Panda 20 was an EMD

What is an EMD or a Panda 20 attack? They are considered “Exact Match Domain” improvements to the Google algorithm. Search Engine Land quoted Matt Cutts as saying “Google rolled out a “small” algorithm change that will “reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains” from showing up so highly in the search results” Read the whole article here…

Results of an EMD

The simple description is that the corrected algorithm was designed to lower, or moderate the ranking of low quality sites that ranked high for domains Head Keywords. For example,  if you sell sticky bread, you may use or own the domain stickybread.com , however, if you have a poor quality site, Google’s intention and result was to reduce your search engine ranking. Many sites saw their traffic and conversion rates fall sharply after Sept. 27 2012.

EMD is the catch phrase that people have used when saying “the search engines just want to punish me.” Contrary to popular belief, Google does not punish individuals or individual sites. If you want to understand their thinking, they only want the best experience for searches or results for the end user. Therefore, it makes perfect sense they would use an EMD type product to reward the internet user with great search results, and very high-quality sites.

EMD’s still have value

Do not give up all hope. Matt Cutts also said “EMD’s are not all bad” and that “exact match domains still have some unique benefits,” still there are many limitations to any benefits.  Read the full article here…

In Conclusion

Hang in there, and keep the faith. You can recover from the EMD attack and Panda 20 (Sept 27th 2012). If your site fell from grace on that day, you were not alone. Google has said that that EMD affected 0.6% of English speaking traffic. Firms that measure such things believe it was closer to 2.4%

I have said this many times, build a quality site, then you can avoid being penalized with any EMD, Panda or Algorithm change. I can assure you that there will be more to come. In the meantime, fix your site, measure success, then fix it again, measure again and continue to correct until you’re back on top.

Stay tuned, I have written many blogs regarding what makes a “high-quality site.” I will write about what may make your site a “poor quality site” in the coming weeks.

Always use a professional SEO Firm like E2-ts.com Improve your company’s ranking!