Website using search term as URL brand name to cheat Google

[Jseddon92]

Google has come a long way over the past 5 years, the quality updates have really helped bring top quality content to the top that is relevant for users search terms, although there is one really ANNOYING thing that still has not been fixed.

Websites using brand name as service search term to manipulate Google

I have got a real example but I wouldn't like to use it in case the brand mentions flags up in their tools and they spot this post, but take this search for example "Service+Location"

You will get 'service+location.com' rank #1

Why? Heaven knows. They have less than 100 backlinks which are of a very low, spammy quality from directories. The content is poor compared to the competition and the competitors have amazing link profiles, great social engagement, much better website user experience and the data does not prove anything. All the competitors are targeting the same search term but yet the worst site is ranking the highest.

Why on earth is Google not fixing this issue. This page we are seeing rank #1 do not even deserve to be ranking on the first 5 pages.

[MarieHaynes]

**"Some people will argue that Google penalizes keyword domains, but I know that isn't true. " **

I think that a lot of people in the SEO world are confused about this. When the EMD algo first came out I studied a large number of sites that had taken drops. Google confused everyone because they made a big deal of announcing the EMD update and then sneakily pushed out a Panda refresh a couple of days later. A LOT of sites were affected by this Panda refresh.

At that time I had asked anyone who thought that they were hit by EMD to share their domain with me. A large number of these ended up being sites that, IMO were hit by Panda.

The sites that were affected by the EMD update were ones that truly did not deserve to rank, and only previously ranked well because they were EMDs.

There is no penalty for having an EMD.

Now, back to the original question. I'm unclear as to whether OP is saying that there is a single EMD that is ranking well, or perhaps you are saying that this company has a whole bunch of service+location EMD's that are ranking well. If this is the case, then whether or not they deserve to rank depend on what kind of unique value they are offering. For example, if this was a plumbing site and every single location had almost the same content on it describing their overall plumbing business then Google wouldn't like that. But, let's say it's a real estate brokerage and the brand has worked really hard to provide helpful, unique content for each city they service. I could see this working. Google still would prefer that a realtor ran just one site, but if these individual sites were helpful enough to users then they still could do well.

[EGOL]

I can't understand how this is cheating ?

They have a domain something like ScrantonAutoGlass.com and happen to rank well with it.

Anyone who wants to spend the money can buy ScrantonRealEstate.com or ScrantonAttorney.com.  Then if Google decides to give that domain an advantage,  the person who controls it has been rewarded for registering it a long time ago or for paying whatever price the seller wanted.   It is no different from buying a lot on Main Street.

Some people will argue that Google penalizes keyword domains, but I know that isn't true.  Keyword domains provide a very small advantage that is most effective in weak competition.  This is part of the search landscape.

If you would like to have that small advantage then make the owner of that domain an offer that would be nice enough to persuade him to sell it to you.   If the website is trashy and has no social following, as you report, then they probably don't have an extremely profitable business and might be willing to sell it to you.  Then you will have the domain, all of its valuable rankings, and you can then place your great content upon it, invite your social support there, redirect your current site to it and own a valuable asset.

All of my websites are on keyword domains.  They work great.  Although I had to pay a lot for each of them, the investment has paid back many times over.

This is a business move, an investment, although somewhat speculative.  Google could start treating them differently tomorrow.   I know lots of people who own keyword domains and none of them regret paying buckets of money for them.

I'll add that keyword domains are not invincible.  Plenty of people beat me for queries that I would like to dominate.  Why?  The KW domains don't provide the enormous advantage that most people think, other people have worked hard enough to beat me, and the domains provide very little help for thousands of other keywords that your site might compete for.

Get in touch with the owner, make them an offer that considers how much profit you might make by doing a better job on that domain than they are doing.