Google’s EMD Update

On 9/28 Matt Cutts tweeted about an update to the algorithm aimed at suppressing low quality exact match domain websites.  Exact Match Domain (EMD) means that the URL of the website exactly matches the searcher’s query.  EMDs have long been a tactic of spammers to get their sites listed in the search results and in year’s past were quite effective.  Google’s update is only supposed impact sites of “low quality” which in Google’s eyes means that they have thin content and very few links pointing to their sites.  There might be some collateral damage of this update for some small businesses.  There is a lovely small town in Kansas called Seneca.  If there’s a plumber in Seneca who bought SenecaPlumber.com, put up one or two pages such as an about and pricing page, they might have been nuked by this update.  Who would they get to link to them?  The local Co-op?  The local hardware store?  There aren’t a lot linking opportunities for a plumber in Seneca and there probably isn’t enough business for the plumber to get a good ROI from investing in SEO.  Well, too bad.  Buy a non-EMD and start over.