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Still Fighting Google EMD Update

November 2, 2012

My previous blog post on Google EMD updates generated a lot of questions. I wish I had solid answers for them, but that's not the case. It's always frustrating when clients, employers, friends, etc. want quick SEO results... it takes weeks, sometimes months to see changes.

The EMD update seems to have left the exact exact match alone... in other words, if your web site is www.bluesolarwater.com and someone searches for "blue solar water", then it still is placed where it was before the update - well, almost... this is one of my sites and it had dropped from #1 to #2 or #3. This has not been the case for all EMDs, there appears to be instances where the EMD update buried sites for all key words. What has been decimated, destroyed, and mangled, are long tail keywords related to the domain that contain some of the EMD keywords. You'd think this would be the opposite but it's not.

One of the variables is related to content quality and number of pages. This works to weed out the old "adsense sites" that were built using EMDs and tons of links with the anchor text containing the EMD keywords. Having a decent amount of quality content along with a fair number of pages seems to help inoculate your site from the effects of the EMD update. My blue solar water site above has several pages with quality content... I built this site after Panda/Penguin delisted the original site selling these bottles... I did the same thing with a site selling my wife's children's DVD... the original site was delisted by Panda/Penguin so I built a new, EMD site www.PretendWithMissKim.com - however in this case, I only have 3 pages... it's not doing well on Google... It needs more pages.

Why does the EMD and exact match keyword phrase still work at all? Probably because a lot of companies named their domain after their company: like they should have. Penalizing this would be really stupid and so far it appears that Google realizes this. However, the site has to be high quality, have significant number pages, and have some link weight provided by "natural" links to the site. Remember, Google used to advocate putting your main keyword(s) in the domain name.

You may be asking yourself, if he knows so much about SEO, why were two of his sites delisted by Panda/Penguin? Good question (actually it was more than 2!). Because they were old sites and years ago I used some techniques that Google now considers offensive. Even the EMD is something they used to recommend. I will have a new article soon about what I'm doing to recover from this. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it's slow... each attempt at getting relisted takes weeks. Google has a new tool out as well, to tell them to ignore inbound links to your site that you've not had any luck getting removed... I'll cover this in an upcoming blog post as well. I've used it on one site and I'm waiting on their answer before I write anything about it.

One thing I can tell you is that, unless Google reverses some of their last updates, the days of ranking well with little effort using cheap tools and link networks is over. It takes quality content and a team that knows what they're doing. I'm working with a small group of associates to create an inbound marketing company offering just that sort of service to both small and midsized businesses. One of the things we've been able to do in a relatively short time is to create landing pages on our company site for our customers that, in some cases, are ranking better than their own sites for the same keywords. I will share more about this soon.

Until next time,
Fred

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Posted by Fred Black on November 2, 2012 | Printer-Friendly

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Comments:

From: Megan

Google is pretty much doing and getting whatever they want.
Posted by Megan on November 4, 2012 3:11 PM
From:

Google's updates have really turned the whole industry on top of its head. We have continued to grow and adapt to the overall changes and are hopeful that moving forward the quality of search remains high with Google.
Posted by on November 5, 2012 3:33 PM
From: marcus

What is the old saying , power produces absolute corruption. Google is inconsistent and unpredictable at times.
Posted by marcus on November 6, 2012 1:12 AM
From: Jim Bennett

What Google is doing is choking small business. It's become that the larger companies who can afford to invest in a team of employees, on staff or outsourced, that will keep up on Google's ever-changing rules; will always win. As a small business owner, I've had to revert to old school methods such as cold calling, going door to door, really focusing on referrals as a way to bring business in. My website is there just for reference, if I send someone to it.
Posted by Jim Bennett on November 6, 2012 11:33 PM
From: Mike

Megan is right, I don't know if I fell victim to the sandbox or if it's this EMD update, but a page that I spent countless hours of work on to get it to page 2 of Google is now nowhere to be found. Google does this kind of stuff to force you to pay for their Adwords PPC advertising, it's a total scam and Google is way too powerful.
Posted by Mike on November 7, 2012 5:08 PM
From: Lucy

The recent changes in Google's strategy has sure taken the SEO world by storm. To bring a website in the top rankings has just become more difficult to achieve and only qualitative SEO will bring out results. Previously it was somewhat easy but with the latest updates the difficulty level has risen by a few notches.
Posted by Lucy on November 8, 2012 12:41 AM
From: Peter

Google makes me nuts sometimes, its a very 'love - hate' relationship! Thanks for the info
Posted by Peter on November 8, 2012 7:03 AM
From: Jim Sansi

Hi Fred--- I was wondering, see that G gave you the smackdown. Though Bing still looks good.

-Jim
Posted by Jim Sansi on November 8, 2012 3:27 PM
From: Johan Marais

Thanks Fred, I'll be keeping an eye on the post about the landing page
Posted by Johan Marais on November 9, 2012 12:34 AM
From: Merina Daniel

Valuable information!!!!!Thanks for giving knowledge about EMD.You are doing a great job.Keep it up..
Posted by Merina Daniel on November 9, 2012 1:46 AM
From: Dewan Sohan

I search at Google for Google EMD update and find this blog on top pages. Just visit this website and read this content very carefully and learn something interested. Thanks to the writer of this blog for such a nice information.
Posted by Dewan Sohan on November 10, 2012 7:16 AM
From: Jon Rhodes

This is why for long term success you should provide high quality content and only source good quality links from reputable places. Guest blogging is a good way of getting these links. If Google isn't onto you now, they will be in the future.
Posted by Jon Rhodes on November 10, 2012 1:08 PM
From: Nullpointer

At the end Article is master Google EWD update may harm to those who over optimise Seo! Your Article is good as it come in 1st page for EWD
Thanks
Posted by Nullpointer on November 11, 2012 10:35 PM
From: Simon

Thanks for this update - as I mentioned before, content is King, that said, these changes have the potential to seriously harm small businesses who don't have the time, money or know how to adapt to Google's EMD changes.
Posted by Simon on November 12, 2012 6:27 AM
From: Thomas Moukawsher

Yeah I agree Google is doing whatever they want. They just did a Page Rank update as well that affected a few of my websites.

I'm looking forward to reading about your thoughts in your upcoming blogs.

Thanks
Posted by Thomas Moukawsher on November 12, 2012 12:04 PM
From: William

So when I'm building backlinks to my site is it still okay to use anchor texts with my researched keywords? For example when I post my keyword electronic music videos this helps my site in that particular search? Or does this update prevent that?

Note from Fred: William, you have to vary it.. if they all have the anchor text "electronic music videos" you will have problems.
Posted by William on November 12, 2012 5:28 PM
From: Oliver

Hi, how often does Google update its search algorithm and is there any emphasis placed on keywords in the url anymore?
Posted by Oliver on November 13, 2012 10:33 AM
From: Andy Sandy

Internet marketing is not that very easy to start yet many people are fond and interested in this field. I have tried this one but I just assume that it would be better to get another genre of learning.
Posted by Andy Sandy on November 14, 2012 3:01 AM
From: Nick

The problem here is that Google makes changes (whether good or bad) and then everyone has to reinvest resources to apply the necessary updates. That I suppose is the game that we are in but who knows how long before the next change and what impact that has on us.
Posted by Nick on November 15, 2012 12:33 AM
From: Souvik Ghosh

Great information and inspiration,Your post have the information that is helpful and very informative. I would like you to keep up the good work.You know how to make your post understandable for most of the people.Thanks and keep up the good work
Posted by Souvik Ghosh on November 17, 2012 4:34 AM
From: Todd Bennett

Hi we are a new site dedicate to becoming the world's first virtual spa. Thank you. The site is very personal to me, because I want to bring a new service, a virtual spa, to the internet world. If you can offer the service to my company, talk to me would be interested.
Posted by Todd Bennett on November 17, 2012 11:23 AM
From: Nicole

Very interesting to see that Google made this change despite a lot of controversy regarding the fairness of it since some sites will be blocked despite non-intentional "spamming"
Posted by Nicole on November 17, 2012 4:12 PM
From: Phanio

Shame that those sites got delisted for things that use to be OK and now are not - if they were all whitehat - then not sure why they should be considered bad today. Looking forward to reading the ways you overcome. I have also had the google slap and am struggling to find out what is wrong and how to imporve - want to compare what I do with what you do and see what works better.
Posted by Phanio on November 18, 2012 8:35 AM
From: ymr

Great post, Only the good ones really do it, and it does have a great impact. I also loved the resources you provided.Thanks for Nice informative post.
Posted by ymr on November 18, 2012 10:40 AM
From: Linda

The best solution for EMD penalty is 301 redirect of the website to a new domain. But please check your website for bad links.
Posted by Linda on November 18, 2012 11:54 PM
From: Ahamd Bilal

It's still early, but it seems that it's not designed to wipe the search outcomes entirely clean of sites with spammy websites. Rather, it's designed to keep the search outcomes in check for anything that could ruin the consumer experience.
Posted by Ahamd Bilal on November 21, 2012 7:54 AM
From: Tony Jon

We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme. Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.
Posted by Tony Jon on November 21, 2012 12:09 PM
From: tony jon

Wonderful work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the net. Shame on Google for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my site . Thanks :)
Posted by tony jon on November 24, 2012 3:25 AM
From: Kelly Anthony

Good post, its so hard keeping up with the changes to googles algorithm. I do believe that good content is still key.
Posted by Kelly Anthony on November 27, 2012 11:42 PM
From: Evan Martin

I had a EDM domain for a ecommerce site. The website was low quality because of duplicate content from the product descriptions. The site had very little in the way of backlinks, after the EDM update this site dropped back from being on the first page to being lost in the result. So I guess you need to create quality content if you still want to rank for your EDM.
Posted by Evan Martin on December 1, 2012 7:28 PM
From: Marshall

Google's updates surely upset a lot of people, but I think for the most part they were spammers and people who employed black-hat SEO tactics. Good article! Thanks for the info.
Posted by Marshall on December 3, 2012 3:43 PM
From: Dave

In response to Megan's comment,

"Google is pretty much doing and getting whatever they want."

This is completely true for one simple reason, they are the biggest search engine by far. Anyone on the internet is forced to praise the mighty Google or they will be smitten by the powers that be. At this point, they almost act as a monopoly because their name recognition is so high that it has become a verb to use their services. There's not much we can do except play their game.
Posted by Dave on December 11, 2012 2:52 PM
From: Ivera

I like:"Remember, Google used to advocate putting your main keyword(s) in the domain name."

Interesting article about Google.

Regards!
Posted by Ivera on December 12, 2012 9:19 AM
From: cleaner boy

Good information but not enough. How to progress to my site? Will you say it details?
Thanks
Posted by cleaner boy on December 14, 2012 5:24 AM
From: Brittani

I'm glad it is taking a little more work to rank well on Google and I'm 100% with you about creating a great that supports what these search engines want and customers want, which is: great content relevant to what they are looking for you know.
Posted by Brittani on December 17, 2012 11:43 AM
From: NPA

We had a webspam penalty in March. We got out of it 6 weeks ago (Yay!!!) but site has not recovered. Google forum dwellers tell me 3 months recovery! The site i think was hit again in November with EMD because the world "paint" is in our url. We sell paint, we blog about paint, we've done so for 10 years so why do we get kicked again from google?
Posted by NPA on December 21, 2012 8:18 AM
From: Nick

It's stuff like this that makes me hate google! But it can definitely have a positive impact. It is going to take a good website with good content to rank up in the search engines.
Posted by Nick on December 28, 2012 1:36 AM
From: Jan

After the Penguin update, I had come to the conclusion that Google was willing to take a hit on providing good search results if they could get more websites buying ads. The sad part is that many of the people who do good SEO also provide excellent content. They are people who care about all aspects of their websites. These last updates leave me scratching my head. As such, I look forward to your next post. I'm looking for some solutions!
Posted by Jan on December 28, 2012 2:45 AM
From: Bob

Thanks Fred for your valuable information. Is inbound marketing is must needed one?
Posted by Bob on December 28, 2012 9:08 AM
From: Rummy Online

Interesting article.
My site got killed by the penguin update! Still trying to figure out why!
Posted by Rummy Online on December 28, 2012 12:56 PM
From: Paul V

Google is a strange animal! I'm afraid we will just have to put our noses to the grindstone!
Posted by Paul V on January 1, 2013 7:20 PM
From: John

At least now brands can get good positions, and we don't have too many sites with spam. Good content is really important, but sometimes I don't understand how google decide about content quality. Number of words? Keywords density? Css tricks with text? You can only try new things and wait for result :)
Posted by John on January 3, 2013 4:34 AM
From: amely hopes

only genuine work is been appreciated by Google now a days rest black hat,grey hat will sink the site...
Posted by amely hopes on January 3, 2013 7:03 AM
From: Shahin

"Google is pretty much doing and getting whatever they want."

Of course they are. Is this news to anybody?
Posted by Shahin on January 3, 2013 6:56 PM
From: Ben

A lot of people have been hit hard by EMD but I think Google will penalize poor content long term regardless of the domain. Good luck rebuilding.
Posted by Ben on January 5, 2013 6:11 PM
From: Antonio

It seems that as soon as I start to understand some stuff about SEO google decides to change the playing field.

My biggest hurdle is getting quality backlinks. I almost went down the route of getting a backlink package from fiverr but I decided not to.

Can you recommend a good way to get a high amount of quality high PR backlinks?

Mahalo,
Antonio
Posted by Antonio on January 8, 2013 11:03 PM
From: Glenn Paul

I have been struggling to understand this concept about EMD. I have read somewhere that all the domain names are somehow and Exact Match keyword. Just like the "blue solar water" keyword. I though those were branded keywords and branded domains
Posted by Glenn Paul on January 11, 2013 12:50 AM
From: shane watson

stay safe on google by following good white hat methods which excel site slowly but too much of help in a longer run
Posted by shane watson on January 11, 2013 5:58 AM
From: Ashley - Embracing Beauty

Wow, it's getting harder and harder to keep up with things. Just when I think I'm starting to get a good grip on SEO, it changes up again. I need to hire a team to do this for me!
Posted by Ashley - Embracing Beauty on January 14, 2013 11:57 AM
From: Sue Vai

As a new business owner, I'm not sure whether I should be happy with Penguin leveling the playing field or terrified that the SEO industry will be going on a random walk for months before getting back on track.
Posted by Sue Vai on January 15, 2013 1:50 PM
From: Cindy

Yes but I think google is frightened of another 2 guys trying to build the next big search engine in their garage! So they will try to ensure their dominance in the market, hence all of this.
Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2013 3:11 PM
From: David Petersen

I believe that Google, like the Internet is becoming generally more controlling, restrictive and tyrannical. It's merely a reflection of even more widespread trends in our society towards totalitarianism and a valuing of control and safety over freedom of expression.
Posted by David Petersen on January 16, 2013 3:21 PM
From: Steve

"... it takes weeks, sometimes months to see changes." This is what we have to explain to the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person in the Room). There, still, is the understanding that it not only happens, it happens right now! Bosses don't understand the task of laying 'traps' over the net, in case someone falls into one.
Posted by Steve on January 17, 2013 1:45 PM
From: Joseph

Argh! Google....i really hate u some time. But i guess as long as i continue with the effort of getting quality backlinks, my page will be back there one day.

Anw thanks for sharing! This article is very informative. Like it:)

Regards,
Joseph
Posted by Joseph on January 17, 2013 6:12 PM
From: Navas Azeez

Still am fighting to withstand from penguine updates
Posted by Navas Azeez on January 17, 2013 11:57 PM
From:

Recent updates that are brought out by Google is indeed proving devastating for old websites.. Therefore the evergreen technique to keep your site in Google's good box is to have quality content with white hat SEO methods..
Posted by on January 18, 2013 3:41 AM
From:

Yeah, EMD might not work as good as they used to, I still think they can be used to rank higher and faster. It's all about quality backlinks after all
Posted by on January 18, 2013 6:40 AM
From: Tyler tongkatali

A countless individuals have been hit difficult by EMD however I think Google will penalize poor content long term regardless of the domain. Good good fortune reconstructing.
Posted by Tyler tongkatali on January 19, 2013 2:26 PM
From: Bruno Babic

Hi Fred, I like the way you put it. As a bit of a hustIer who likes to follow my top passions in life no matter what, I'd just like to say that no one can make a mistake when they decide to write their content and do business without letting anything and anybody on earth distract them from following their true passions.
Because what I really realize over and over again is that passion always sells regardless of me doing an SEO and strictly complying with Google updates or not.
This is just my 2 cents add to your awesome post.

Thank you.

Bruno Babic
Posted by Bruno Babic on January 19, 2013 3:20 PM
From: John

Website have lost rankings due to this EMD update by Google. Well, its all for us to keep internet a less spammy place.
Posted by John on January 22, 2013 9:03 AM
From: nelnel

thanks for sharing this. i guess would need to research how many posts a site should maintain to have good ranking.
Posted by nelnel on January 26, 2013 6:00 PM
From: Parol

Thanks for sharing us your knowledge about EMD Update. I think they can be used to rank higher and faster.
Posted by Parol on January 29, 2013 10:03 AM
From: amashaym

Google's updates surely upset a lot of people, but I think for the most part they were spammers and people who employed black-hat SEO tactics. Good article! Thanks for the info.
Posted by amashaym on February 13, 2013 11:48 PM
From: Ciaran

Nice post Fred, good to see you share your experience with the last Google update. I don't think i'll ever be able to keep on top of SEO with Google, slow and steady I suppose!
Posted by Ciaran on February 14, 2013 8:49 AM
From: Amna Tariq

I got valuable information about Google EMD update and inbound marketing from this post.. Keep doing this great job.. I will wait for further updates..
Thanks..
Posted by Amna Tariq on February 19, 2013 1:34 PM
From: Marc

Appreciate for telling us about EMD update. Anyway, google is our boss
Posted by Marc on February 20, 2013 6:37 AM
From: Steve

It really doesn't matter if your result is 1,2, or 3. Prospects don't know that you are any better or worse, once you are are the front page of Search. the key, once you are there, is to make your copy as interesting as possible to get people interested enough to click your site. See what everyone else is up to, beat it, and make their visits interesting. Then they 'll come back.
Posted by Steve on February 20, 2013 2:23 PM
From: Josh

Fred,
Thanks for posting this. Yeah google really is irritating sometimes. I think as long as everyone puts out quality content and use good white hat methods of SEO, then you will be good, long term.
Posted by Josh on February 21, 2013 9:13 PM
From: Ben

I had a popular boating/airplane site on page 1, close to 800 visitors a day with original content that vanished from the update. It's a total love/hate relationship with Google, play by the rules you might get burned, don't play by the rules you might get burned!
Posted by Ben on February 22, 2013 11:44 PM
From: Danish

Your post have the information that is helpful and very informative. I would like you to keep up the good work.You know how to make your post understandable for most of the people.Thanks and keep up the good work
Posted by Danish on February 25, 2013 3:23 AM
From: Gulraiz Mohsin

"thanks so much for this very interesting and valuable article. I think consistency is the key and useful content that your followers.And I agree with all your points but some sentences are so valuable for me. Thanks to provide us this content.

Posted by Gulraiz Mohsin on February 27, 2013 12:14 AM
From: Emily Dresser

A lot of people have been hit by the big G lately. Wonder what's in store next...have any ideas as to what will surface in the future?
Posted by Emily Dresser on March 5, 2013 6:53 PM
From: Madhukeshwar Anakal

As there is a lot of tricks going on web for SEO ......Google tries to overcome these. I think this makes Google to change their algorithm and try to get good quality results, and yes old days now have gone when little efforts on SEO showed the quick results. By the way nice post this will help many...Thank you...!!!!
Posted by Madhukeshwar Anakal on March 7, 2013 4:35 AM
From: Tim Carpenter

EMDs always offer a higher CTR if anything else, which is all SEO is about anyways!
Posted by Tim Carpenter on March 10, 2013 1:00 AM
From: Colin

What is Google going to do next!?
Posted by Colin on March 13, 2013 1:55 AM
From: Compraventa Valencia

Which means I should change my approach and start giving more priority to blogging, for example, than to link exchange. Sigh.
Posted by Compraventa Valencia on April 17, 2013 12:15 AM
From:

I have been in the business of making money online for about 4 years - and during this time, I have made a steady but growing income from my websites. I have always been suspicious of anything that gets you quick results so I never went that route with my SEO. During the same period, I have watched friends make considerably more money using questionable techniques. Then Panda and Penquin hit, and they all suffered greatly from it. My websites survives both updates. One or two got knocked off a bit but have since bounced back. So, I am a big believer in Great Content + Quality and Slow Link building.
Posted by on May 7, 2013 4:08 PM