Can anyone explain this?! [Archive]

natashacs

26th July 2009, 18:42

There has been lots of talk about links, link quality etc, on this board, in my own postings as well as everyone elses. So can anyone explain this?

A regional features agency has set up an internet site on the domain name www. sellus yourstory. com
It is a new site. It has just leapt past my site on google page one, and I was wondering how it had done this. Did a bit of analysis, and discovered it already has 330 back links.

Which is impressive and clearly the reason why its moved up so quickly.

BUT - all the backlinks are from the same site, and that site is www. swns. com (the website for the regional news agency this site belongs to)

There isn't anchor text in the links or anything.

So that seems to fly in the face of everything I am doing in terms of getting quality links for many different places, with anchor text. Can anyone explain why this site is being rewarded for this!?! :|

Is it worth me setting up another site, putting 330 links back to talktothepress and then would I move up to?!

this suggests to me that all that matters is quality of links.

But then, confusingly, I have the 2nd most links of all the competitors, and I am at position 7.

sirearl

26th July 2009, 19:21

If your talking about "sell us your story" his domain name will give him a lot of clout.

If your using yahoo to determine his links be aware this is not an accurate indication of what links he has or where they are coming from.

Earl

natashacs

26th July 2009, 19:26

yeah that's the one. I am using yahoo to determine links - what's the prob with it? I thought it was the one to use?

crossdaz

26th July 2009, 19:38

But then, confusingly, I have the 2nd most links of all the competitors, and I am at position 7.

Not all links are equal. One link from a major site can be worth 1000's of links from low ranked sites.

The yahoo tool is fine but the only way you can see the same links as google does is to have a webmaster tools account for the site in question - which obviously will be difficult unless you own it.

In this case though it's obviously the links from the parent site that's done it. Whatever they do, they can only be one place ahead of you - if they launch 29 similar sites then start worrying ;)

natashacs

26th July 2009, 19:42

sirearl

26th July 2009, 19:48

Yes but isn't it cheating to have all your links from one site, especialy if its your parent site?
I would have though that was the sort of blantant thing google would have penalised (given the other things it penalises)

Cheating this is a search engine ranking,not trying to defraud the national lottery.:)

Earl

crossdaz

26th July 2009, 19:49

Yes but isn't it cheating to have all your links from one site, especialy if its your parent site?
I would have though that was the sort of blantant thing google would have penalised (given the other things it penalises)

It's not for us to judge really. Google isn't perfect but they know more than we do - maybe the links will eventually get devalued and maybe they won't?
The bbc links to itself all over the place - it's not always so simple :)

natashacs

26th July 2009, 19:57

sirearl

26th July 2009, 20:00

I do understand we're not trying to break into the bank of england or something! But everyone spends so much time debating quality of links, anchor words, not paid links, not link farms etc, when (in this instance) it seems quantity is all that counts.

afraid there domain name gives them a huge advantage since google decided that domains were a major factor.

Try seeing how they rank for other related terms like "sell your story" e.t.c.

My guess is nowhere.;)

Earl

SEO Positive

26th July 2009, 20:40

Their domain name is a huge plus.

Also why don't you just go and get a link on the site that they have a link on? Can you get one from them?

Link building is essential, but there are many other factors too, like:

Keyword density
Correct title tags, meta data, internal linking etc etc

These factors will help your site rank a little better without any links if done properly.

QVA - Emma

26th July 2009, 20:56

afraid there domain name gives them a huge advantage since google decided that domains were a major factor.

Try seeing how they rank for other related terms like "sell your story" e.t.c.

My guess is nowhere.;)

Earl

Page 2 on Google.co.uk position 7, only 7 away from talktothepress:eek:

It may not just be the links - traffic from the parent site to the quoted site may have contributed to the rankings. There are so many factors involved I think the links in to the site are just a small part on this occasion.

I agree with SirEarl re the domain name - Google likes keyword rich ones at present but how long that will last in anyones guess.:cool:

Walk-IT

27th July 2009, 09:00

How new is their site?
Google will often push a brand new site with backlinks to a high spot in its listings, but this is normally only temporary and you may find it drop away again the following month.

Whether this is the case or not, now's the time to start increasing your own backlinks!

paretowasright

27th July 2009, 09:26

Natasha,

Which keyword are you searching for for the ranking claim?
Their site was registered in Oct 2008.
The exact term of their domain only has 56 searches a month but I am assuming something like 'sell your story' which has 1600 broad searches is the one you are looking at??

fisicx

27th July 2009, 11:11

afraid there domain name gives them a huge advantage since google decided that domains were a major factor.
I agree with SirEarl re the domain name - Google likes keyword rich ones at present but how long that will last in anyones guess.:cool:
Do you have any evidence of this? I've been investigating this claim for some time now and haven't found any evidence that suggests the strength of the domain name ranking signal has increased. I agree that it is a ranking signal but compared to the page title and content I consider it to be almost insignificant.

Note, the Matt Cutt's statement regarding domain names is irrelevant since it isn't measureable.

natashacs

27th July 2009, 11:22

I wonder about that too. The top 3 ranking sites for keyword 'sell my story' have completely unrelated names
ie feature world
front page agency
cash 4 my story

I think feature world is a really good example of this. whilst journalists might say 'I'm writing a feature' I don't think anyone wanting to talk to the press would put into google 'i want to be in a feature'

natashacs

27th July 2009, 11:26

re pareto's question re keywords, yes its 'sell my story' 1600 - 1900 searches per month.
re walk IT - Was their site registered in October? it's only recently gone live, like, since February. I am hoping its a temporary thing as you say!!!! It has moved up the rankings extremely quickly.

I am building backlines, all the time!!! ;)
I have got a backlink from the BBC website now, although google has yet to spot it. It's form a page that only has a PR of 2 (ie, not the news homepage then) but better than nothing, still the BBC eh!

natashacs

27th July 2009, 11:40

Thats an irritating posting.

sirearl

27th July 2009, 11:42

Do you have any evidence of this? I've been investigating this claim for some time now and haven't found any evidence that suggests the strength of the domain name ranking signal has increased. I agree that it is a ranking signal but compared to the page title and content I consider it to be almost insignificant.

Note, the Matt Cutt's statement regarding domain names is irrelevant since it isn't measureable.

well mostly practical experience as an example we are no 1 for this phrase with our momentous 31 links.age 1 year

and the No2 site has 53,000. links age 1998

even the No3 site has 18,000 age 2000

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wind+farm+equipment&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

or this where we beat the mighty Wikipedia.:eek:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=wind+farm+explained&btnG=Search&meta=

whatever Matty says in the real world its a big advantage.

Earl

A Party Shop

27th July 2009, 12:00

and we're not doing too bad
http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=party+shop&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

fisicx

27th July 2009, 12:01

Earl,

The keywords are in your page title so it's hardly a fair comparison. And you know as well as I that it's not the quality not the quantity of links so just because you have less than another domain means nuttin'

sirearl

27th July 2009, 12:16

Earl,
. And you know as well as I that it's not the quality not the quantity of links so just because you have less than another domain means nuttin'

Try telling that to 99.9999% of SEO's.:D

this on has it in the title and 3 million links.:)

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/millville-de/TLHDJG6HLJ8EV4H8C

Earl

natashacs

27th July 2009, 12:24

Are you guys for real? Some sites have 18,000 links? Or 50,000 links?

How do they get that many?

In the light of all this, I own the domain name www.sellmystory.org (http://www.sellmystory.org) which is a one page site, just about links back to talktothepress

It ranks at position 6, whereas TTTP is at position 7. Maybe I need to develop that site furhter, add in new pages etc?

BTW, if anyone looks at my sellmystory.org site don't tell me about the lack of anchor text links on it - I know and I'm sorting it.

fisicx

27th July 2009, 12:32

this on has it in the title and 3 million links.

The search was for 'wind farm explained'. They have 'wind farm proposal expalined' and you have 'wind farmsexpalined' so semantically you are closer.

crossdaz

27th July 2009, 15:25

I agree that it is a ranking signal but compared to the page title and content I consider it to be almost insignificant.

the url is an obvious indication of what the site is about so, as you say, it's a signal. What value this signal has is debatable but not likely to be very high?

For a niche market where there is no competition then having a keyword rich domain is something you'd want to have but when there is big competition then the advantage would be like having go-faster stripes on an old vauxhall astra.
One of my most successful sites is currently under thereat from kelkoo - I'm not resting my laurels on having a keyword domain ;)

FLAUK

27th July 2009, 16:37

Another advantage of having a keyword domain is that the anchor text for most inbound organic links will be the domain name, and hence your keywords.

sirearl

27th July 2009, 16:39

the url is an obvious indication of what the site is about so, as you say, it's a signal. What value this signal has is debatable but not likely to be very high?

Oh come on girls get real.:D

check out the No3 site against No 1&2

whats it doing there.:p

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=car+leasing&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Earl

crossdaz

27th July 2009, 17:20

Another advantage of having a keyword domain is that the anchor text for most inbound organic links will be the domain name, and hence your keywords.

Yeah, that is a good benefit I forgot about. Good point :)

crossdaz

27th July 2009, 17:27

whats it doing there.:p

It's a car leasing company, no?

Kev Jaques

27th July 2009, 19:18

JustOneUK

28th July 2009, 13:00

natashacs - you might want to sort out your headers which will contribute to your pages integrity. You have wasted h1s, h2s, h3s etc... with blank spaces, remove those or get some proper titles in them
Yep, some proper optimising is needed on your pages.
Also http://www.talktothepress.co.uk/default.htm is the same as your homepage and things like that will give you a dupe content issue I expect.