WHAT IS EXACT MATCH DOMAIN UPDATE?
EMD (Exact Match Domain) update is a type of filter that was released by Google in September 2012 which was to prevent the sites with poor quality from ranking which ranks due to the words exactly matching with domain names as the search query.
However, an exact match domain is as exactly as what it sounds like, as in a simple domain name that is similar- or nearly similar to a search phrase entered onto Google search will be displayed.
While EMDs are not actually bad for SEOs, earlier site builders took advantage of EMDs to be high ranked with Google without putting any efforts into the content or the creation of the websites.
Eg. Digitalmarketingcompanyinindia.com is an exact domain match of digital marketing company in India
REASONS FOR LOWER RANKING IN SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGES (SERPs)
Once, EMD was implemented in the search engine result pages. This update has discarded those sites which Google considered of low quality. They down ranked EMDs because they are not following any webmaster guidelines. Below are the reasons for having down ranked EMDs –
1. Poor SEO
Websites are constantly updated to meet their target audience and if you have poor SEO, you will be down ranked quickly.
2. Content Quality
The quality content on EMD usually had poor content. Therefore, Google ranked lower the websites that had poor content and were being shown due to EMD.
3. Keyword
The exact match domain usually had a lot of keywords stuffed in the websites which are not as per Google guidelines. More Keywords were used with the intention of a better ranking of the website.
TYPES OF GOOGLE PENALTIES ON EXACT MATCH DOMAIN UPDATE
1. Algorithmic penalty
An algorithmic penalty is applied automatically by one of Google’s algorithms like Google panda or Google penguin. They are the filters that use core metrics to check the websites. There is no manual processing by a Google employee. Due to this, this penalty can’t be lifted by a Google employee manually.
2. Manual penalty
A domain will be reviewed manually by a Google employee, if a domain is in a doubt to be violating the Google webmaster guidelines it will be penalized. If a website receives a penalty by Google manually there will be a report in the Google search console under the manual actions tab. Google declares a manual action against a website when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages not compliant with the Google webmaster quality website.
KINDS OF GOOGLE PENALTIES ON DOMAIN
The penalty is the measure taken by Google which violates the guidelines of the webmaster to punish the websites. Also, penalties have different levels which effects website. The penalties are as follows –
1. Keyword level penalty
Few keywords are penalized in the domain by ranking them lower without any effect on the others. Doing so the website ranking is also hit.
2. URL or directory level penalty
This will affect the URL or the directory of the website by lowering the ranking drastically, effecting the search results of the website
3. Hostname level penalty
The penalty on the entire host of the website will be ranked lower which includes the domain and the subdomain.
4. Domain-wide level penalty
It means that all the keywords present on the domain will be affected and lose out a large amount of domain ranking positions or domain authority.
5. Delisting
The entire domain is delisted from the Google search results and the website will no longer be visible in search results.
HOW TO GET RECOVERED FROM EMDs PENALTIES GIVEN BY GOOGLE
1. Instead of targeting on exact keyword matching domain name use of partial match domain names should be done. It can be done by adding some prefix and suffix in the domain names.
2. Branding of your domain along with content is done frequently by working on its contents as well as updating as per new trends. However, domain authority will create a major difference here.
3. If the content is of low quality then it has to be re-written with better quality than before. Also, ensure the content is fresh, original, and up to date as per recent trends.
4. Participate in social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Also, increasing social visibility on different social media sites will increase the genuineness of your website thereby giving you better visibility on Google search results.
5. Small scattered sites need to be avoided and one proper site with quality content has to be created in order to get domain authority.
6. Backlinking has to be increased to show that the contents of the sites are original and the website is not fake and is genuine.
How to select a domain name
You should select such domain name, which is brandable as it represents your company.
Your domain name should be easy to pronounce so that it can be easily marketed and consumers remember your domain name.
.com extension is very important and trustworthy. So you should use extension.
Select a shorter domain name so that customers don’t have difficulty to type.
Also, learn what your target audience is searching for in a particular demographic area and use that keyword for your company.
Benefits of exact domain match
Start-ups get benefit from domain match because it helps to gather relevant traffic.
If you keep the keyword as the first letter of the domain then it will be advantageous over other companies that do not use keyword in the domain
Very helpful for generic commercial queries.
Also, with using domain name it is easier to get social mentions with keywords.
If your site has quality then your domain will work exceptionally but if its quality is poor then using domain will be worse
Issues with Exact Match Domain
The main problem was not of that exact match domain but the more use of keyword anchor text posed a greater issue. The benefit that the exact match domain got from the anchor text was disproportion. Because of that, it was able to carry too much impact. This creates a lot of difference when you say ABC School and abcschool.com. It was very important to fix the issues related to anchor text than the EMDs. It is a little difficult and hard to understand when you decide on the keyword domain. EMDs offers some good sites that are very helpful to the users. The keyword should such that it is of quality, used by other brands, and comes at the top page. Making a decision about the domain should be chosen precisely.
Solutions to the problem
The content should be made with great consideration to the users.
The intent behind this update was not to target exact match domain names exclusively, but to target sites with the following combination of spammy tactics: exact match domains that were also poor quality sites with thin content.
There were really no other nicknames for this update. It went by the EMD update, or Exact Match Domain update.
The major weakness that these websites had was the fact that SEOs would buy domains with exact match keyword phrases, build a site out, but have extremely thin content with little to no value on them. It was extremely easy to do. So easy, in fact, that it was almost like taking candy from a baby in terms of easy SEO wins.
Learn about Exact Domain Match from one of the leading Institute in Delhi NCR
CONCLUSION
Exact Domain websites help to rank your website higher by using some extensions. Because of which many businesses didn’t focus on quality content and become dependent on EDM. Google didn’t like SEO to be manipulated like this, so it did an EMD update. Also, it affects only those site which has poor quality content and had use EMD. So, now you don’t have to rely merely on EMD, you have to make quality and informative content. The use of the exact domain match with quality content and SEO technique would surely provide you an edge over others.
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