Keyword rich domains sliding fast
-
I decided not to worry too much about the statements from google indicating that they were going to consider key word rich domains as a negative for ranking since any of the sites I work on that have them are totally relevant to the content on the sites.
However, since recent Google algorithm updates I see these domains have suddenly slid from top 3 positions to page 4 or beyond in Google SERP's. Nothing has changed on these sites in the intervening time and no change is evident in Bing or Yahoo SERP's.
Is it just my imagination, or are others seeing the same thing for keyword rich domains? and has anyone yet determined the best way to deal with this problem?
-
Thanks for your responses Alan.
Since these are client sites, it is our policy to seek permission before sharing information about site status. I will do this and provide some examples once permission has been obtained.
-
I'm totally with Alan, that drop in the "weight" of the domains containing keywords is not already affecting at all I think, at least outside G.com. After all Mr Cutts has only said that they were probably going to adjust it, but I believe we have to wait until that changes.
-
Sha,
I know of several small sites that had no drop due to the Panda update. Something else must be going on, but without seeing the sites, no way to offer any additional insight.
-
Just to Echo Alans findings. I have found that exact match domains are ranking better than ever at this point in time. For competetive industries they are still at number one. An example can be found if you google "seo belfast". Most of the results are due to domains.
-
Well none of those things would appear to be an issue. However, all of them are small sites created for very small businesses.and so have only 5 or 7 pages (with a good amount of information on the pages). Perhaps the overall size of the site is a factor.
Have you noticed any bias against smaller sites in your research?
-
Having done comprehensive audits on a number of domains that were hammered by the Panda/Google update, I would say that the domain match factor is either not a factor yet at all (most likely) or had very little to do with the problem you're seeing. Without seeing the domain I can't offer specific insight, however I'm consistently seeing a number of factors.
- Very poor on site information architecture
- Very confused topical focus
- Very thin unique content.
- Too many ads compared to unique content
- Very weak / poor inbound link profiles (usually skewed to over-use of limited focus keyword anchor text).
If your site has any one of the above issues, that alone could be the primary cause.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How Google distinguish and ignore keyword attested with or in a brand?
Hi community, Generally there will be a primary keyword which everybody concentrates and expect their homepage or website to rank for....like "seo" for seo consulting or seo tools. There might be some companies with this keyword in their brand name like "ABC SEO". So this primary keyword will be all over the website being part of the brand name; especially in page titles and header tags. How Google distinguish and ignores this keyword in brand name to avoid giving more ranking boost to such websites? Will this keyword will be completely ignored being the part of the company name or their domain name? How Google distinguish between a generic keyword and keyword in company name? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Have you ever changed the logo anchor text from "logo" to "keyword"? How Google considers?
Hi all, We know that generally logo with the website homepage link is the first link crawled by Google and other search engines. Can we change the anchor text from "logo" to "keyword"? Have any one tried or seen others doing? How Google considers it? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
Ranking drop after sub domain to sub directory migration. Usual?
Hi all, We had our help articles on sub-domain help.website.com. Then we moved it to sub directory website.com/help/. We expected ranking improvement of website.com as there is a wide saying of benefiting from sub domain to sub directory migration. We have noticed that ranking improvement of new sub directory pages (website.com/help/) but not for any main website pages (website.com). I presume that link juice from main website has benefited new sub directory pages but main website lost ranking due to the page rank dilution. Do you agree? Any ideas? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Www vs nonwww domain
Since about 5 years out site was launched as "www.example.com" but last June 2012, we relaunched new design but somehow went without www subdmain - "http://example.com". We didn't check that time but now find duplicate pages and very confused what next. Please answer: Do search engines penalize for the change of domain name? www.example.com vs example.com? How can go back (or, should we really?) to www.example.com? I did redirect .htaccess rewrite from nonwww to www - but now our site is launched as without www. Confused so Please advise ASAP. Thanks a Million
Algorithm Updates | | GreenBirdMedia0 -
Could EMD (Exact Match Domain) have cause SERP drops?
Hi all, Another suggestion was given for our fall in SERPS. Recently Matt Cutts announced that EMDs would be hit by new algoritms. http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-20-15789.html Only our site with exacts matches... cours-telephone-anglais, curso-ingles-telefono, kurse-englisch-telefon, and corso-inglese-telefono were hit. Does anyone else have experience of this? Would a solution be to create new URLS and redirect? Or would a redirect carry the penalty over? Is there anyway to fix that sort of penalty? Many thanks for your help.
Algorithm Updates | | Quime0 -
Confused About Addon Domains and SEO
I find addon domains really confusing. Everyone I've asked so far says that they don't affect SEO but I find that really hard to believe considering the same content is on both a subdomain and a subfolder and also has it's own unique domain. PLUS (in my case) completely different niche sites are sharing the same hosting. I really don't want to pay for hosting for all of my different sites but at the same time, if it's better/safer to do so for Panda/Penguin reasons I'm happy to do that. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your opinions/suggestions!
Algorithm Updates | | annasusmiles0 -
Is This Keyword Stuffing/Spamming?
We are a custom patch company--we make patches for many different types of clients. I have a gallery of patches for almost every kind of client, and they all have their own pages. If I put navigation on the home page such as what I show below, will Google consider that to be too much? Boy Scout Patches | Motorcycle Patches | Fire Patches | Police Patches | Military Patches | Sports Patches | Business and Organization Patches | Paintball Patches | Scooter Patches | In Memory Patches They would all be links to different pages, and there would be literally 50-60 more! Would it be better to remove the word patches from all of the links? And then another question comes up: too many on-page links?
Algorithm Updates | | UnderRugSwept0 -
High ranking for high volume keyword, but low traffic
We are ranked, according to Moz (and we've tested to back it up) #3 on Google UK for the keyword "Hire a Jet". According to Google, this keyword gets 22,500 local searches per month. Yet we get about 5 hits a month for that keyword. Any ideas why this is so low? It just doesn't add up or make sense whatsoever.
Algorithm Updates | | JetBookMike0