Google do not explicity punishes the Exact Match Domains or EMDs in short. But it has reduced the value of having an EMD for seo and ranking purposes - but still with good backlinks and diverse anchor text EMDs can still rank well. However, one should avoid building too EMDs from now on..

They basically took away the artificial advantage they were getting. If you have an EMD with a lot of good content having an EMD can still help. What all the algorithm changes are always about is Google having good, relevant search results. All they want is for the best content to rise to the top -- that makes them look better. Give 'em what they want and you'll be rewarded in time.

Exact match domains use to have a heavy authority when they had the right SEO done.. they would usually pull up first, however as MG123 just said google does not really punish you... it just would not help you anymore with rankings.. High PR link wheels will do wonders for you!

I think that Google doesn't punish exact matching domains!
It's usually related to building backlinks in unnatural way.
Unnatural building of links means when you create a large number
of backlinks in a short period of time and it usually has something
to do with using automated software.

Google is not against the EMD domains. They just took out the SEO advantage which these domains had over the generic and the branded ones. Now even if you own an EMD it would have the same SEO benefits as others have. You will have to really put more effort in getting the site ranked.

If you were solely relying on the exact match keyword in the domain for ranking, and the site is of poor quality otherwise, the EMD update would get you a penalty.

Create a domain using exact keyword should be avoided. I strongly felt there has been a drastic decline in traffic. You should avoid it, and there are still other alternatives. Principles of SEO has changed a lot now. Thank you.

What they said was that they are no longer giving an extra advantage to exact match domains just because of the exact match. Allegedly, they haven't penalized exact match domains, with the exception of exact match domains with poor or little content ... like thin affiliate sites.

EMD's are harder to rank, that's for sure, maybe (most probably) Google put them into a small algo where A + B = C, say, A is a search query, B is an emd for that particular query, and C is the result you get in rankings.

They do this kind of stuff all the time to different parameters, and right now, EMD's need to "prove" more then any other domain. Think about it as a wall - you need to rise a bit more to climb that wall - thats all.

But the good old days of "EMD's for the win" are over. For now...

Quick Edit - New EMD's can rank high as before IF they show up "market" presence. I mean, get some related backlinks and 90% of the work is done, even for thin sites. And yes, take this from my own experience.

Google is not directly punishing exact match domain names. What happened is they just don't like EMD's as much as before. So your website does not have an edge SEO-wise just because it's has an exact match domain name.

Personally I think the EMD punishment thing is a red herring because I haven't seen any difference for my own EMD sites.

I've heard all the same rhetoric about EMDs bantered about, but I really haven't noticed much difference in search results. I still see a lot of EMDs out there with nothing but Adsense and very poor quality, spun content still ranking on page one of Google all of the time. So I'm not to sure about this alleged slap for EMDs with poor content. This is just my observation.

Maybe not punish, but EMDs just don´t pack the same punch that they used to a year or 2 ago.

The Big G is looking for quality content and relevant, diverse backlinks, and social signals more than anything else right now it would seem.

They are no longer using as much weight in ranking EMD, but I believe it still they give it some merit, but they dont punish it.

I think too many are looking at this about them or SEO. EMD means people are searching for it, thats whats important, regardless of the domain. That came out wrong. If you find a good domain that you like, the fact people search for it, makes it stronger on several levels. That doesnt mean a site wont need proper seo and good content, why would that not be your goal in any site? But also why would your goal also not be do build a site on a term that people search for, thats what makes a good name, searched terms (at least one of the top things).

Also keep in mind there are other search engines, and some are still giving lots of weight to it.

Most domains are likely to be a "term", would you rather have a domain people dont search for?

Oh! How they ruined EMDs for us ALL!

Google doesn't punish EMD but if you create low quality site on EMD then of course, you would be punished, there is no doubt to it.

I have several strong EMDs that dropped a bit over the last 2 years. One of them even used to get frequent emails from users praising the site for its informative content.

Despite having a lot of good, natural backlinks, plenty of content, and few if any affiliate links, Google has moved in favor of wikis and one-page blurbs from industry journals. Your domains, content and links can still be important, but there's no beating external signs of authority.

I can tell you that EMD's STILL get a boost for that specific keyword. I have built and ranked dozens of websites over the past 5 months and the EMD's always outperformed the NON-EMD's for the specific keyword. I use the same linking structure for both types.

For people to say they do not get a boost is just wrong.