"Low Quality Exact Match Domains"

[enlytend]

Google's Matt Cutts tweeted an announcement that Google will be rolling out an algo change in the next several days that will push down the search rankings of "low-quality exact-match domains."

searchengineland.com/low-quality-exact-match-domains-are-googles-next-target-134889

Ruh-roh ...

 

[Dave_Z]

https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/251784203597910016

Bound to happen.

 

[alien51]

So this would be a killer change for many domainers, who are looking to sell their "exact match" domains to end-users who plan to use them for redirection purposes to their brandables.

Looks like this redirection thingy, is no longer a viable traffic contributor.

 

[JB Lions]

Don't think so much. I thought it was interesting him using "exact-match" with the dash, emphasis on low quality, usually affiliate sites. buy-blah-blah.whatever type stuff.

Exact match still works great (my own sites), when it's backed up with a quality site, such as the ones I posted about here where 19/20 of these exact match were page 1 Google and still will be after these updates - http://www.namepros.com/4374264-post70.html

When you talk about redirection, what exactly are you meaning? Type ins, or a site on exact match domain with automatic redirection or site with exact match domain with links to their other site?

In the end besides hurting some sites, it ends up hurting Google, because their results have been sucking, they used to be the best. Sometimes on searches, just on 1 search results page, I see multiple, ebay, amazon, twitter, facebook, youtube links. If somebody owns storagesheds.com, there is a good chance that site is about storage sheds not nike shoes. And if somebody searches for storage sheds, then that site is relevant. So they're losing some of that relevancy with these updates. And they're losing a little bit to Bing now as well.

 

[-EM-]

Yea, they are trying to be perfect, but that is impossible. SEO will destroy google always. E.g. I post an article at my blog, it gets indexed on google, after that I post the same article at a forum and the result is that forum indexes better than my blog for the article title lol.
Also they should do their blogger service which is full of spamming.

 

[alien51]

Exact match still works great (my own sites), when it's backed up with a quality site

Yes, i think Cutts did say "low quality" pertaining to website content. So this is not about exact-match domains alone by itself that will cause pain.

When you talk about redirection, what exactly are you meaning? Type ins, or a site on exact match domain with automatic redirection or site with exact match domain with links to their other site?

It's both.

As an end-user, i'm not sure how much investment you would need to put on your "exact-match-domains" which you acquired to "game" the system to rank well, then divert all that traffic to your brandable.

Maybe for big sites with money to pay for continuous site development, you can have 2 sites (brandable & EMD) complementing each other. But usually for small-timers, the end-user is taking advantage of EMDs "easily" ranking well that it's enough to put a decent minisite on an EMD just to collect traffic then pass them all to your brandable. That tactic might not be lucrative anymore with this new algo change.

 

[enlytend]

The question is: how are they going to define "low quality?"

The second question is: How many false positives will get caught in the filter?

The third question is: Will smaller sites w/o the link equity and presence of the big brands discover the answer to those questions in a very unpleasant way?

Redirects are useful it there's significant type-in traffic or if they have backlinks - they wouldn't be indexed, so it shouldn't affect them. It COULD affect anyone who uses a keyword domain for their site itself - remains to be seen how the implementation goes.

 

[alien51]

The question is: how are they going to define "low quality?"

Must be a Google secret, as always.

The third question is: Will smaller sites w/o the link equity and presence of the big brands discover the answer to those questions in a very unpleasant way?

Very likely.

I still can't get over with how EHOW.COM can get away with their adsense fonts almost 98% blending with their content. You are almost 90% going to be confused that the ads are part of the content (and that's how they make money fair and square?). (unrelated post, just venting coz this whole Google controlling our lives thingy comes up again)

 

[Kate]

Google always change things. A good domain is a good domain and will remain so regardless of that they do.

 

[alien51]

Google always change things. A good domain is a good domain and will remain so regardless of that they do.

A good domain is practically ineffective, if people can't find you on Google search. You'll have to rely on people who bookmark your domain... and they bookmark you, only after they find you on Google.

 

[the_poet]

A good domain is practically ineffective, if people can't find you on Google search. You'll have to rely on people who bookmark your domain... and they bookmark you, only after they find you on Google.

You can always promote it via alternative channels, like Facebook.

 

[Kate]

The thing is that it is not the domain names that are targeted as such:

Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean sites with keywords they hope to rank for in their domain names are now doomed. Rather, the change aims to target low quality sites that might be riding on on the basis of exact matching.

 

[enlytend]

Google always change things. A good domain is a good domain and will remain so regardless of that they do.

Very true. I'm thinking a lot of so-called "developed domains" will take a big hit...

 

[cslcpunk]

Total garbage. 4 of my sites formerly ranked page 1 now they don't even show up in the first 30 pages I checked. I would like to know what they consider "Quality". My websites offered "Exactly" what a user would be searching for. Now pages that rank first page and on aren't even that relevant to the search.

 

[stuart_domains]

with tihs update, looks like ebay and amazon will rank all over the first 5 pages for google when you want to buy something. Good one Google, stamp all over the small business people

 

[GeoFan]

EMD ranking depends both on the mystical "site quality" metric, as well as competition. The only change :imho: is the weighting factor for keywords in exact match domains ... That has been severely reduced now. The cost of development just went up, in order to rank well. Google killed the free lunch for "low quality EMDs."

I see some very basic EMD sites that have maybe five pages of content with a few hundreds of words each page, and some unique photos on each page, that still rank #1, but they are NOT in competitive niches.

In a competitive niche, the value of EMD may now be less. You must have a quality site and better quality link profile than your competitors to outrank them.

Any examples?