If you have a bunch or even one niche website that uses a exact match domain (having the keyword you are targeting within the domain itself exactly as you are targeting it) then you may have noticed recently that over the weekend the rank of that website dropped significantly. That is if you have a niche website with an exact match domain and is a thin site (one to ten pages of content). I unfortunately made the mistake recently our purchasing one of these websites from MikeFromMaine.com and it just got completely hammered by this Google update. I guess it was my fault for buying the niche site knowing full well that Google was going to punish micro niche sites in the near future. Google is now trying to focus on only showing quality websites to its readers. Gone are the times you can game the Google algorithms to get thin niche sites ranked in Google quickly and consistently. If you are planning on trying to create these thin exact match domain niche websites I recommend you re-think your business model. This will no longer work and you will need to transition into authority niche websites where you focus on a particular topic but create at least 20 pages of quality content. If you can do more even better. Also when selecting a domain for the website I would recommend if possible to stay away from an EMD (Exact Match Domain) for now as the algorithm is fresh to Google and might need some tweaks. My niche sites that had EMD went from the first page of Google to around 200th position in Google. These sites are essentially dead and most likely won’t bounce back unless I put a ton more content on the websites and let the website age for a few years. What Kind Of Niche Website Is Safe? I touch on this briefly above but the following types of websites are still good websites in Google’s eyes: Very high quality blogs that get posted on a regular basis with quality content people enjoy reading Older niche websites with a larger amount of articles/pages – 20 – 50 articles and more Any type of authority site where only natural links were sent to the website (stay away from too much link building as you’ll get punished by Google for that as well now) The rule of thumb here is if you are trying to trick and fool Google then you are doing something wrong and eventually Google will figure it out. Don’t try to get quick rankings in Google. Don’t try to trick Google. Just write quality content that will keep you readers coming back on a consistent basis and your website will be fine and you will continue to get traffic and therefore hopefully continue to earn money online. Which is what we all want as online entrepreneurs. What Niche Website’s Aren’t Safe? Now what types of niche website aren’t safe? Well that is pretty easy: Thin [...]
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