Google's @johnmu lists three reasons why he isn't a fan of hyphenated keyword domains, like keyword-keyword.com https://www.seroundtable.com/seo-keyword-hyphenated-domains-34904.html
@rustybrick @johnmu
I own www.cbd-uk.com which after the latest rollouts, went from #1 for “cbd uk” to #100+?
This has killed my traffic and sales, and if this carries on, it will kill my business too? Surely google isn’t penalising because my domain is EMD? This company was started after my father got cancer and this helped him.
If this is the case, I need to start again.
@cbduk @rustybrick An existing site isn't going to drop in ranking just because it uses an EMD. Changes like that would be due to other reasons.
@johnmu @rustybrick
Thanks for the reply John. I am lost to why the massive drop? We do link but only with genuine relevant sites and my content is all relevant and accurate non-Ai content?
I now have sites ranking for “CBD” that aren’t anything to do with CBD? Sites like the Central Bank Digital Currency, purely because their acronym is CBDC?
It’s like I have a manual action but I just don’t know why and this is going to finish my business. This is my livelihood.
Nick
@cbduk @rustybrick If there's a manual action, you'd see that in Search Console. If not, it can be that our algorithms are now viewing the site differently, for example we launched updates for neutralizing / handling spammy links, webspam, and for promoting helpful content recently'ish (since mid December, I think). Medical content (it sounds like that's an angle for your site) is not trivial, some of our thoughts are in the quality raters guidelines.
@johnmu @rustybrick
In the UK, CBD is classed as a “food supplement” and cannot be sold as medical.
I get the link spam update maybe removing any “clout” we may have had from previous spammy links but not 10+ pages? We do get sites linking that we have no idea who or why.
The main issue is that sites in the top 3 pages have low DA and PA, low backlinking, high MOZ spam scores, clear SEO targeted content etc.
Where do we go from here? If SEOs don’t know, who will.
@cbduk the DA and PA have nothing to do with the ranking and you are looking at the wrong metrics at all.
search engines are just one of all conversion windows and your business may lives in an large ecosystem. how possible that your business is just tied to search rankings? you must be a businessman and understand the methods of e-commerce. to sell or promote anythings, you need direct traffic, social networks, marketing methods, email , sms, ads, etc. SEO is not limited to search engines.
@naji the problem with CBD in the Uk is that it’s nearly impossible to promote on social media and same with Google ads.
I’m genuinely just lost as to why it would go from #1 to #150 on google? The thing is, some pages are still ranking #1 for certain decent search terms. That’s what’s keeping it alive. Just lost as to why such a massive drastic drop?
Thanks for the info anyway. All advice is welcome at the minute.
@cbduk i understand you and wanted to share my opinion. i suggest you consider EEAT metrics as well and most importantly, i think it's better to be patient. algorithms sometimes distance themselves but they trust you again. wish you luck and sorry for your father (rest in peace)
@naji thank you buddy. Appreciate it