Google EMD Update
Announcement posted by Optimising 15 Nov 2019
The Optimising team are delighted to learn of Google’s newest tactic aimed at discouraging underhanded SEO techniques.
The EMD (exact match domain) update is designed to weed out low quality businesses who have illegitimately achieved their top ranking. For those not familiar, the EMD trick works by using the most common search terms associated with a particular business, and using those keywords as the domain name. An example might be if you’re looking for a dj for an upcoming party. You google ‘party DJ hire melbourne’. You’re then directed to a webpage called ‘partydjhiremelbourne.com.au’.
The fact that this business has come up at the top of the rankings doesn’t reflect on it’s quality or popularity. It may well have only been around for three days. This practice potentially undermines other, more established and reputable businesses whose domain name does not precisely match the top keywords.
It’s worth noting that the EMD update is not designed to harm legitimate businesses with exact match domain names. Google use many different techniques to determine a page’s worth, including offsite value, domain authority, and page quality. They’re simply trying to weed out low quality businesses. There has been much concern in recent years that Google gives too much weight to keyword domains in search rankings. This update will help to address these concerns. Google anticipates the changes will affect only 0.06% of English-US search queries to a noticeable degree.
Optimising SEO takes pride in providing a quality service to our clients without employing some of the more questionable SEO techniques. Sneaky, backdoor methods of SEO create more headaches than they’re worth, ultimately doing long term damage to a businesses reputation for a very short term gain. You certainly won’t find us at www.getmygooglerankingtothetopofthepile.com!
It’s worth noting that the EMD update is not designed to harm legitimate businesses with exact match domain names. Google use many different techniques to determine a page’s worth, including offsite value, domain authority, and page quality. They’re simply trying to weed out low quality businesses. There has been much concern in recent years that Google gives too much weight to keyword domains in search rankings. This update will help to address these concerns. Google anticipates the changes will affect only 0.06% of English-US search queries to a noticeable degree.
Optimising SEO takes pride in providing a quality service to our clients without employing some of the more questionable SEO techniques. Sneaky, backdoor methods of SEO create more headaches than they’re worth, ultimately doing long term damage to a businesses reputation for a very short term gain. You certainly won’t find us at www.getmygooglerankingtothetopofthepile.com!