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The secret sauce behind EMDs – why some Exact Match Domains still rank well on Google

Posted in: SEO ranking factors June 30, 2019

EMD secrets

Why do Exact Match Domains still perform well in some Google searches?

This is the type of question I would ask a potential employee if I was hiring a new SEO for my company or agency. The answer and explanation you get will separate the experienced pros from the wannabes, and the real SEOs from the guesSEOs.

The special magical powers of an EMD are one of the great pervading SEO myths and many people still believe they get preferential treatment because they see the evidence of EMDs doing well in some SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), especially in local SERPs where the competition is weaker and the Google algorithm is a little softer or more forgiving.

So what is the answer ?

Well here’s the wrong answer (and the one often rolled out by some SEOs)

“EMDs are so effective because having keywords in the URL is a ranking factor.”

Now the last part of that statement is actually correct – having keywords in the URL has always been a ranking factor, albeit a small one, and certainly less of a factor now than years ago when there were less signals for Google to look at.

So, yes, having keywords in the URL can help a little, but that’s not why EMDs are still working well in some SERPs. The effect is too small to have that kind of impact.

So what is the right answer and best explanation?

In short, EMDs rank well in some cases because of anchor text.

 

Pure and simple. But let’s delve into that a bit more.

Keywords in anchor text is one of the stronger ranking signals Google uses. It’s a relevancy signal, an easy way to figure out what topic a page is discussing. If someone links to another website from their own site, they’ll often use a descriptive word or phrase in the link text (anchor text) to help the reader decide if they want to click the link/visit the site/page.

It’s good for the user, and that helps Google figure out what the topic of the linked site is. Therefore, anchor text has long been used by Google in determining the value of a link, from a relevancy viewpoint. It remains one of the most important on-page signals and can boost rankings for the site or page receiving the link.

Now what happens when someone typically links to another website ? Quite often they will simply use the website address or the URL as the link – the anchor text. If the URL is an EMD that means they get the benefit of their target keywords, right there in the link. And that is why some EMDs get a boost in their rankings, for their target keywords.

 

But why do some EMDs benefit while others never rank ?

Going back a few years EMD sites were ranking like crazy in all kinds of niches and many were taking advantage of this to rank above better or more established sites. So Google tried to tackle this issue algorithmically with their EMD Update back in 2012.

But that was aimed at low quality EMD sites with thin content and spammy link profiles, so while it got rid of some of the weakest and spammiest sites, it still doesn’t change the main reason why EMDs tend to rank better – i.e the benefits of exact match anchor text.

But hang on, isn’t having keywords in anchor text a bit dangerous now ?

Anchor text has been abused by spammers ever since Google started its search engine and as a result Google has evolved and adapted to deal with anchor text abuse or over-optimization. The Penguin algorithm largely targets anchor text abuse and has become very efficient at spotting this. The result is that it’s now become more dangerous to use your keywords in anchor text, in external backlinks (internal links are not subject to the same level of scrutiny, as of yet). Especially if you get more than a few of them all the same (as you might expect if it was an EMD).

However, EMDs are sometimes treated differently – and the reason is branding.

A domain name is often the company name, the brand name – the URL itself is sometimes the brand name. We see this everywhere – Hotels.com and CheapFlights.com are well known examples.

Google expects to see the brand name used in anchor text links, it’s perfectly natural. But it just so happens that some brand names (and URLs) contain keywords that the company is targeting – an Exact Match Domain can also be a brand.

This is how some EMDs escape the scrutiny that other domains receive from Google and manage to secure good rankings in some SERPs.

It has nothing to do with any mystical powers, and has very little to do with keywords being present in the URL – it is simply down to the cumulative effects of anchor text and the relevancy boost it can provide.

 

Why hotel websites should switch to https now

Posted in: hotel marketing February 2, 2017

why hotel websites should switch to https

 

Buyer Confidence

Any website that collects credit card information, logins or passwords will be marked as unsafe in Google’s Chrome browser (by far the most popular browser in the UK and US). Since January 2017, Google has added this information to the browser bar which the user can see when they visit any website. Firefox already does something similar and other browsers will follow suit.

But this is only a first phase. Google plans to label all http sites (and all pages) with an unsafe warning eventually. This warning will be bright and bold, featuring a red triangle alert that visitors can’t miss. This is what it will look like :

Google warning on HTTP sites

Such warnings are certain to deter many visitors from booking their accommodation on the hotel website. Especially when other hotels, travel operators and booking engines can offer a safer https website.

 

Speed

Page load speed matters and it been well documented that visitors will abandon websites that take too long to load on their screens. Google has also stated that speed is a search ranking factor and this impact has been magnified with the explosive growth of mobile. Mobile has now overtaken desktop as the most popular method of accessing hotel websites. https is often much quicker than http and hotel websites can benefit from this faster speed if they switch to https. This site demonstrates the difference in speed between http sites and https sites.

 

Google rankings

Google announced last year (2016) that https is now a ranking factor albeit still a small one, affecting around 1% of all search queries. But this could become a stronger signal in the future and could help boost your site’s rankings at the expense of sites that still use http. We already know that Google has separate results for mobile and desktop searches. Even if your hotel website ranks well on a desktop search, it may be much lower ranking on mobile search, and this is heavily influenced by things such as site speed, which itself is improved by using https.

 

Analytics data

http sites (unsecure) do not pass any referral data to https (secure) sites, this is a security issue but also affects your analytics. As more and more sites switch to https, if you’re still on http you’ll lose more and more analytics data, crucial referrer information about your site visitors, where they come from and how the got there (search queries used, etc).

 

What about messy 301 redirects?

Making the switch from http to https also involves necessary 301 redirects from the old version to the new version of your site. In the past some webmasters and site owners have been wary of doing 301 redirects for fear of losing PageRank (link juice) and consequently search rankings. However in July 2016, Google announced that using 301 redirects no longer resulted in reduction of PageRank. More case studies are now appearing which confirm that no loss of PageRank and rankings was experienced after making the switch.

 

How soon should hotels switch to https ?

As soon as possible is the answer. Google has been pushing hard for these changes for a while and the latest Chrome release is a statement of intent – they are planning to clearly label all http sites as unsafe. This will happen quickly as most things do with Google today. The move from http to https is already happening across all industries and different types of website. Last year saw the biggest increase yet in the number of sites moving to https. This is an unstoppable trend and those websites that don’t make the switch will be left increasingly isolated and will stand out very clearly, and not in a good way!

 

In truth, all sites should look to switching to https soon, that is the way things are moving. But hotel websites are among some of the most affected at the moment. Many hotel sites have seen significant traffic losses in recent years, particularly in organic search traffic, which has been declining due to changes in search behavior and the way Google now presents and ranks its results pages. Hotels simply cannot afford not to stay up-to-date with the technology and should make the switch now.

Recent Posts

  • Link-building queries
  • The secret sauce behind EMDs – why some Exact Match Domains still rank well on Google
  • Keyword Difficulty – how to size up your competition.
  • Why hotel websites should switch to https now
  • 7 weeks to get your site mobile-ready for Google

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