Google’s senior engineer Matt Cutts has confirmed via Tweet that Google will go after exact match domain websites that offer low quality content. The latest in a series of algorithm changes which have been geared specifically towards the removal of low quality websites may cause some short term ranking changes in a number of websites. It will affect just 0.6% of English-US queries to any significant degree according to Cutts.
The Panda and Penguin algorithm updates caused a stir in webmaster circles with many people bemoaning a drop in rankings and reduction in traffic levels. High profile sites, as well as lesser known online real estate, were hit hard if those sites were deemed to have low quality content.
The changes have specifically been made in a bid to go after websites with scraped content, duplicate content, and content with a low quality score as Google attempts to further improve the quality of results that they display to their users. Such changes have become commonplace and, in what senior spam engineer Matt Cutts described as being a “Minor weather report” via Twitter he said that this would further reduce low quality exact match domain results.
Exact match domains are those that use specific search queries or keywords as the domain name. The practice of using keywords in domain names is not an inherently bad practice and can generate decent traffic while also assisting in branding and marketing. However, such domains have gone largely unpunished during the aforementioned algorithm changes. This most recent round of updates, described as being minor by Google, will redress the balance.
Webmasters have been warned about the upcoming changes in the past. Back in 2011 Cutts said that Google were looking to turn “the knob down within the algorithm, so that given two different domains it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain with a bunch of keywords in it.”
Cutts stated that this most recent change is not considered a part of the Panda and Penguin updates but that it will help to further the experience enjoyed by users of the search engine.
Some users of forums and discussion groups have already noted changes that could have come as a potential result of this. If you have experienced a drop in traffic then it may be worth waiting a few days for results to normalise because changes to the algorithms do have a tendency to fluctuate over the first few weeks and you may see traffic levels rise once again in the near future.
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Many bloggers on facebook is reporting that they have keywords in domain but with good quality content and earlier the traffic was good but now all is seems to be dead. I don’t know how much time Google will take to normalize the EMD effect on good sites.
Hi Pankaj,
Don’t give up if your site contains good quality content. I got totally thwacked by google in the EMD and penguin updates but I’m back on page 1 today. I’ve written down what I did for everyone: http://rachelroodhardt.hubpages.com/hub/Panda-20-and-EMD-Google-Algorithm-Recovery-Plan
Rachel
@Rachel Roodhardt, Great to see you back on page 1. I will check this post today. Thanks. :)
Yep, we’ve noticed a drop for some keywords – hope it levels out and we recover soon!
Hope so… I encountered the same trouble. My website has ‘keyword-rich’ domain name and quality content.
Matt Cutts talked about it like it was a dial, so presumably they’re trying to find just the right level where bad sites are penalised but good content is still promoted.
It could take a couple of weeks longer unfortunately.
You mean a “trial” instead of Dial, Matt?!
No, Matt Cutts said that they were “dialling down” the effect that EMDs had in search results.
Sometimes, it definitely feels like a trial though.
This is exactly why you shouldn’t rely on Google for all of your traffic.
I’m guessing there’s more than a few, high value exact match domain owners wishing they’d sold their domains before this little bombshell landed…
As well as a few who were more than gutted that they’d paid for them only for them to become next to worthless.
It’s about time, Google have given far to much weight to exact match domains. I’ve seen sites with no content that just look like they’re under construction still top the serps just because they got the domain name.
There was also a large Panda update around the same time, which makes sense as Google was going after EMD w/thin/poor quality content.
It looks like an extension of Panda and Penguin although Cutts said they aren’t connected.
Google now penalize (or at least don’t give any benefit) to low quality EMD domains which they believe are trying to take advantage of the algorithm. The amount and quality of content matters, while commercial words such as ‘buy’, ‘sell’ and ‘online’ should be avoided in domain names. Good move by Google in my opinion..
Anything to improve the quality of search results…
I say good for Google, those that try to manipulate the system finally get what they deserve. I am in no way against keywords in domain names but many have abused this thinking they would get top rankings quickly with no work. Although it has always been easy to outrank an EMD, it is also nice to see Google get rid of the junk that clutters up the serps.
Agreed – it’s disheartening to see poor quality websites above decent content, but it’s a bit harsh that those with decent quality and keyword rich domains are suffering, even if it should only be a short term problem.
It will be interesting to see if websites that were buried can recover. I am continuing to add quality content, removing top heavy ads, and changing titles to reduce keyword stuffing. Oh yes, and obtaining more varied anchor text backlinks. Did I forget anything?
I don’t think so – you could improve your social indicators, and remember to get some links using the URL of your site rather than keywords. There’s even some evidence that link text like “click here” is now proving beneficial.