their unfair dealings....
  • I have been saying for a LONG time that many search engines, including google, are getting practically WORTHLESS! You search for something and often find CLEARLY unrelated stuff, or another search engine basically giving the same info.

    When you try worthless tricks, to drive disinterested people to your site, you put a little more water on the search engines. Eventually, they get TOO wet, and have to change. And google is NOT hesitant to change. They know that, if they don't, the water will get worse, they will get drowned, and their advertisers may leave.

    THAT is why they do the stupid things like excluding things that match in color. I used that to try to get them to give people REAL info about my sites BECAUSE.... They ALSO IGNORE the metatag used to describe the site, and they try to parse the first section of their site. I wonder how many THOUSANDS(maybe MILLIONS) of sites had to change only to be listed with relevant info. The problem is that OTHERS tried it to fool google.

    There WAS a time when almost every site seemed to be a sex site. OH, they weren't REALLY sex sites, but they had sex related terms in the keyword tag. Google now IGNORES that.

    TeamBringIt, You either don't use it much, or you are part of the problem. I HATE what google is doing! It made my life harder there. I think it is STUPID! But at least I realize they have to do SOMETHING! If they went the way they were ORIGINALLY, it might take 2-3 months for people to catch on, and switch their sites back BUT, a few months later, google's income would DROP! And the people google is there for would complain and LEAVE!!!!!!!!!

    You think they are there for the advertisers? NOPE! If they were, the ADVERTISERS would complain and leave! They are there for the SEARCHERS!!!!!! The searchers then flock to them, and the advertisers want a piece of that pie and come to get it. They PAY for the privilege.

    Many HERE offer something for free to get people to buy. Google's free item is SEARCH RESULTS!

    Steve
  • Have to say this Google EMD smackdown has been predicted for a LONG time...and these Google predictions tend to pan out. AS far as user experience, I find Google getting worse and worse. For the first, I'm often turning to other search engines to get better, more targeted results.
    I think for every improvement G makes lately, they take a step back in some other area.
    ____
    Bruce
  • How does one define low quality EMDs? Are they just minisites or microsites or just low quality key phrases?
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    • By the look of my rankings drop, basically any affiliate site. I can't speak to adsense as I don't run any adsense sites, but all my amazon affiliate sites have just tanked.

      All have long, original, in depth reviews, good on-page optimisation (no stuffing), good quality English and not too many ads.

      Just more evidence that Google hates affiliates, really.
  • excellent job google.

    next you should penalize sites that have keyword in the domain.

    cheers !
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    • Exact Match Domain

      For example, if your keyword was 'Warrior Forum rocks', you'd buy the domain WarriorForumRocks.[whatever, mostly .com]

      You'd be banking on an quirk of the Google ranking algorithm that assigned relevance to having keywords in the domain name. By having only the keyword in the domain name, it tended to rank sites that had nothing else going for them.

      My personal favorite is the dung heap of so-called 'review' sites that consist of a landing page with a phony review or some scraped comments and an affiliate link. One good indicator is if the EMD is a so-called 'buyer keyword', often starting with words like best, cheap, buy or ending with the word review or reviews. It's not foolproof, but it works most of the time...
    • I AGREE... and they should continue on by taking out keywords like KMart, Walmart, Business, Drugs, etc. etc.

      As you know, FB.com (what is this - "FB" - other than two consonants, anyway?) won't be moving to the bottom of the pack.

      This latest googlee is simply the diminution of keywords directed to the small"er" seller/afilliates/et. al.

      In a few /months/years - after many of us have sold the "so-called" EMD's for paltry sums - and they've been sold 'n bought 'n sold by others - google will change the algo/googlee once again.
    • I agree that the cleaning up of poor quality niche sites in the SERPS will help call marketers who want to succeed to produce a better quality site with more information for the searcher and hense improve quality.

      However, if google was to start targeting domains with keywords in the URL you would have a search result where hotels, restaurants, schools, collages, businesses, online stores, brands didn't appear prominently when searched for by the user. This would be nothing short of ANTI QUALITY and would kill all sizes of business, institutions, google and online marketing. This just can't and won't happen and with the greatest of respect to wish for it is a bit short sighted.

      Ps. All my sites including EMD's are up in the rankings this month and some noticeably over the last 24 hours. EMD or keyword in domain does not mean the site has to be low quality. There are bound to be many other factors here.
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  • It's all about showing best results to users.Google really loves sites with high quality and have all information related to their business so make the user experience better.EMD sites with poor quality will be ignored and EMD sites with high quality backlinks will get high rankings.I think so.
  • The Nightmare is only for low quality EMD sites.
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    • And since you and Google may not have the same meaning of that - and inevitably some good sites will get caught in the algo changes - everyone should plan ahead, not just people who think their site sucks.
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  • The rankings will settle down over the next few days - that is the time to see where you stand.
  • If google tanks affiliate/Adsense websites, how are people supposed to monetize websites?
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    • I'll let you in on a little secret... If you want to make real money online, just sell your own products and services. If you rely on SEO traffic, Google will eventually penalize you. If you use Google AdWords to sell your own products and services, Google will be your best friend! Maybe that's unfair, but it's the simple truth.
  • WeavingThoughts - I think this algo change is perhaps one step too far and there will be a massive backlash.
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  • While everybody seems scared by this news i see it differently history shows us with every Google Update comes an opportunity, the low quality sites will definitely get dumped while those that provide value will get rewarded with better rankings.

    That being said i will not be passing up an opportunity to snatch an exact domain simply because of the updates.

    The issue is quality,quality get that and you will still be taking those lucrative top spots
    waiting to see the full effect of this!!!
  • Wow - great news again. I wondered why my site had risen a few places for its main keyword.

    Will
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  • I had a moment of panic when I realized that a couple of my EMD sites had dropped into the abyss. But was then elated to find that one stayed at #1 and three others moved up on the first page.

    I went and looked at my analytics on the two that disappeared. To my amazement, my traffic has only dropped by 10-20%. I am still getting massive traffic from my social media efforts and other high quality backlinks I have cultivated.

    Even better, Google has killed off a lot of really crappy competitors I had! Thank you Google!
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    • This is true for me also, most of my traffic comes from sources other than Google, so I am not to worried about this.

      And just like Will Edwards said, I usually look forward to these changes because my sites are usually not affected, or they go up in rankings.
  • Banned
    Many people predicted this update long time ago.
    Lets see how my sites go with this update!
  • Bad news for MNS service provider
  • Finally something many of us hoping to see came to reality with Google!
  • I'm surprised this didn't happen ages ago. Looks like they're working on weeding out spun content as well with the natural language updates.
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  • I wondered why a lot of my sites have dropped out the ranks, hopefully temp thing!
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    • It's not a temp thing.
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  • Banned
    All my EMDs are fine...
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  • I have heard this and since I don't have any EMDs I won't worry. But if you did have an EMD with quality SEO you would be fine as well the way I understand it.
  • I have a feeling they fight affiliates in organic results only to increase their profit in the Paid results. I mean, think about that - if the user doesn't find too much interesting stuff in the organic results he will click on the paid ad and google will earn another buck1
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    • No, they fight affiliates because MOST affiliates pollute the SERPs with drek.....

      If users don't find anything useful in the organic listings, they will stop using Google altogether.

      Come on people. You have got to start thinking things through before posting.
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  • Funny that Matt Cutts EMD never got affected yet sites like pregnancy.co.uk got slaughtered.

    Obviously Matt thinks he is more important than expectant mothers, or is just a hypocrite - you decide!
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    • There are so many other things to consider than.. this or that. What about the site pregnancy.co.uk is made for Adsense?
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  • So what is the cause? I have an Amazon Review Site that got slaughtered..My hunch is bad backlinks.

    Is this Penguin update or Panda?
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    • It was the latest EMD update. For the record, my two main Amazon review sites saw almost double their normal daily traffic yesterday.
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  • Banned
    This update covers MUCH more then just EMD's.

    Many people who had EMD's lost ALL of their rankings, not just the emd keyword
    Many people who have non EMD's also lost ALL of their rankings.

    People who have quality sites, no matter if it's EMD or non EMD mostly went up.
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    • What do you man by quality? For me - 40% Click through to the merchant (it's SEO) means quality but google has something else on its mind.
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  • Hey, Wolf,

    did you get a chance to view my PM yet?

    I am starting to think that it was the way the site was set up.
  • Banned
    I had a couple of sites, with all original, solid content articles, and had EMD domains...and they still got nailed. Ridiculous.
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    • The two things are not mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, with the emphasis on gaming the search rankings, quality affiliate sites aren't as common as they could be.

      If your sites' content really had/have "original, solid content", they should settle back to their original rankings (or better). Google seems to follow a pattern with these updates. They swing a wide loop, then sort out the catch.

      I know it sucks for the ones doing things right, but don't blame Google. Blame your fellow "marketers" for polluting the waters and making treatment necessary.
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