Google’s Latest “Low Quality EMD” Update

October 2nd, 2012 | 34 comments

For nearly 8 years I used a strategy to get little sites ranked and profiting in as little as a week or two. The strategy still worked after the big “Panda” update and even after the “Penguin” update. So I write a report, release it, and a few days later half of the sites I created using that method (but not just them) are gone from the top 10 of Google.

Am I so powerful that a billion dollar company changed because of my 33 page report? Not likely But the fact is they have changed. It was definitely something that they’ve had in the works for a while and decided to “release” last weekend.

Their latest update supposedly targets “low quality” sites, but seems to be very inconsistent. Take a look at the spreadsheet that I put together if you like:

This spreadsheet contains a handful of my sites. All of these sites were in the top 10 of google just last week. Half of them still are and half of them are nowhere to be found.

Matt Cutts tweeted that the update was targeting EMD’s (Exact Match Domain’s) but I believe it’s more than that.

cutts tweet

My Germany Tourism site, which I’ve mentioned many times before, enjoyed top 10 rankings for much of it’s 8 years of existence and it too was hit by this update. From 8 years at the top of google to nowhere to be found. It’s full of high quality content, much of it I write personally after having lived in Germany for 5 years and having a German wife. The site has DMOZ and organic Yahoo Directory links (which I didn’t pay for… they were natural) along with many other very solid, natural links.

And then there are my Rapid Niche Profits sites, which are all exact match domains. But the odd thing is that only about 40%-50% of them were hit. The spreadsheet above shows a handful of them. The green ones are still ranking in the top 10, while the red ones are gone, but were ranking last week.

My data shows that it was not JUST EMD’s that were targeted. Obviously, more of my EMD’s are still ranking than are not ranking. That spreadsheet does not show all of them, but it’s about 40%-50% that were hit. If Google just adjusted that one thing … “EMD’s now have ‘this’ much less authority” then they would have all been hit because I didn’t do anything drastically different with any of them and the strength of competition for all of them, while obviously not exactly the same, are consistently similar.

Another theory I’ve heard is that they targeted EMD’s in high CPC niches. But I don’t see that trend (see spreadsheet.)

It doesn’t seem to be that the sites are “thin” because I have sites with as little as 4 pages that continue to hold top rankings.

It doesn’t seem to be that anchor text saturation because I have sites that have 100% anchor text saturation for their primary keyword that continue to hold strong in the top ten (yeah, I know, I need to follow my own advice.)

It doesn’t seem to be a certain type of backlink strategy, as I have sites that continue to rank with minimal backlinking and the backlinks they do have are manual, cheap backlinks and I have some that have been hit that had very solid, natural links.

It doesn’t seem to be too many ads on the sites or above the fold because most of my niche sites have the same structure with the same ad placement and some continue to rank while some were hit.

It doesn’t seem to be site age because some older sites were hit and some newer sites continue to rank well.

What I’m starting to lean toward is that this update was a modification to multiple ranking factors, which combined caused many sites (not just EMD’s) to either go from top 10 to nowhere or to drop a few spots in the SERPS, which many of my sites that continue to rank experienced.

I’ll continue to look into this and monitor what others are saying about it as well and update you the second I learn of something set in stone. What about you? Have you been affected? If so, what are your theories?

34 comments

Kaz (7 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Hi Josh,

Just read your findings on the latest update. Thanks for a wonderful and honest report.
I only have a handful of EMD adsense sites and none of them was hit, don´t know why.. The only thing i know is that i have not even starting doing any serious backlinking but they were still ranking very well.
I do have a very good unique content.

Please keep us posted with your findings, need honest and professional guides like you.

Thanks
Kaz
David Martin (5 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 2:49 pm

Yep, this baby hit a heap of my sites! Ouch…

I think the only safe course of action is consistent, regular, quality content.

Lots of old school techniques are actually damaging nowadays, however, there does not seem to be any real definitives here – one of my sites with nothing more than a few articles scraped from ezines jumped to number one – An EMD with hardly any real solid content. ???
Barry (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 2:51 pm

Hi Josh-

What I noticed to some extent is that extremely new sites or sites with Google+ author data moved way up despite being attached to fake accounts and (badly) translated English.

Google is losing the relevance battle IMO.
Chuck (88 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 2:53 pm

This was absolutely not just a minor weather event…and absolutely did not just affect EMDs. My sites (almost across the board) were decimated in the SERPs.

Just a couple examples:

First, a site which was dominant in its niche. Ranked #1 for 5 years. There was not then, and still is not today, anything like it. With Panda and Penguin, it had dropped from #1 to around #10. Here’s what’s happened the last 30 days:

Sep 4: #8
Sep 28: #14
Sep 29: #264
Sep. 30: #308
Oct 1: #336
Today: #313

And just to prove that one is not a fluke:

A second site…once consistently ranked around #10 for its primary keyword. It’s been hanging around #14 for the past month. That’s where it was on until September 28th…when it dropped out of the top 250 (I haven’t been tracking below that level for awhile, because I haven’t needed to). Secondary keyword: Same thing…was #21 until the 28th, then *poof*. Gone.

All of what led me to post this to Twitter yesterday:

“With its latest algo update, @google continues its crusade to dishearten and disempower owners of small, quality web sites. Nice work, guys!”

I also tweeted Matt Cutts:

@mattcutts Whatever this was…it was NOT a minor weather issue. I wish I could hear your personal explanation of the damage to my sites.
Desiree
2nd October, 2012 at 2:55 pm

Glad this updat didnt affect me. Im starting to focus on Youtube SEO now more than Websites. Ranking youtube videos is a bit more promising in my niche.

Bing is def going to take over in the next few years. Like anything everything must come to an end. THe rate Google is going, their empire is getting weaker and weaker.

They’re killing there ownselves.
Alex Newell (2 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Thanks Josh for your analysis of the situation right now and for being so open.

I saw this happen for one of my sites last Friday. 90% of the traffic gone from the Penguin update so I almost did not care when the other 10% vanished.

This is not about content it is some silly idea in Google’s ideology and I have no clue about what metric or combo they are using or what they are targetting.

Your link profile is, pardon me for saying so, pretty spammy and way more than I ever did and they got through Penguin!

I hope you continue with the analysis and can shed some light on this nonsense.

Alex
Ian Taher (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:06 pm

Hai Josh,

First, this is amazing report,
Following baby G make us afraid to step forward and think hard how to win one position among the other 10 sites in the first page. But I still believe every change made by algo can’t make me step back to make money online.
There so many ways to drop visitors on my site, with or without them. I will follow your next report Josh

Best for you and successful for us.

Ian
Jonathan (4 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:07 pm

Thanks for your post Josh. Appreciate your report.

I do think that perhaps like Penguin things may change again/back over the next few weeks.

Keep us updated.
Alan (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:15 pm

Josh,

Thanks for the report. Interesting.

I have both Amazon and Clickbank EMD sites and they all dropped from first page Google. Disappointing as they all have multiple pages with quality original content.

Hopefully they will come back to life.
Mark (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Like Carl, I’m glad to see you commenting on this hellish update…. elsewhere in the IM world the product pushing continues without a doff of the cap to this big impact event.

With regard to the update itself, I’ve also not been able to see a pattern. I do see sites like this (search Google for the term ‘DDRol’ and see what occupies number 1). The stated aim of the update has therefore not been met (I guess this site survived because it’s a brand name).

With regard to High CPC sites, I have a number of original sites in the psychic niche that are low CPC but highly visited. They’ve now been obliterated, even without EMD’s.

Let’s see if this shapes up more realistically over the coming few weeks.
Christopher
2nd October, 2012 at 3:22 pm

Josh,

Thank you for taking the time to add value to the Internet even while Mt. Olympus steals our livelihoods.

I have several EMDs and handfuls of hyphenated EMDs. So I’m sad the gods are targeting the little guys rather than focusing on bad guys.

Remember Google isn’t stupid. And they probably rolled out a minor “weather” change to temper the fury and business deaths that are ahead when they release the storm.

Last, don’t forget that “Google” isn’t a search engine. It’s a business, and it’s a business in the business of making money–how it does that is by giving the world a search engine it can leverage by our Internet use data. If we can create a global Internet marketer’s mastermind we’ll be able to step into the shoes of their business, think like them, and give them exactly what they want.

Those who can give the Gods what they want are always rewarded.

Thanks again for adding value–if not for the gods, at least to our lives and livelihoods.

Oh–I just had a wicked idea. What if the world decided there were no gods? What if there was an open source search engine that was designed from the ground up to serve visitors the type of content they wanted. And what if it was designed by both the bad guys and the good guys so that everyone had a chance?

Imagine the gods waking up to find nobody was at the temple… cool

Chris

OMG I’m a heretic
Joe Wilson (5 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 3:56 pm

Hey Josh,
I knew I could count on you to track this issue. Like many other folks who’ve commented, you’re one of the few who are digging deep into this.

For me, I have about 60 or so Halloween domains that are all EMD’s. They are thin sites with just a few pages on each but all have unique content. ALL have been hit.

I also noticed one site that I had was on page one #3 for its exact match phrase, was not a thin site, but DID have the word APPLE in the name which is could be viewed as a copyright issue.. it has vanished to the nether world.

My main site, not an EMD, with aobut 100 pages of unique content is doing fine.. actually much better and getting lots of traffic after this change.

I have two EMD’s that have at least 10 pages or more of good unique content that are doing better that before.

Let me know if you want more info.

Thanks again!

Joe Wilson
Joe Wilson (5 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Ohh one thing I have noticed is that this seems to be only Google US searches that are effected.

I’m still seeing search from Google.co.uk and other international googles…

Also seeing google image searches coming in like prior to the change.

thanks!
Joe
steve (2 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 4:27 pm

Hey Josh,

As mentioned earlier you seem to be the only one mailing about this. I noticed the change and thought it was Google algo change but you confirmed it.

All my sites are EMDs. None are thin sites and none were hit in previous updates but now they were pretty much all hit to varying degrees. Seeing a drop in traffic from 25 to 75%

So much for minor weather report, looks more like major landslide.

Best
Steve
Tom (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 4:42 pm

I had seen this coming for quite some time already. Finally it arrived. Though it had been a good ride for some of us with EMD, I have to admit it’s been a bit unfair for sites with generic business name. This was so obvious I was wondering why very people seemed to have noticed, and it certainly can’t be missed by Google. It’s just a matter of time they act on it. I guess it will still take some time for more sites to be hit, just like Penguin which took several weeks to settle down before the full damage is felt.
Eddie (8 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 6:12 pm

It is not just emd and thin sites. My ecommerce site (100+pages and about 50 posts) that was ranking on page 1 for several keywords dropped to page 6.
The youtube and article backlinks to this site are ranking higher than the site itself.
Seems to me that Google throws mud at the wall and than see if some of it will stick.
This happened a few times with some of my other sites and after time they all came back to their original ranking.
I do know that I am getting tired of Google and start looking for different ways of getting traffic.
Any ideas? just let me know
Bu the way…Great report as always.
Thanks
Eddie
Kyle Sherwood
2nd October, 2012 at 6:14 pm

Hey Josh –

Thanks for the blog update! It’s strange because one of mine actually INCREASED in the SERP’s. There’s got to be numerous other factors because if they were targeting just low quality EMD’s, then I’m sure my site would have been effected.

Kyle
Asim (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 6:15 pm

I stopped depending on EMDs a while back and started building out bigger authority sites. Although they were great for quick rankings it was only a matter of time before google arrived at EMDs.

I think its too early to tell if its just EMDs. Like Tom above me said, its very possible that they roll out this update over a period of time and that EMDs may still continue to be hit.

Having said that, I noticed something very peculiar. A new EMD that had ranked #3 in 2 months with very minimal linking tanked and went below 500. The content was top notch and no ads, no affiliate links…

Another 2 year old EMD that got hit by panda a few months ago, jumped from below 150 to 3rd page over the weekend. This site has just OK content, poor design and a TON of affiliate links. Overall, poor user experience.

Its certainly not the quality of content (or overall site) that seems to be the criteria here.
Steve
2nd October, 2012 at 9:08 pm

Its certainly not the quality of content (or overall site) that seems to be the criteria here.
******************************
If it were a quality issue, there would be no reason to limit the update to EMDs as claimed by Cutts.They could instead go after ALL poor quality sites, no matter the domain.
dolores (1 comments.)
2nd October, 2012 at 10:05 pm

My site bounced between 1-4 for its keyword and now it’s completely gone. It was an EMD but it wasn’t a low quality site.

Now when you search for review you get a site or two and 6+ pages of Amazon. (I stopped looking after 6) If I was looking for reviews and that is what came up I would use another search engine.
Ann (2 comments.)
3rd October, 2012 at 2:08 am

I had an EMD site tied in to a geographical location in the pharmaceutical industry. My toughest competition (also an EMD), which I ranked above in the top 10, although they were extremely well established – was completely wiped out alongside myself – simultaneously. This occurred very shortly after the Penguin update. I kept keeping tabs on both sites for about 2 months, but neither my competition, nor myself, ever reappeared in the SERPS, and we were the only ones with EMD’s on Page 1 of Google for our search term.

My other sites, have not been affected, however they’re not EMD’s, instead they contain a keyword I’m targeting along with a non-specific ‘prefix’ attached to it, for it’s domain name. Hope this helps someone.
Susan
3rd October, 2012 at 5:35 am

I have an Amazon Blogger site that isn’t ranked yet, so this latest Google change didn’t affect me. I do know that Google made some Blogger policy updates not that long ago, where they will not allow you to use a branded business name in the title of your blog. They will however, allow you to create a domain, (exact match or otherwise) through Blogger using a branded business name. So it’s anyone’s guess what they don’t approve of. My other theory is that a website’s home landing page must contain a minimum of 600- word articles. Just a theory unless this was not the case for others whose site’s have dropped significantly or completely.

Has anyone else with an Amazon affiliate site been hit hard by this so called minor weather report? I am about to get started with rolling out a backlinking plan and wonder if this is the final aftershock the Big G is going to cause this year. Utilizing banner ads or building a good size email list is a good back up plan. Otherwise, all organic traffic websites will continue to be high risk.

Thanks Josh for the heads up. I also got an email from Kim Roach a day after you emailed me about this latest Google-Matt Cutts update.
Best of Luck to Everyone!
Johnno (3 comments.)
3rd October, 2012 at 5:55 am

Search using Google for “male pattern baldness blog” (without the quotes).

The number 1 site is: malepatternboldness.blogspot.com.au
The world’s most popular men’s sewing blog!

What hope has anyone got when Google can come up with rubbish like this?
Jayson
3rd October, 2012 at 6:48 am

Our business services website was devastated. Not an affilate site either. It is an authentic business site.

As to your suspicion about expensive industries for buying ppc clicks? Yes that fits in our case. $3-$10 per click industry.

We are reeling from this…thanks for this post.
Kris
3rd October, 2012 at 3:29 pm

My sites were destroyed months ago, and keep fluctuating with all these new algo changes.

The frustrating part is having a real, quality site and having no chance to chase what big G is really looking for.

And even more frustrating is doing searches on Google and knowing that its not showing the best sites.

In my opinion, they’ve gone beyond the “search authority” and are moving more towards “big brother”. Yet I still admire their business model, just not the way they almost smugly make life tough for site owners and searchers.

Oh well…some serious competition is much needed…
Caressa (1 comments.)
4th October, 2012 at 1:50 am

It looks like there is no point in anyone getting comfortable. We’re spending too much time defending our sites. Time to move back offline?
Kim
4th October, 2012 at 8:13 am

Hi Josh,

I appreciate the info you have shared. I personally lost a few sites with this latest update and am still hoping to gain more clarity.

For sites that were slammed, I did notice the link profile was more spammy – having used AMR and another article network to send out links. All sites where I did mass article submissions got pushed down, from 30 ranks to 100s of ranks down.

I did notice on your sites listed, where ranking has not plummeted, that the advertisement placement seem less aggressive. Just a general feel. The snoring site was most conservative but got hit, so I can’t say its a 100% correlation.

Kim
ps. You may want to review the title on top of the right Adsense block on the split toes site.
erda (8 comments.)
4th October, 2012 at 11:28 am

The ones (or most of them) that used to take a lot of advantages from the use of EMD got devaluated but not penalized. If you start a new EMD domain right now you will be on the same line with every other new domain (if all other things are equal) – no advantage from the use of EMD.
This dosen’t mean anyone should stay away from using EMD – it could be still ok for CTR and so on – it just that it won’t matter (at least not that much) as a ranking signal.
Just my opinion
Michael H. (1 comments.)
6th October, 2012 at 12:49 pm

I actually don’t mind any particular stance on EMD’s as much as I do Google’s overall talk about “quality”. What do they mean by “quality”? Who gets to decide what is relevant and what is not? I tried writing about this complex subject in a recent blog post, but I’m not sure if I managed to make sense or not..
ukt2121
8th October, 2012 at 5:34 am

i can understand how it feels, my site got hit so hard by penguin update and lost all traffic overnight even had totally unique content written by me and i have thousands of raving fans..But Google is just thinking like a machine, not because my traffic went down or i hate Google animal , but i really think that instead of quality now Google search engine is serving crap , at least in my country , India.
Richard Brokenshire (2 comments.)
9th October, 2012 at 3:13 pm

These updates are inconsistent that’s for sure! I do research for posts on my blog and I did a search, can’t remember the term but 7 out of the top 20 SERPs were the same article on differing sites. They had the same title and looked to be spun content n top of it. I thought these updates were meant to enhance my SE experience?? Note to Bing: Google is vulnerable!
Rick (2 comments.)
20th October, 2012 at 3:51 am

It will be interesting to see if more of your emd sites take a hit as time goes on. I will also be interested to see if some of you currently lost sites come back.

Again
Thanks for the information,
Rick
Kaz (7 comments.)
20th October, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Hi Josh,

Despite what has happened, i am still inclined to setup EMD adsense sites.
BUT write good quality unique articles.
I would really like to have your comments if you have discovered some new facts on EMD´s.
Thanks
Tyronne Ratcliff (8 comments.)
4th November, 2012 at 3:18 pm

This recent EMD update is a perfect example of Google favoring the larger, more authoritative domains.