Google update... going after EMD's

[namealot]

Why should “g” give a toss about emd’s or generics neither are an indicator of a good site the vast amount have either nothing or just junk affiliate on them owned by a small % makes total sense to g etc to kick them,, Search engines have got smarter can recognize branding etc and quality why did we need generics emds in the first place search engines people etc weren’t that smart. As people have got more savvy and search engines smarter you really don’t need them,,, The plethora of ones not developed etc haven’t help them either Can’t see why thats a surprise to anyone…

 

[dashu1]

Its likely as with most penalties that it would pass through to the new domain over time, but that said its worth a try

Actually this is the weird thing with Google, you might think they'd do that, but actually they seem to reward it.

I can't give specifics, so ignore if you like, which I probably would on a public forum, but the last 2 updates we've actually told them the specifics of what certain people are doing, and both times they've punished them.

And in one of those cases specifically used those specific UrLs as the examples in the "here's what we've done explanation".

The April update is a good example.

However, this time while there's some punishing of bad stuff, they seem to have widened it out to everyone, and it seems to make no sense at all.

Some of the "bad dudes" we'd told them about in April are doing the 301's to other sites of theirs, in fact they just swap the 301s from one site, to another, to another, and each time their new site appears - as is the case now with another one - so I am not convinced that 301ing an EMD that now won't rank onto a non-EMD with the old site on it won't do the trick.

It needs trying and the results posting.

I'm all for Google having better results, but this is taking the biscuit.

 

[Ashton]

There is a theory on EMDs that says that they have some over optimisation protection as they are more likely to be linked to using their name. So, for example, bluechips.co.uk will be less likely to receive an over optimisation penalty if the vast majority of their anchor text is "blue chips". It makes sense. It could well be that Google have just removed or greatly reduced this OO protection causing many who had a free pass through the algo's net to now be caught by it and drop from the serps. Can people who have had sites disappear state what % of their links are the same as the domain?

Guilty of this... 63% keyword.

 

[kate-brownhill]

My StudentMoney.co.uk site has 95% anchor for "studentmoney.co.uk". It only has around 10 links anyway and I wasn't targeting that term - all of my traffic is from long tails and inner pages. Now it's been completely penalised.

It also makes no sense to put an insanely high benchmark for quality on EMDs in order for them to prove themselves. Like I said it's not been based on quality anyway - I have amazing sites on EMDs that have been hit and then shitty 20 page affiliate sites that havn't been updated in over a year ranking no1. My Studentmoney.co.uk site that was hit has got average visit time of 3:30 minutes and 27% bounce.

The only thing I can think of is that this EMD update uses an algo that compares the keyword domain to how often the keyword appears on the page (or at least looks optimised in page titles, h1/h2 etc). I also thought they could use factors such as domain renewal length, website age, outgoing links and trust, however I feel like most of this stuff has been disproved when I look at EMDs still ranking.

P.S I still don't see how an EMD that survives both Panda and Penguin deserves to then get a site-wide penalty. Don't see why Google couldn't just lower rankings for the EMD query. It's almost like Google feels they had no other alternative because they feel the original algorithm had too much reliance on the keywords in the domain that they'd rather just penalise webmasters then fix their own algo.

Could your site's drop maybe be explained by the loss of some authority links which Majestic is reporting?

 

[addz123]

Could your site's drop maybe be explained by the loss of some authority links which Majestic is reporting?

I havn't lost any links. Even if it was, that wouldn't explain a complete loss of traffic the day after the update.

 

[kate-brownhill]

I havn't lost any links. Even if it was, that wouldn't explain a complete loss of traffic the day after the update.

majestic is reporting lost links on that site. Dont really want to list them here. You are right though. I would not expect such a drop just because of that but you might well find it back in the serps in a day or two.

 

[Tedster03]

Gotta feel a bit sorry for the people who own those massive lists you see with hundreds of EMDs on touted on these kind of forums. Their market has just evaporated.

 

[JMOT]

Gotta feel a bit sorry for the people who own those massive lists you see with hundreds of EMDs on touted on these kind of forums. Their market has just evaporated.

I feel more sorry for those people who just lost a significant portion of their income overnight from lost rankings. Its a hard knock to take.

 

[Jamie101]

I feel more sorry for those people who just lost a significant portion of their income overnight from lost rankings. Its a hard knock to take.

Exactly. Overnight a site that I've been working on was making £100+ a day down to nothing (and I really do mean £0!).

Yesterday I noticed that one of my EMD .com's was still ranking 1st (was ranking 1st for around a year too) but now I literally can't find it. Got bored after the 10th page of Google. That site should definitely be on the first page, no doubt about it.

Starting to think that it's time to just give up on internet marketing. It's so unpredictable but at the same time that's what makes it interesting, and annoying!

 

[retired_member36]

Exactly. Overnight a site that I've been working on was making £100+ a day down to nothing (and I really do mean £0!).

Thats a kick in the nuts to anyone

Starting to think that it's time to just give up on internet marketing. It's so unpredictable but at the same time that's what makes it interesting, and annoying!

I remember feeling like that after the last penguin update, as a site i am passionate about just vanished completely. Keep at it mate and Never give up!!, im sure there will be some more info for us to work with in the coming weeks to make changes etc.

 

[DomainManagement]

thanks for being honest jmot

Well lets look at it from a out of the box point of view

Google can do what the f**K what it wants to period

normally in a country the government lays down laws that we operate and conduct business in , hmm but not on the net and not with google why ???

think about it , if you are in goverment and this company says, hey listen
we can tell you were you are going wrong show you trending data
let you know what the public is thinking so you can adress that situation
before it bubbles , no wonder the government lets them do what they want

and also big g is not that nice as it leaves the countries population socially responsible , for the tax decfit it burdens them with by being in ireland and not paying tax in the uk ,

how often do you see a multi billion dollar company increase it profits by 30 % IN A 1/4
i got hit in april ( nice while in hospital ) and the end result is 10 people now
in uk do not have jobs , and i have reduced the size of my office inidia by 12 leaving only 4

my sister who is 60 and does not know jack sh*it about search engines asked me the other day hey Steve what up with google , as there search results have got really bad . i pissed myself laughing , as it is a plain to see as
the murdoch scandal , Google does not care about search quality
its cares only for its share holders period , dont kid yourself

i would really like to handle bings advertising and marketing in the uk
as i am top on that one and yahoo but little traffic lol but really
google is loosing it , and has been for some times hopefully it will not be to long before it will impload

Google is like a politician , its lies to your face , while taking your money fact

its would be gr8 to have a search engine that does not hold data on us

i think duck duck go does this but is not so great yet

yes i need to get rid on my gmail account and not use chrome as a protest

the answer is to keep on trying

 

[chippyb]

This has to be the first update that didn't effect 2 of my sites, they were top of page 2 and didn't move, not that it makes a difference as from page 2 they don't make alot

 

[retired_member36]

This has to be the first update that didn't effect 2 of my sites, they were top of page 2 and didn't move, not that it makes a difference as from page 2 they don't make alot

Did your bean bag site get hit?

 

[Jamie101]

Thats a kick in the nuts to anyone



I remember feeling like that after the last penguin update, as a site i am passionate about just vanished completely. Keep at it mate and Never give up!!, im sure there will be some more info for us to work with in the coming weeks to make changes etc.

Yeah I know. Me and someone else have put so much time and effort in to the site and then suddenly overnight it's near impossible to find for any decent search terms. I wouldn't really care as much if it was because we done something really wrong, but we haven't. There's definitely something going on that Google aren't telling people about here. It can't be as simple as "Oh, EMD's have less power now".

To be honest I'm expecting Google to undo what they've just done fairly soon or even reduce the "penalty" that have just given EMD's. I'm just so confused at the moment about what's going on. This is what's really confusing me though:

I had a site, let's call it "bike-games.org.uk". It started to rank really well for "play bike games" and I noticed that "playbikegames.co.uk" was FTR. (not sure if this is, it's just an example!)

So, I threw up a site that took me a few hours to make on "playbikegames.co.uk" to see if I could start ranking that since the competition was really low - "bike-games.org.uk" ranked for it without ANY effort.

After a few days it ranked 8th for "play bike games" while my original site was ranking 3rd/4th. Happy days!

After this algo change, my original site is nowhere to be seen on Google but the new site that I made is currently ranking 4th. Other than this, all my other EMD's are gone. So I'm left with a site that I've made within just a few hours ranking okay.

Sorry for the long post, not even sure if this all makes sense to read to be honest!

 

[murph]

I think G's days may be numbered. These harsh updates just don't sit well with any webmaster, except the big brands who know they have immunity to all of this. Piss off enough ppl and an alternative becomes viable at last!!

 

[martin-s]

Don't forget the patent information that was mentioned a few weeks back. Google actively watch how a site reacts to a penalty - and whether those actions can be interpreted as feelings of guilt

 

[mally]

Yep which search engine is webmaster friendly which we should all start promoting to our audiences?

Shouldn't a search engine be "non for profit" run just like nominet?

 

[murph]

Yep which search engine is webmaster friendly which we should all start promoting to our audiences?

Shouldn't a search engine be "non for profit" run just like nominet?

Ahh how blissful would that be!

Check out Mr C on TW few hrs ago:

"keywords in domain would be going down as we turned the knob toward brandable domains."

 

[Jamie101]

Ahh how blissful would that be!

Check out Mr C on TW few hrs ago:

"keywords in domain would be going down as we turned the knob toward brandable domains."

Going down or getting killed completely? In my case it's killed completely which I don't think is fair. Has anybody had an EMD that has gone down a few positions because of this algo change? From what I've seen it has been much worse that "going down".

 

[philiporchard]

Has anyone noticed an upturn in traffic today?

There must be lots of sites picking up the traffic that has been lost by those affected by the recent changes...