Google hammers exact match domain owners!

I don't disagree to your words completely @Dreamraven, neither am I trying to challenge anyone's opinion here. During the initial replies posted in this thread, I realised that many took the algo update in an incorrect sense (atleast I thought so, I might be wrong), hence thought of highlighting the other aspect of the update.

Now, if we go back to the topic of this thread which is about exact-match domains, were majority of us aware that Google would someday devalue the websites that have majority backlinks pointing from such exact match domains, no right ? And since it wasn't known or written some/anywhere, people tend to carry on with the activity and kept building links from such domains until Google finally rolled out the EMD update. Until then people would have realised this activity to be lying in the grey zone, where they weren't too sure if it's right or wrong, but what they did know was positive effects for their websites/keywords. But now after the update do you still feel people would try to build majority links from such domains, No imo. ,coz. this is now a black hat technique. Why is it BH coz Google doesn't support it any longer.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I've all ears open to learn something that I'm unaware of.

lol don't mind me, I just love debating. It's all part of being a redhead I guess.

The whole technique might have been a gray area yes, but at the same time it became BH. The reason I say this is that in the beginning, when the fad hit, it was a good idea to have a domain that was an EMD to the keyword you used. People created these, and started adding content and building backlinks etc. just like they would with any other site. When the rogue SEO's saw that it actually had a really good effect on the SERP's, they decided to do what we all do. Build sites, create content, start backlinking. The only problem is that they do what they usually do. Laden the site with low quality content, blast links back to their domain, and who knows what else so that their site gains rank and keeps that top spot.

Google saw this and decided to put a stop to it. Just like they did with the meta keywords, blog networks, and everything else that seemed ok to use at the time.
See the pattern? Google gives us the means to rank our sites, gain our own little corner of the web, Rogue SEO's come along and take over, and Google axes it. Taking other innocent sites with them in the process. The authority of an EMD has been declining a lot over the last 2 or so years. That alone shows that the EMD update was already on its way out. With the decline of the EMD yearly, it showed that Google was giving less and less value to those domains, because of the way it was being abused (one can only guess ).

Me minding, na na no ways. It's a good discussion in process, if we don't have difference of opinion how are we going to explore the farther lands. "Either convince Or Get convinced", it's as simple as that.

Great point about rogue SEO's as I believe they are what ultimately cause the damage. Google were trying to get rid of low quality spammy sites with this update but got it wrong again. The good news is high quality sites seem to recover quite quickly. Keep adding high quality content and sites should prosper as Google want to see sites updated regularly.

EMD's haven't been hammered, they just lost their bonus factor, if the rest of your SEO is sound the EMD update won't have affected you, someone argued about this with me on another board and after a short conversation admitted they did months of black/grey hat SEO work that some other Google update was "punishing", his EMD was the only thing that had kept him anywhere in SERPS. A website shouldn't be top ten just because it has a good domain name, EMD is a positive update for users and makes no difference to quality led SEOs.

Thats why i stuck to the domain Ultramate.co.uk none related name to roofing, i also own the domains leadroofer.co.uk and emergencyroofer.co.uk but heard through the grape vine a few years back that google was about to swing the axe.

Found this How important is it to have keywords in a domain name? - YouTube

Personally I think most so called SEO consultants were no more wiser to Googles updates than the website owners themselves. As soon as Google changes something or updates something, all these great so called SEO consultants log into the SEOMOZ website, then log onto Matt Cutts video blog, copy and paste that web page and put a link on their own sites, then start to comment and profess to know what they are talking about. all claiming to have such great knowledge about these updates, everyone mentions 'Panda' now as if they know what they are talking about. Most industrys know what is happening in the future, where their particular industry is heading, the changes that are going to take place etc. So called SEO consultants always seem to get caught on the hop, otherwise the websites they manage would have either been pre warned or the websites updated to cope with the changes, but I guess thats what happens with an unregulated and an unqualified industry

Google's had the reputation to release something before anyone could tap onto. These updates are no different to this reputation. But what's more important to understand is, now Google users can expect more precise results to search queries and not something that is there in the SERPs for some back-end SEO or something.

At the sametime, it is important for marketers to understand that now is a high time to deliver authenticity to your audience, hereafter play-around the algo ain't going to work. Quality is the only way to get to the top of serp listing. This would be the only factor which is going to keep you unaffected by any algo changes.

I guess its kinda snuck up on people to catch the rogue SEO's. If they were forewarned, they would be doing everything they could to get their low quality sites back up the ranks. Not telling us how, when, where and which animal stops that and gives us a much better chance of getting a proper search without wading through tons of spam to get what we want.

I have to agree on quality though. Its not just important for SERP ranks, but for you and your site and business. How many sales would you get if you had a low quality site with a design not appropriate to your business, or is too hard to navigate or just doesn't give visitors the information they need from the outset? IMHO that is more important to me than actual SERP ranks.