This Google algorithm change is BAD news for us domainers

[Pound]

Have spent today emailing potential end users - have had three replies already saying that normally they would be interested, but due to the recent algorithm update they have no interest/need...

 

[biggie]

Have spent today emailing potential end users - have had three replies already saying that normally they would be interested, but due to the recent algorithm update they have no interest/need...

:talk:

lol

that response sounds more like it would come from another domainer.

domainers are the one group who will panic, and become confused, whenever they think the sky is falling or something is raining on their parade.

as such is the case with every report of Big G changing some shiz-zit around.



a true end-user who really has plans for development, would not use such a lame excuse.

unless, they were playing jedi mind tricks on you



imo...

 

[bmugford]

personally i think this update has made many domain names value drop to zero.

anything like (example purposes only)

chainsaws.com
woodsheds.com
fishtanks.com
usbleads.com
blankdiscs.com

if your site is about the domain name then i think this google update has rendered the domain name redundant.

Discuss.

People who think domains like Chainsaws.com or FishTanks.com are worth nothing don't understand marketing and branding.

The Google EMD thing is way overblown, and Google is not the only driver of domain values.

I don't see Diapers.com getting dinged. They sell diapers.

Google is trying to get rid of low quality crap.

It is in their interest to index sites well that have quality domains and quality content.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Have spent today emailing potential end users - have had three replies already saying that normally they would be interested, but due to the recent algorithm update they have no interest/need...

I deal with multiple end users daily, and most of them know hardly anything about SEO.
I am surprised three people would mention that.

Google is not going to devalue a quality site based on using an EMD.

It is in Google's best interest to provide high quality results.

If you are an end user who sells flowers in Chicago, and your domain is ChicagoFlowers.com, that simply explains your business.

Google is looking to remove garbage sites based on EMD.

EMD domains still come with instant brand recognition. There is a lot of marketing value outside of SEO alone.

Brad

 

[JB Lions]

There is all kinds of overreaction with this. Few things.

This was more about crappy sites on emds, than emds alone. You can always just go to the source, Google, and look. I still see good emds ranking all day long on Google.

When things like this happen, blogs try to take advantage, by drumming it up, going overboard. More page views, clicks etc, more money. They need something to talk about because the reality, at the core, SEO hasn't really changed. On page SEO is pretty much the same. Off page is still mainly links in (good links). The only thing that has really changed, is there are more places to get links in, social influence. And if you have a good site, that comes naturally, having some social buttons on your site, can help a little. Again, at the core, it's the same.

I found this interesting:

"Also, paid clicks, a measure of how frequently consumers click on Google's advertisements, increased 33% from a year earlier and were up 6% from the second quarter."

I'm thinking 33% is a big jump. If you have crappy SERPS, maybe people are clicking more ads. Some people are saying Google are making the SERPS crappy on purpose, to get more clicks. Who knows. I know this tho. Bing/Yahoo has gained a little. And if you have crappy SERPS, maybe some people will leave, so ultimately having crappy SERPS, you're screwing yourself.

Updates happens, sometimes things come back around, get dialed back etc. The ole' chasing the algo I talked about before, that's what amateurs do. I don't think the SERPS have gotten better with these updates. I really don't need to see the same sites over and over again when I search on something, sometimes the same site, multiple times on 1 page.

So, this could also be an opportunity for domainers. Buy some good emds from the overreacting ones.

 

[InvisionTech]

Maybe Google wants you to spend money on adwords to market to the end users instead of relying on keyword rich domain which happens to rank well.

We might get to a point where if user TYPES in your keyword rich domain, and you have adsense on it, google may say, you can't serve ads to those users because they TYPED it in rather than coming through our search engine... absurdity has no limit.

 

[jk23]

So this means the amount of effort an End-User will spend trying to rank a brandable domain, say frazzle.co is now just about the same as an EMD.

Wrong.

It's just like when scammers invaded the .BIZ tld, everyone else have shun them altogether as spammy.

What?

 

[mjbenterprises]

Google doesn't want crappy sites to rank at the top, this makes sense to me, maybe this will push domainers to develop better sites... Most domainer sites really suck, I wouldn't rank them highly either..

 

[Steven]

I deal with multiple end users daily, and most of them know hardly anything about SEO.
I am surprised three people would mention that.

Google is not going to devalue a quality site based on using an EMD.

It is in Google's best interest to provide high quality results.

If you are an end user who sells flowers in Chicago, and your domain is ChicagoFlowers.com, that simply explains your business.

Google is looking to remove garbage sites based on EMD.

EMD domains still come with instant brand recognition. There is a lot of marketing value outside of SEO alone.

Brad

ChicagoFlowers.com is a very good name.
EMD like ChicagoFlowerShopInMagnificentMile.com would become less valuable.

The only time I've had a reply similar to Pounds is when emailing seo companies. Most endusers don't have a clue.

End users are getting smarter.

 

[enlytend]

May affect it, it won't "effect" it...

 

[InvisionTech]

Looks like big G is suffering...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443684104578064671358259436.html

....prematurely released its quarterly earnings midday Thursday, reporting that profit declined 20% as total costs jumped and advertising prices continued to slide....

 

[JB Lions]

This type of thread has become redundant

---------- Post added at 03:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 PM ----------

It is stuart, look different threads:

This Google algorithm change is BAD news for us domainers

Google EMD update effect domain value?

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

Google Algorithm Changes for Exact Match Domains

"Low Quality Exact Match Domains"

Are Exact-Match Domains in Decline?

Should have hopped into one of those threads, or maybe a mod should just start combining any new ones into one of those threads.

It's all the same overreacting/misinformation anyway. People are leaving out an important word, crappy. It was a crappy/emd update. There are still a lot of emd ranking just fine, you just have to go to the source, Google, and look. Those domains you listed are still worth a lot of money, those are some great keywords and most businesses, real businesses, aren't dependent on Google and know those names are good for other marketing as well.

 

[alien51]

So the bottomline is, this is an END-USER problem related to content quality. Then why are the Domainers getting rattled to the bone?

 

[enlytend]

So the bottomline is, this is an END-USER problem related to content quality. Then why are the Domainers getting rattled to the bone?

Because a lot of exact-match domain sales have been to those same end users?

For low-competition, micro niche, local business branding, EMD value will still be there. :imho: I see many GEO+profession EMDs with minimum quality sites still ranking #1 — as long as the niche has not too much competition.

ANY business who builds a quality brand on the name should be fine. EMD's as brands aren't being driven out of town (except for the usual collateral damage). EMD's as a tool for a quick money grab? Probably toast.

 

[namemarket]

The number of both end-user and domainer sale inquiries and offers dropped dramatically and suddenly when the EMD news came out. It's a huge negative to the resale market but seems to be effecting traffic to s much lesser degree, IMO.

 

[enlytend]

Being at this moment some kind of pessimist-skeptic, I am wondering . . . What if Goog sees the domain name market as a competitor for ad revenue? If the PERCEIVED value of keywords in the domain name market goes down, there could be more money to be spent on PPC?

They definitely did not do this for fear of the domainer market or to make EMD owners into Adwords customers. If "poor quality" sites includes all the MFA's and thin affiliates which were riding on EMD's, you can't use Adwords to promote those kind of sites. It's against Adwords program policies.

Google was taking a lot of flak from the webmaster community about money-grab EMD's pushing out genuine businesses. A LOT of flak. Did I say a lot? A lot.

Think about what would make Google target one domain vs another. After all, brand names are also EMD's (for the brand) and it wouldn't be good to take those out. So how do they differentiate?

They already have Panda (btw a major panda update was released the evening before the EMD update) and above-the-fold (an update to THAT was released the same weekend) targeting content quality and excessive ads and Penguin (an update to THAT was realeased around the same time) targeting excessive use of keywords in anchor text.

Brand signals. If a site/domain has strong brand signals, it was probably NOT targeted by the EMD update. Especially if it had strong link equity.

 

[carob]

They definitely did not do this for fear of the domainer market or to make EMD owners into Adwords customers. If "poor quality" sites includes all the MFA's and thin affiliates which were riding on EMD's, you can't use Adwords to promote those kind of sites. It's against Adwords program policies.

Google was taking a lot of flak from the webmaster community about money-grab EMD's pushing out genuine businesses. A LOT of flak. Did I say a lot? A lot.

Think about what would make Google target one domain vs another. After all, brand names are also EMD's (for the brand) and it wouldn't be good to take those out. So how do they differentiate?

Not every site can be a front-page result, so there are always going to be groups complaining about how their sites get treated. So who has done well out of the EMD changes? Anyone out there talking about their big increase in traffic? Or are they keeping it quiet?

As for domaining, uncertainty is enough to stop people buying domains and also stop domainers from renewing them or asking high prices. But will brandables be boosted by this?

I said there could be an EMD penalty. How would you describe the following situation:

An established geo site on placename.extension is a first page result on search for "placename", and is the top result for some other searches with placename + accommodation, weather, travel and so one. It provides real, unique, usable information wanted by visitors. Until one day it totally disappears from results searching for just "placename" but stays in the same top position as before for searches for placename + keyword ?

I imagine the EMD algo will get some tweaking. Google always talk about delivering the best search results for the user, but actually they have to deliver the best results for the shareholder.

 

[enlytend]

An established geo site on placename.extension is a first page result on search for "placename", and is the top result for some other searches with placename + accommodation, weather, travel and so one. It provides real, unique, usable information wanted by visitors. Until one day it totally disappears from results searching for just "placename" but stays in the same top position as before for searches for placename + keyword ?

That's pretty typical of what people are reporting from this particular update. Whether it's technically a "penalty" or not is semantics, but it's apparently specific to the domain keyword and not site-wide.

They always tweak. (and tweak, and tweak) First release is always full of false negatives and collateral damage.

 

[snowbird]

I think quality control is something Google has always strived for when providing people with great search results. That is the number one reason Google is so popular. It is well known for providing you search results with the sites you want. Kudos to Google. Keep up the great work!

What does this mean for domainers? Perhaps it will simply force us to develop more domains into actual sites rather than just sitting on them and parking them or creating landing pages with minimal content. Perhaps implementing more content distribution feeds, etc. will help your rankings. No offense to domainers and the domaining industry, I just feel that relying only on search engine traffic is not going to be the main factor in what sells the domain unless there is an established unique site on there.

As for using adwords to increase placement, this is going to be a nightmare for you if your already complaining about how Google already ranks your site with minimal content. Adwords utilizes quality control methods as well and those who do not meet those quality control standards will pay thru the nose like always for good placement. That is a no brainer for anyone who has ever used adwords before.

I personally feel that these changes are not going to only effect you individually as a domainer but everyone as a domainer. And when change happens to everyone, adaptation occurs along with different expectations. Different avenues as well as new marketing methods for domains will spark for sure. It is just a matter of time before it happens.

 

[enlytend]

As for using adwords to increase placement, this is going to be a nightmare for you if your already complaining about how Google already ranks your site with minimal content. Adwords utilizes quality control methods as well and those who do not meet those quality control standards will pay thru the nose like always for good placement. That is a no brainer for anyone who has ever used adwords before

Not even a matter of how much you'd pay (that's based more upon relevance and CTR)

... if your site/landing page doesn't meet their guidelines you will have your domain or account suspended from the program and could be thrown out completely.

If you do any of the things mentioned here:

http://support.google.com/adwordspo...310864&ctx=topic&path=1308145-2585946-2585946

or here:

http://support.google.com/adwordspo...310864&ctx=topic&path=1308145-2585946-2585946

Adwords isn't an option for you.

BTW Google has stated (Matt Cutts, in a keynote at SES) that they're moving away from being a "search engine" and towards being a "knowledge engine." We live in interesting times ...

 

[biggie]

:talk:

if you're scared of Big G, and what they will do

then shift all your websites, over to Yaaaa-hoo


though in the meantime here's some advice for you


gather all your .com emd's.... and sell em all to you know who

 

[pmaper]

Its all about PPC and ad revenue on their end, for business.
Pdf files, wikipedia, edu, gov sites etc. for natural search now.

one thing that works ok is :
diversify your LSI keywords in the doamin, Dont repeat them in the H tags, and unique content
onpage seo still covers it imo

 

[procanic]

I also have read where google is going hit websites and blogs that are linking directly to others content with too much copy, Duplicate content .

Will need to be vigilant ,If hiring a freelance content writer.

 

[mrstealth99]

I think short term it might be, but over the long term I would still prefer an EMD to build an authority site around. If you are just building small niche sites with little or no content, fine, then avoid the emd. There is always a short term over reaction to any change google makes.

 

[Steven]

Have spent today emailing potential end users - have had three replies already saying that normally they would be interested, but due to the recent algorithm update they have no interest/need...

Makes sense from end user's perspective.
Google's EMD algorithm update makes EMD domains that much less valuable.