Google On The Hunt For Spammy Exact Match Domains (EMDs)

Google's Gary Illyes said this morning that he is "hunting" for spammy EMDs, exact match domains, that are ranking in Google. He said this on Twitter two different ways this morning.

First he said he is looking for the spammy EMDs:

@gfiorelli1 @pedrodias @aleyda @pelogia It's funny you say that! I was hunting for (bad) EMDs for the past two weeks without much luck :)

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

Then he said that if you know of any, send them to him on Twitter:

@gfiorelli1 @aleyda @pelogia OK, I'll go public (already asked a bunch of folk in private): if you see spammy EMDs, send them my way.

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

He went on to add that there is nothing particularly wrong with EMDs, exact match domains. There is something wrong with spammy EMDs ranking well in Google he said:

@gfiorelli1 @aleyda @pelogia there is no inherent problem with EMDs. The problem is when it's combined with other spam tactics

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

So it looks like Google may be working on rerunning the EMD penalty from 2012 again, sometime in the future. When exactly, no one knows.

Forum discussion at Twitter.