EMD (exact match domain) Update ... 2 weeks later.

[GeoFan]

If you haven't already read about it, start here. Google this:

Google EMD update Matt Cutts
​

Read that stuff. It's very scary. Looks like Google killed all EMD benefit at the end of September 2012?

My own take, with over 5 years of SEO experience is this:
:imho:
If your site does not meet some mystical mininmum quality standard, then your site gets hit by an EMD PENALTY.

Not really a penalty as such, but the keywords in your domain name don't buy you as much in the Google SERPs as it did two weeks ago, unless there is no competition, or your site is deemed a QUALITY site (not so much Authority, just Quality.)

• If your site has at least 5 or more pages — and there is enough good quality content — you have no problem.
  
• If you have only a 200 word landing page, forget it. You won't rank for the EMD keywords.

At first, it seemed that selling EMDs would now be a thing of the past. But it seems to me NOW that all you have to do is meet some minimum website quality and you are OK with the Google.

I have some case studies that prove my suppositions with enough grounding that I think I can make these claims.

Any thoughts? What do you see as the impact of the "EMD Update" on your Domains aftermarket businesses?

 

[JFS]

someone was busy doing his homework

 

[techblitz]

someone was busy doing his homework

nah matts team were simply monitoring the major blackhat forums & watching the so called blackhat experts telling the n00bs (i was one of them)..... to go register an exact match domain keyword to magically appear at the top of page 1.

Im interested to see what happens with godaddy sales as they were the main registrars of a LOT of exact match keyword domains. This will hit thier sales big-time as confidence falls.Where does this leave them with EMD renewals?

The amount of EMD domains registered at godaddy is insane.Just take a look at the coupons niche.Others of course will be affected too.

 

[JFS]

just because it's on a black hat forum, that doesn't mean it's ilegal,or such.
sometimes they see things diferently then some of us.

 

[GeoFan]

The problem was the so-called LOW QUALITY sites were ranking too high, just because of the EMD.

EMD benefit was adjusted. Now, site quality and relevance is more important than ever.

In a niche with very little competition, EMD can still rank #1 even with very few links, if it meets some mystical minimum quality threshold.

The cost of development just went up.

 

[Sabre]

As I note with basically every update - the only people that need to worry about these updates are people that are attempting to deliberately manipulate the system or who have domains with a vastly inflated ranking (for whatever reason) on the search engines.

If you have a quality, uniquely design website which contains useful and shareable information, then you won't get penalised - in fact, this change could help you climb the rankings. If you have done nothing for your EMD or have paid $49.99 for an 'SEO Expert' to rank your domain to the top page of Google, then in all likelihood you're going to see your site drop like a stone.

There is, of course, the odd exception, but even Google can't get it right every time

 

[Trader]

Matt Cutts said
"We have looked at the rankings and weights that we give to keyword domains and some people have complained that we’re giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains... ...." (Early 2011)

After 1,5 years and a lot of panda and penguin updates... Today I checked
-home for sale- at Google and 42 results are from homes.yahoo.com at total 100 results.

Then I checked -home for sale cc- 71 results from youtube.com at total 100 results.

No good content websites or something, they are showing picked few sites at the results.

Last years I made a lot of science search at Google and it was very funny for me, hundreds page result and all from different websites. But today sometimes giving real pain, after few pages, 10-20 pages going with same website results.

I am searching at the other search engines and they have few search results, I hope other search engines will grow in short time.

Also Google is giving huge damage to domaining.

Domain parking revenues are decreased.Also Big storm at the website owners side, 1 month $2,000 and next month $100 then next month $1,000 then again $100 revenue etc.. They don't predict the future and don't want to buy new domains. New website owners are closing their sites in short time.

World is still at the big economic recession and extra damage from Google to domainers and website owners, also website makers, graphic creators, coders, writers etc.. A lot of professionals are losing...

I hope Google professionals knows what they're doing...

 

[Domainer123]

I'm not sure whether Google has imposed a minimum quality requirement, as in once you meet this level your good. More likely i would think would be that it is more of a rising scale, as in medium quality EMDs will see little but possibly some reduction in the value of their EMD.

It would be difficult to come up with an arbitrary number/requirement a site must reach.

In any case low quality sites will still get hit.