Ditching the EMD for a brandable domain

by 16 replies
18
I know everyone's fed up with the whole EMD penalty thing, and I seriously tried to avoid posting a new thread on the subject by using the search function for an answer to my questions, but I just couldn't find a satisfying one.

I started a review site at the end of 2011 and until a few days ago I was on the first page of Google for the two main keywords I was targeting. It sounds awfully familiar, I know, only mine is a slightly different tale, I think... The last update pushed my site from the middle of page one to the middle of page two, so it wasn't a disaster. Instead of around 1,000 pageviews from Google, it's down to around 350, but still making some conversions. Now, since my site clearly wasn't punished, just lost its EMD bonus, I could work a bit on linkbuilding and other SEO aspects, since I didn't really bother with that very much (just a few blog comments from related articles on established sites, and some bookmarking), but I'm not sure I want to.

You see, I've always had problems promoting my site, although it really only has quality content. Unlike other review sites, I actually bought the products I reviewed (then, after a while I started getting them from brands for the purpose of the review), wrote pretty lengthy (1,500 -2,000 words), informative reviews for users, not bots and posted video reviews as well. I also have over 50 well-researched articles in the blog section that were picked up by a few related sites, but because of the shitty EMD it's pretty hard to promote content. Nobody wants to link to KEYWORDreviewsite.net, regardless of how good a post or a review is.

Until the latest update, although I was considering moving to a new brandable domain, the EMD bonus was pretty hard to resist. Now that that's gone, I don't see the point in trying to get back on page 1 or searching for other ways to get traffic to the same spammy domain, although it probably wouldn't take much. So I was thinking of doing a 301 redirect of the whole site. It would be to a brand new domain (the EMD is 1-year-old) so I would lose that frail age advantage as well, but hey, I guess it would be worth it in the long run. This could become an authority site in the future, and I understand the redirect does pass most of the link juice. But, under current conditions, would Google see this as a way to game the system and penalize me for real this time?

I would hate to see all those hours writing and filming the reviews, and researching for articles go to waste, but I don't see a future for my current EMD site either. Plus it does have a few quality incoming links. What do you guys suggest I do? And if the 301 is a solution, do you guys think it would help to redirect each single page manually, or just a general redirect via .htaccess?

Sorry for the long post, looking forward to your replies.
#search engine optimization #brandable #ditching #domain #emd
  • I suggest wait 2 weeks, if you still feel you dont want to pursue the EMD dev, go a brandable domain and try to 301 redirect as many content as possible.

    I think right now its a bad time for sudden moves.
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, I thought about that, but I have no experience with buying aged domains. I've read some pretty scary stories about all kinds of cons in this area, and frankly I'm a little scared to buy a domain that might be penalized or have other problems I don't know how to check for.

      Yeah, it's going to take at least two weeks. I haven't done a 301 redirect on a whole site before, so I'll have to get the process right before I put my plan into motion.
      • [1] reply
  • Why not buy a high PR domain and just redirect to it instead?
  • I think it's better to buy a new domain, aged domains may have some problems.
  • Get the site back to page 1 and sell it on Flippa.
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying, I could do that, but I don't really feel it's worth the effort, considering it has no real chance of becoming an authority site because of the ugly domain name.

      That's not really an option. I'm not interested in making a quick buck, it's in a niche I'm passionate about, one in which I have invested countless hours just researching. I want to take the site to a new level, I just think I have a much better shot with a brandable domain. I just don't know if a 301 redirect is the right way to go about it
  • I think your plan is a good one. In this business, it is hard to make long term decisions, even when your gut tells you that it is the right thing to do.

    As for the 301, if the only thing that changes is the domain name (the rest of the URL remains the same), then I wouldn't bother redirecting individual pages since the one line in the .htaccess file will accomplish the same result. If you change the structure, then at least for your most popular pages and any page that has a quality inbound link, you should do a 301 for those pages so that a user ends up on the correct page.
  • I think too many people on this forum are misinterpreting what an exact match domain (EMD) actually is.

    KEYWORDreviewsite.net is NOT an exact match domain. It's pretty crappy for sure, but not an EMD.

    An EMD would simply be EXACTKEYWORD.com or EXACTKEYWORD.net.

    There is NO PROBLEM with having a target keyword in your domain at all, in fact it would often be encouraged. Ideally you've just got to make sure it is somewhat brandable and doesn't look spammy.

    I think a lot of people without EMD's are seeing a drop in rankings for an entirely different reason, and blaming it on the EMD update.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Ok, you're probably right about this not being an EMD, it's more of a PMD (Partial Match Domain) but the fact remains it's a crappy domain name that did hold some weight until recently. Now it's just ugly as hell and hard to work with. I take full responsibility for choosing it in the first place, I just think the content and the work I put in would be much better off on a brandable domain.

      I'm not 100% sure the slight drop in rankings is due to the EMD/PMD bonus being taken away, but it's kind of a big coincidence if it isn't, considering the moment in which it happened. Regardless of this, it does seem like the perfect time to start working on a true authority site. I just want to know if a redirect of this PMD to a new domain would raise a read flag with G and compromise the project, considering the content is unique and I haven't done any aggressive backlinking
  • I don't think your idea will work. It's more than an EMD update. Worst hit were my non-EMD domains. It's really over for review sites. Google now appears to be benchmarking your site against others in your niche. Unless your bounce rate is 50% or lower (I think this is a reasonable figure for shopping related niches), you're not gonna recover your site.

    My tip: start a forum.
    • [1] reply
    • No, I don't think it's over for review sites, bro, I mean look at the big legit review sites, they're doing just fine. As long as you're writing informative reviews for PEOPLE not bots, I think you'll be all right.

      My bounce rate is between 0% to 1,5% according to Google Analytics. I think it might be a bug or something, I've never had that low a bounce rate with any of my sites. But I have an average of 4,5 daily page views, and time on site is above 3 minutes, so I don't think that's a problem.
  • Wait it out mate. good luck.
  • Great thread!

    I'm actually looking to do the exact same thing. My site didn't get penalized by google's latest update, but I still want to get rid of my partial match domain name, because its ugly. I get a bad/spammy feeling about it. I'm guessing my site didn't get penalized because i've had it for over a year now, and written hundreds of pages/articles.

    I've always gone for a brand name in the past. The reason that i went with a keyword in the domain, is that i was trying to copy one of my competitors. But i just changed my mind.

    In my case, I don't want to lose the traffic that I currently get. Why would it be bad to just redirect every page to the new brandable domain?
  • If I were in your position I would do things in this order:

    1st, Don't do anything to the site beyond the norm for 28 days. See what gives.
    2nd, During that time get someone that knows to tear apart your site and fix any issues found.
    3rd, Depending on the above, review at 28 days, and again 28 days later.

    No improvement, move the site, monitor the old domain, redirect to the new site if it improves.

    A bunch of my clients operate huge businesses out of exact match sites, safe to say I watched their rankings very closely, thankfully they are still loved by Google.

    Good Luck.
  • I disagree.

    EMD is still effective. Some got hit but some also did better. Watch this videocast for proof:

    How the Google Exact-Match-Domain Update has affected our micro niche sites – with Spencer Haws
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    Ditching the EMD for a brandable domain

    I know everyone's fed up with the whole EMD penalty thing, and I seriously tried to avoid posting a new thread on the subject by using the search function for an answer to my questions, but I just couldn't find a satisfying one. I started a review site at the end of 2011 and until a few days ago I was on the first page of Google for the two main keywords I was targeting. It sounds awfully familiar, I know, only mine is a slightly different tale, I think... The last update pushed my site from the middle of page one to the middle of page two, so it wasn't a disaster. Instead of around 1,000 pageviews from Google, it's down to around 350, but still making some conversions. Now, since my site clearly wasn't punished, just lost its EMD bonus, I could work a bit on linkbuilding and other SEO aspects, since I didn't really bother with that very much (just a few blog comments from related articles on established sites, and some bookmarking), but I'm not sure I want to.