Were you affected by the EMD algo update?

[Dr.Marie]

I'd like to have a good look at domains that were affected by the EMD (exact match domain) algo update on September 28th. The tweet from Matt Cutts said that this change affects EMD's that are *low quality*...but there is no mention of how exactly they mark a domain as low quality.

If you think you've been affected by this update, I would greatly appreciate if you could share your domain with me. You can do it either in this forum thread or you can email information to me at marie (at) hiswebmarketing.com or tweet me - @marie_haynes.

Also, if you have an EMD that wasn't negatively affected, I'd love to hear of that too.

Once I've got enough I'll see if I can determine if there are any obvious factors that would flag an EMD as low quality.

Please include the following:
-Your url
-How you feel you were affected - i.e. went from position #1 for main keyword to page 4, or saw a 50% drop in traffic, etc.
-age of your website (just so that the honeymoon effect is not a factor)

Also, please let me know whether I can use your domain name in my report (will include link to site) or if you'd like to remain totally anonymous.

Thanks guys! And please spread the word. The more domains we have in this study the better.

[czoom]

mytrafficdropped.com was affected a little bit huh?

Lets wait another day, I still see sites dropping lower and lower. Its not done yet. This algorithm is wicked.

Google is trying to get rid of any site with keywords in the domain for money terms (Popular terms). LOL there are some sites not affected that don't have any keywords that have not updated since 2009. HAHAHAHA Google and there quality is bogus.

Niche sites are done and dead. Bing is going to look much more relevant to users now. That's not good for Google.

But when you are #1 you can do anything you want. Let the spam team run the whole SERPS. Hope they don't destroy there engine.

No more full keywords in domain. Rank your categorie pages not the domain name.

[Dr.Marie]

mytrafficdropped.com was affected a little bit huh?

Actually no...but I wouldn't include my domain in the study because it is still quite new. Could be getting a honeymoon boost.

It's important to note here that this was not an all out attack on ALL EMD's. I believe it's geared towards reducing the ranking of EMD's that rank simply because they are EMD's and not because they offer any other value to the searcher.

My main site is not exactly EMD but is EMD+1 word. It was not affected in the update.

[subzero27]

According to my observations EMD's that were on the first page and with thin content got hit. But EMD's which were already on the 2nd page were left untouched....

I also see EMD's which have a good domain age 8 -10 yrs plus have somewhat managed to deflect the blow.I have one EMD which infact gained ranking.

The search results look the same what many people saw post penguin. Looks like a time machine set back to 24th april. Amazon , Wallmart and ebay ruling again....I have a feeling that this update was NOT only targeted towards EMD's but other website factors too.

[czoom]

Not every keyword was effected. Some Popular keywords were left untouched.

[maulik2425]

Hai Marie can u pls chk my site and let me know that whats wring in to it..pls give me some suggestion.

My site Information

url - eacnecream.com
Ranking Effect- From top 20 to out of 100
Site Age - 2-3 month

Thanks

[dtb49ers]

My site was hit really hard. Don't know why really.
Google has indexed my site at least every days, usually twice a day.
Plus, my site age about 88k pages indexed and for a neon sign and LED sign site, that is a lot compared to other.

Site Info
LEDneonSignStore.com
Age: 13 months

I do not see my site on any of the serp results, except if I search for: LED Neon Sign Store.

Were were on page one for many keywords. I really hope google is still "dancing" cuz if not, they just killed my site with one update.

[czoom]

Low quality and High Quality EMD's got hit hard. Google wants to wipe most all EMD's out. Its really obvious. Some people were hit harder than others. Seems people with a large spammy profile of high quality unnatural links are the only ones that beat this (Which is really stupid, how some can still game the search engine after these algorthims), Or sites that were really popular beat this (Which is fine by me, and makes sense).

[YoFluffy]

I've just posted on another thread on this before I saw this one so sorry if I repeat myself. Our EMD has not been hit, in fact it's just risen around 3 ranks onto page one position 9. The site is around 18 months old and hasn't a huge number of links but (hopefully) good content.

I'll message you with the domain name.

[KernelPanic]

Predicted

It's about time

[JBacchi]

I have (IMO)

- a high quality PMD that was affected for the good
- a high quality EMD not affected at all (ecommerce)
- a low-mid quality PMD that was hit really hard (ecommerce)

Just FYI, not interested in being part of the study, though.

[DarrenHaye]

I'm sure you have already seen this Marie but for those that haven't

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data

Interesting initial report on EMD drops from dr.pete

playscrabble.net dropped from #3 down 18 pages to #183.

Man did they have the rug pulled out from under them.. lol and it's crazy they ranked 3 instead of 183 just because of their domain name in the first place.

[alex83]

Almost all my sites got hit, to a more or less degree.
What is strange for me is the fact that even non-EMD sites got hit very hard, while some other, very obvious EMDs still preserve their rankings.
In my opinion, this google update is not only related to exact match domains.

[Belfast]

***THIS POST IS ONLY FOR THE ADULTS WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT THIS, NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT***

Man did they have the rug pulled out from under them.. lol and it's crazy they ranked 3 instead of 183 just because of their domain name in the first place.

It would be nice if they just reduced some of the influence of an EMD... but I wonder if it's very different to that:

Minor weather report: small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality "exact-match" domains in search results

New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin.

I've heard loads of stories over on BHW of people (not unlike the example you are replying to) who have lost MASSIVELY.

When you consider that some EMD's have not lost out at all and there are a LOT of searches that will be exact match looking for the site's name ('Gocompare', 'My Traffic Dropped', in fact nearly every single 'brand' whether they have a unique name or normal phrase - like Dr.Marie's) and the fact that he's talking about the quality of sites - I wonder if it's just an algorithmic change that targets quality, not EMD's. Maybe that 'target on quality' is being applied to EMD's?

[Dr.Marie]

I wonder if it's just an algorithmic change that targets quality, not EMD's. Maybe that 'target on quality' is being applied to EMD's?

I see what you're saying...but wouldn't Panda have taken care of that?