Google announced a few days ago that they are rolling out a "small" algorithmic change aimed to "reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains” from showing up so highly in the search results". http://searchengineland.com/low-quality-exact-match-domains-are-googles-next-target-134889 My site has an exact match domain for my main keyword and I have seen it slip from where it has been at No1 for about a year to No2. This isn't exactly earth shattering but what is irritating is that the No1 spot has gone to one of the "big" players who do not specialize in what I do, it is just one of their many options. Has anyone else noticed any changes?
Make sure you don't get into the low quality content clause and so get new content coming and links to the inner pages as well. I have seen ezine links are working really well for me
I don't think I am short on content or that quality is an issue, but I appreciate that it could be for some who have been relying on their domain name for their rankings. My problem is that I can't compete with the overall content of much larger sites, even though mine is tailored to what the domain name and keyword are about. But being No2 is as I said not a disaster, users can see that one is a multinational site and the other is local and they can make their own choice. I don't use ezine because I don't write articles.
You don't need to write articles and it can be outsourced as well. I have done that and seeing good response but make sure you get deep links and not home page links always.
There is something I do not understand. If I search for my keyword "Altinkum property for sale", (using Chrome incognito) I am as said now at No2. The site at No1 is findaproperty.com but when I click on the link to it, it redirects to page which does not even mention Altinkum. How can that happen?
That's odd that you get a different result to me. I just tried it again and it still redirects, and the same thing happened when I used Firefox and a proxy. When I click on the link it goes to http://overseas.zoopla.co.uk/#fap
ok I understand that the search results can vary according to location, but should that affect whether or not a url redirects?
No, No. I meant to say that I am not able to see that listing in Google but yes that redirects for me as well.
My apologies, I misunderstood what you were saying. But this does bring me back to my earlier point, how can a url which redirects to page which contains nothing directly concerned with the search term rank at No1 (from any location)? I reported this to Google yesterday but unfortunately I don't expect any action. I am seeing increasingly that the "big" sites are ranking higher than independents.
Yes that is what Google is trying for years. Give value to brands because they are more likely to spam
Yes, a while ago Matt Cutts suggested that brands would be favoured, and that is fine if you are a Google or a Facebook or a Twitter but not if it is a small organization. My brand name is "Ozsubasi" but it is not memorable and I cannot change it so I went for a domain name which expresses what we do. Now I am suffering for that. But looking beyond that, I would still like opinions please on how a site which redirects to a page not directly concerned with the search term can rank first. Is it simply that it is because it is a major site (in my field)?
I don't know whether it was the result of my report to Google, or because of the many Google updates recently, but when I looked this morning, my site is back at No1 for my main keyword and findaproperty.com has gone from being No1 not to appearing in the first 50 results.