Weird Google Behavior [Archive]

frobn

06-05-2005, 05:17 PM

Since the return of Google PR, I am seeing movement on one site at several data centers. I am also seeing some weird results.

If if put in Keywest homes, I am on the first page but if I put in Key West homes I am on the second page. Not too much of a difference, but when I put in keywest real estate I am on the second page but with Key West real estate I am on page 18. It is just the opposite in yahoo and msn.

I have not targeted keywest which makes it even less understandable. Does anyone have an idea of why the discrepency.

I am beginning to think Google is highly neurotic or perhaps borderline pyschotic :)

I have it figured out. Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites. Not having done much external linking I am not optimized on 'Key West' which takes precedence when searching for 'key west real estate'. On the other hand, the key word 'keywest' is not very competitive so 'real estate' takes precedence. So my next strategy is to build 'key west' links and content.

I still think Google is neurotic :)

Real Estate Forum

06-06-2005, 05:12 PM

Erratic for sure, this could possibly be the major update that has been predicted a while back.

gemini

06-06-2005, 06:45 PM

I just gained about 4 dosen of pretty competitive keyphrasese after this update and good half of them are from first to fifth results pages - gotta get to work :D

frobn

06-07-2005, 04:47 AM

Erratic for sure, this could possibly be the major update that has been predicted a while back.

Some of it has to do with the update, but you may have missed what I said about a 18 page discrepancy between a search on 'keywest real estate' vs 'key west real estate'

"....Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites."

It's subtle but if my assumption is even half correct the implications for SEO are enormous.

HHI Golf Guy

06-07-2005, 05:24 AM

I have it figured out. Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites. Not having done much external linking I am not optimized on 'Key West' which takes precedence when searching for 'key west real estate'. On the other hand, the key word 'keywest' is not very competitive so 'real estate' takes precedence. So my next strategy is to build 'key west' links and content.

I still think Google is neurotic :)

The best way to optimize a real estate web site for Google is to understand their concept of hub and authority web sites. That will give you insight as to optimizing for city name + real estate.

frobn

06-07-2005, 06:08 AM

The best way to optimize a real estate web site for Google is to understand their concept of hub and authority web sites. That will give you insight as to optimizing for city name + real estate.

From what you are saying I can gather that there are more authority sites for key words "Key West" and less for "Keywest" which is what I am saying indirectly. Either way the implications of such an assumption are many. Have you done a data center check on "Hilton Head" vs "Hiltonhead" + real estate?

I think it would be interesting to hear from others with two words in their city names to do a data center check. The assumption or hypothesis is: discrepancy between the two is directly proportional to optimization on the key word "Your city."

gemini

06-07-2005, 06:18 AM

well.. I'm #1 for my city real estate and #2 for mycity real estate - the two competing web sites are also there as usually.

frobn

06-07-2005, 07:37 AM

well.. I'm #1 for my city real estate and #2 for mycity real estate - the two competing web sites are also there as usually.

That would be what the hypothese predicts. There would be little or no discrepancy for a #1 site for 'my city' + real estate as both real estate and 'my city' are optimized.

To check if you are an authority site for 'my city' do a search on 'my city' alone. The hypothese does not predict if you are or are not an authority site.

HHI Golf Guy

06-07-2005, 07:40 AM

Have you done a data center check on "Hilton Head" vs "Hiltonhead" + real estate?

I don't even think about people that type in "Hiltonhead" instead of the proper "Hilton Head". It would be a waste of my time and my client's money to do so. Actually, it doesn't matter. I typed in "Hiltonhead real estate" on Google and one of our sites came up #1.

For our local clients we have top optimize for the top searches involving "Hilton Head", "Hilton Head SC", "Hilton Head Island" and "Hilton Head Island SC". That's more than enough.

The assumption or hypothesis is: discrepancy between the two is directly proportional to optimization on the key word "Your city."

What do you mean by "discrepancy"? Are you speaking of SERP's for "city name" versus "city name + real estate"?

If you read up on hubs and authorities, concentrate on the authority section.

gemini

06-07-2005, 08:12 AM

I agree with HHIGG.
'my city' + real estate is the winner.. in most cases 'mycity'+real estate ranks high even if it mentioned once in the domain name or somewhere on the page (although why would you have misspelled city on your page?). Times of misspellings are pretty much over - don't waste your time since most of the SEs have spell checking implemented.

frobn

06-07-2005, 10:49 AM

I don't even think about people that type in "Hiltonhead" instead of the proper "Hilton Head". It would be a waste of my time and my client's money to do so. Actually, it doesn't matter. I typed in "Hiltonhead real estate" on Google and one of our sites came up #1.]

For our local clients we have top optimize for the top searches involving "Hilton Head", "Hilton Head SC", "Hilton Head Island" and "Hilton Head Island SC". That's more than enough.
We are talking about two different things. I do not advocate to optimize on HiltonHead just as I am not optimizing on keywest. Searching in this manner is simply an indicator. If you have a high page position on HiltonHead Real Estate and a lower position on Hilton Head Real estate, the assumption from the hypothesis is you optimized on Real Estate and not so well on Hilton Head. The indications of where to put your SEO efforts are obvious in such a case. The hypothsis has implications for each of the page position combinations.

What do you mean by "discrepancy"? Are you speaking of SERP's for "city name" versus "city name + real estate"?

The discrepency I am referring to is the difference between page positions for "mycity" + real estate vs "my city" + real estate.

If you read up on hubs and authorities, concentrate on the authority section. It doesn't matter if your site is an authority site or not, it does help in the rank but that is not what I am after. What I am after at is "where will I put my SEO efforts" and what should I do to get the best result. For example, having a #1 or #2 page position 'mycity' real estate I do not need many relevant inbound real estate links as I am already optimized for real estate, but more 'my city' inbound links will provide a bigger boost. Similarly with content.

I agree with HHIGG.
'my city' real estate is the winner.. in most cases 'mycity' real estate ranks high even if it mentioned once in the domain name or somewhere on the page (although why would you have misspelled city on your page?). Times of misspellings are pretty much over - don't waste your time since most of the SEs have spell checking implemented.

Again I am not advocating that you optimize on misspelling of your city name. Like you say, you already have the winner for your city. My hypothesis 'the discrepancy between the two is directly proportional to optimization on the key word Your city' implies your city is optimized, and real estate is optimized. Congratulations you are in maintenance mode, continue to add new content and a relevant links.

My purpose is to test a hypothesis and if it proves out, again if it proves out, it gives me much insight into how to optimize a web site in the least amount of time.

If you don't think the hypothesis has any merit search on: 'key west ocean front real estate', 'key west luxury real estate'. The numbers are still bouncing around but they should come up on the first page on most google data centers. There are several subtleties that predict the high page positions for these terms.

Disclaimer: broadwaykeys.com is less than 4 months old and the Bourbon update is still in progress. My page positions are bouncing around and I am basing my assumption on an untested hypothesis, a hypothesis by nature is untested. If it holds true in enough cases it becomes a theory.

Phoenix Realtor

06-07-2005, 12:14 PM

frobn

06-07-2005, 01:26 PM

I jsut searched for the word Phoenix and I am not even in the top 100 results. Suck-o-la.

Let try this: Phoenix (http://www.PhoenixHomes.com). We'll see if that helps... LOL

Maybe I should get a few IBL's with teh anchor being Phoenix?

When you do a search on Phoenix you are checking if you are an authority site. My hypothesis says nothing about an authority, but your search does say you don't need to be an authority site for Phoenix to be #1 for Phoenix real estate. I am not sure but I do think that a lot of back links would push you up the latter but you don't need it so why waste the time going after many when a few will suffice. BTW I know you do a lot of work to maintain your page position so you don't need to change what you are doing. It is for us new guys on the block that need to learn to work smart.

Real Estate Forum

06-07-2005, 05:10 PM

I jsut searched for the word Phoenix and I am not even in the top 100 results. Suck-o-la.

Let try this: New Homes in Phoenix (http://www.phoenixhomes.com/Nav.aspx/Page=%2fPageManager%2fDefault.aspx%3fPageID%3d3970 29). We'll see if that helps... LOL

Maybe I should get a few IBL's with teh anchor being Phoenix?
Mix it up :) Geesh I am giving you another BL, lemme edit :D

gemini

06-07-2005, 05:56 PM

My hypothesis 'the discrepancy between the two is directly proportional to optimization on the key word Your city' implies your city is optimized, and real estate is optimized.

What you're saying right now would look:

discrepancy = optimization x you city

but optimization is never static and you don't know it's real value so you would never know exactly how much you need to optymize to minimze the discrepancy.

HHI Golf Guy

06-07-2005, 08:50 PM

frobn

06-08-2005, 10:11 AM

I guess that I have been sniffing too many paint fumes the past few days (we just closed on a new home last week and I have a large "Honey Do" list) - I'm still having a hard time grasping what you are trying to prove or calculate.

FWIW, I was not implying that a real estate has to be an authority site - it's the underlying principle of the authority site concept that will help increase SERP's.Here is a brief explanation of what I am doing.

In determining SERPs Google weights every word and every word combination in the key word phase. Most are nonsense like real west key estate and are discarded. The most important key words for my site are "Key West Real Estate, unlike MSN that will give the highest value to the whole phase google weights "Key West" and "Real Estate as well as "Key West Real Estate." If I search on "keywest real estate" I restrict the search and the result gives me insights into what is or is not optimized. I can also restrict the search by diluting the phase with "Key West Luxury Real Estate" and again gain insight into what is happening. There are other ways to restrict the search. Now if and when my site appears in the top rating with on the restricted terms along with the top contenders that we find in unrestricted search I know what I have to do.

I am interested in optimizing four variables.

content
internal linking
eternal links
anchor text

I won't go into detail on how this works except to say I am controlling for independent variables that the search result is dependent on. Knowing where and how much effort to put into each variable saves times and effort.

Jade456

06-08-2005, 04:04 PM

frobn

06-08-2005, 05:12 PM

Its my understanding that Google is also looking closely at links that target a specific phrase. In other words if you have a ton of links all for city name + real estate, they may become suspect due to optimization. They are trying to weed out "unnatural" links, which is why people change their link text up a bit. Of course, its all just speculation.

I believe you are right, but think a moment. If I sell real estate in key west and that is my only product what other key words would suit the site. I guess I could mix it up and have 'key west homes' and 'key west condos' and maybe throw in ocean front and waterfront here and there, but it is really all the same. Do a synonym search on google for ~real estate -real estate and see what comes up, not much. In my case I need to focus on Key West so I could put Key West in with almost anything. Why? Because my analysis shows that I am already optimized on real estate but need to boost key west.

gemini

06-08-2005, 07:23 PM

Knowing where and how much effort to put into each variable saves times and effort.

That's the point that you will never know how much you need to work on each variable because in first hand you limit yourself to 4 variables (out of how many - about 100? at least a few dosen for sure) Then, you're trying to find dependence of those variable from each other - i.e. proportion. Well, what can I say, the values will be wrong from the start because google doesn't limit itself to 4 variables (one); all other variables wich are in the algo do affect rankings because there are a lot of indirect impact and you're not taking it to considiration (two).

Basically you're trying to solve google's algo to avoid unnecessry work to promote your site - you are already failed from the first step, by limiting your vars.

I'm not critisizing, I'm interested as much as you're, but I think you're wasting your time right now.

frobn

06-09-2005, 05:03 AM

That's the point that you will never know how much you need to work on each variable because in first hand you limit yourself to 4 variables (out of how many - about 100? at least a few dosen for sure)
Agreed there are many variables many of which we will never know. First, it doesn't matter much because we can only exert control over the few we know about. Second, the law of diminishing returns will come into play after a few of most important variables.
Then, you're trying to find dependence of those variable from each other - i.e. proportion. Well, what can I say, the values will be wrong from the start because google doesn't limit itself to 4 variables (one); all other variables wich are in the algo do affect rankings because there are a lot of indirect impact and you're not taking it to considiration (two).
If my hypothesis is correct by simulating control over one variable at a time I can observe in real time how that variable effects the dependent variable. I don't need 100% accuracy to determine the trend.
Basically you're trying to solve google's algo to avoid unnecessry work to promote your site - you are already failed from the first step, by limiting your vars.
No, no and no.

I don't care what google's alog is, I am analyzing the relational effect of different variables and measuring them in real time. The analysis points out my site's deficiencies, the implications are where future efforts will do the most good to correct them. As to wasting time, running several simulations at McDar.net doesn't take much time.

How is working smart by putting my efforts to where they will do the most good avoiding work. Adding content? Adjusting my link anchors? Reorganizing my internal linking? Adding internal links? Reorganizing my categories? What part of creating an interplay between content and my linking is not work?

I can only work with the variables I am aware of. Obviously, I can make mistakes as to their relative importance.
I'm not critisizing, I'm interested as much as you're, but I think you're wasting your time right now.
I don't mind criticism it keeps me on my toes but it would be interesting to have your take on how I am wasting my time by doing the things that I have outlined above and where you would put your priorities. I don't mean it as a challange but as a learning experience, we learn more from our differences than from our similarities.

gemini

06-09-2005, 01:30 PM

How is working smart by putting my efforts to where they will do the most good avoiding work. Adding content? Adjusting my link anchors? Reorganizing my internal linking? Adding internal links? Reorganizing my categories? What part of creating an interplay between content and my linking is not work?

I guess it was inaccurately stated since the variables weren't defined. Yes, all you mentioned above is work.

I can only work with the variables I am aware of. Obviously, I can make mistakes as to their relative importance.

Exactly. Now, having inacurate importance, your actions might be comparly blind and in the final result you might still not know what affected your positions. There are won't be accurate answers than already are as broad as general SEO techniques and knowledge. You considering discrepancy between two keyphrases of your own directly proportional to optimization of the lower ranking. This is not correct, because ranking conditions for different phrases are different. You could assume that if you were promoting two different sites for the same keyphrase. So, you can assume you can do that comparing with your competitors. How about indirect impact - something happens on other sites - yours going up or down - how it affects your analyses? The thing is that there is no static in the rankings - everything is liquid.. dynamic - you can assume as we all do right now and our assumptions won't be less accurate than from your analyses (well it probably also depends on individual knowledge and understanding of things).

I don't mind criticism it keeps me on my toes but it would be interesting to have your take on how I am wasting my time by doing the things that I have outlined above and where you would put your priorities. I don't mean it as a challange but as a learning experience, we learn more from our differences than from our similarities.

Fare enough. Priorities are pretty simple:
- content;
- on-page optimization;
- internal linking structure;
- external linking;

those are the main variables so far.

I'm really curious, if you don't mind we can have an experiment right here in this thread and document everything for the record. Give us more insight on the idea, let's identify all the known and unknown variables and what we gonna do with them.

HHI Golf Guy

06-09-2005, 02:07 PM

I really think that you're trying to re-invent the wheel. Have you studied the articles on LocalRank, Topic Sensitive Page Rank, and the Hilltop algo?

frobn

06-09-2005, 06:22 PM

Fare enough. Priorities are pretty simple:
- content;
- on-page optimization;
- internal linking structure;
- external linking;

We are more alike than different regarding what the priorities should be.
I'm really curious, if you don't mind we can have an experiment right here in this thread and document everything for the record. Give us more insight on the idea, let's identify all the known and unknown variables and what we gonna do with them.
I am not sure how this can be done. There is little difference between us as to what the priorities are. The difference is in the execution, mine being based on the analysis of the data. I am happy to share the information of what I am doing and my results whether good or bad. The idea of using what I label "restrictive search" is for diagnostic purposes. The variables are key words, in my case, "Key West Real Estate" and the resultant page position in google. A 'restricted search' analysis determines what type of content I will add and how the content will interplay with internal and external links.
I really think that you're trying to re-invent the wheel. Have you studied the articles on LocalRank, Topic Sensitive Page Rank, and the Hilltop algo?
I read several articles on these topics, perhaps there was something in them that I missed. The Hilltop algo is concerned with who links to your site, I would say that is an accepted concern. "The implication of LocalRank is that SEOs will now have to find inbound-links from related authority sites, directories and even from direct competitors rather than just concentrating on link quantity and anchor text." Makes sense. Refer to any of my posts on linking and you will see that I don't have a problem with linking but with "how" the majority of people link and their linking process, but that is another topic.

gemini

06-09-2005, 07:57 PM

Well, at least share the info during the process of your analyses.

frobn

06-10-2005, 10:08 AM

Well, at least share the info during the process of your analyses.
A problem with SEO, in my opinion, is most SEOs are not experts, they are marketers that mouth correct catch phases but few have an understanding of search engine concepts. For example, all claim "SEO friendly design," but the html markup of their web sites often tells a different story. All say they will evaluate your site, but what kind of analysis are they doing. My guess the conclusions of their analyses always point to a need for their services and products.

Here is a stab at a different kind of analysis. First a disclaimer.

Disclaimer: broadwaykeys.com was registered on 1/6/05 and first put on the internet in the middle of Feb. Page Rank first appeared around May 1st. The Bourbon update is still in progress and my page positions are bouncing around especially for the key word phase "key west real estate."

Here are 4 key word phase. The number in the parenthesis is the position (6-10-05) using the Google data centers tool at McDar.net.

Key West Real Estate (>200)
Keywest Real Estate (20)
Key West Luxury Real Estate (16)
Key West Ocean Front Real Estate (1)

Here is a breakdown of the key words for broadwaykeys.com from http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html.

word repeats density Prominence word repeats density Prominence
key 43 T,D,K,H,L,B 6.98% 63.80 west 31 T,D,K,H,L,B 5.03% 69.07
real 19 T,D,K,H,L 3.08% 73.17 homes 18 T,D,K,H,L,B 2.92% 49.97
estate 17 T,D,K,H,L 2.76% 71.98 mls 13 K,H,L,B 2.11% 21.10
condos 11 D,K,H,L,B 1.79% 61.64 for 10 T,D,H,L 1.62% 67.66
ocean 10 T,D,K,H,L 1.62% 77.19 front 9 T,D,K,H,L 1.46% 78.52
keys 9 D,K,H,L 1.46% 55.81 florida 8 D,K,H,L 1.30% 60.41
home 8 D,L,B 1.30% 50.10 marathon 8 K,H,L 1.30% 26.18
your 6 0.97% 28.68 largo 6 K,H,L 0.97% 34.60
you 5 0.81% 26.53 more 5 A 0.81% 57.31
luxury 5 T,D,K,H 0.81% 82.63 & 5 0.81% 47.79

The question for study is "why such a large discrepancy ranging from 1 to over 200?"

I have some ideas but it is no fun hashing and thrashing only my ideas. Anyone want to speculate?

HHI Golf Guy

06-10-2005, 12:37 PM

Real Estate Forum

06-10-2005, 02:50 PM

A good example would be a forum like digitalpoint (http://www.national-real-estate-directory.com/real-estate-forum/showthread.php?t=697&page=1&pp=10) which ranks for basically anything that you put up a good thread about.

frobn

06-10-2005, 03:42 PM

My strategy is that the more competitive the keyword, the more you have to look at site wide optimization for that KW - not just single page optimization.

Single page optimization and link building can only go so far. There must be quality, underlying documents to present a consistent theme.

I am in agreement with you that the #1 priority is more diversity, but I want to draw the discussion out some to learn what other information a 'restricted search' provides.

Here is some more information about the site.

The site has very few inbound links. Google shows 5 out of 14 links. It's safe to conclude that back links are not a variable thus far except in their absence.

Interesting comparison with MSN

Same 4 kw phases for MSN

Key West Real Estate (8 & 12)
Keywest Real Estate (38)
Key West Luxury Real Estate (1 & 2)
Key West Ocean Front Real Estate (1 & 2)

Another interesting aspect, in MSN the "Key West" authority sites come up way behind Broadwaykeys.com and other Real Estate sites for "Key West Real Estate" but ARE back on top for "Keywest real estate." I know there are many things to complain about with MSN but which SE is giving a more relevant result for "pure" real estate sites? It's not difficult to figure out what the different results are due to.

I know backlinks are the backbone :) of google's SERPs so the question now becomes where should the effort be put for backlinks, and what anchor text should be used? The last part is a bit tricky.

HHI Golf Guy

06-10-2005, 04:45 PM

I am in agreement with you that the #1 priority is more diversity

Not more diversity, but more focus on the main KW as your site theme.

Interesting comparison with MSN

Same 4 kw phases for MSN

Key West Real Estate (8 & 12)
Keywest Real Estate (38)
Key West Luxury Real Estate (1 & 2)
Key West Ocean Front Real Estate (1 & 2)

In my experience, MSN places greater weight with on-page SEO than G. Since you stated that you have few links to the site, this most likely accounts for the disparity.

I know backlinks are the backbone :) of google's SERPs so the question now becomes where should the effort be put for backlinks, and what anchor text should be used? The last part is a bit tricky.

I usually run 3 sets of anchor text for each primary KW and allocate the links 70/15/15.

frobn

06-11-2005, 04:55 AM

Not more diversity, but more focus on the main KW as your site theme..

I am not sure what you mean by more focus on main KWs. My analysis suggests that the main obstacles are not key west real estate sites but sites that are heavily invested in the KW "key west," such as authority sites, travel sites, hub sites, key west directories, etc.

In my experience, MSN places greater weight with on-page SEO than G. Since you stated that you have few links to the site, this most likely accounts for the disparity..

Linking is definitely one part, the other part is google parses the key word phase and weights every word in the phase whereas MSN gives more weight to the total phase that is why a better optimized real estate site will beat out "key west" hub and authority sites on MSN. From what I can tell Yahoo falls somewhere between the two.

HHI Golf Guy

06-11-2005, 07:48 AM

I am not sure what you mean by more focus on main KWs. My analysis suggests that the main obstacles are not key west real estate sites but sites that are heavily invested in the KW "key west," such as authority sites, travel sites, hub sites, key west directories, etc.

The theme of your site needs to be strong and consistent throughout the majority of the web site. The theme must tie to your primary KW's.

For example, I had a real estate site that contained about 30% of its pages dedicated to local golf. The info was critical to the site, because most of the homes in the area were in golf communities.

The site had top rankings on Y and MSN, but was languishing on the 2nd and 3rd page in Google. My hunch was that the high volume of golf pages was diluting my overall theme.

So I moved the golf pages to a sub domain and made no other changes to the site. Within 3 weeks, as the Gbot re-spidered the site, the SERP's for the primary KW's moved to page one.

This tells me that the overall theme - along with hierarchy of the navigation structure - plays a part in the the Google algo.

In your case, how does the Key West theme play throughout the site? Are there a lot of general real estate or other pages that do not tie in to Key West?

frobn

06-11-2005, 08:34 AM

The theme of your site needs to be strong and consistent throughout the majority of the web site. The theme must tie to your primary KW's.

For example, I had a real estate site that contained about 30% of its pages dedicated to local golf. The info was critical to the site, because most of the homes in the area were in golf communities.

The site had top rankings on Y and MSN, but was languishing on the 2nd and 3rd page in Google. My hunch was that the high volume of golf pages was diluting my overall theme.

So I moved the golf pages to a sub domain and made no other changes to the site. Within 3 weeks, as the Gbot re-spidered the site, the SERP's for the primary KW's moved to page one.

This tells me that the overall theme - along with hierarchy of the navigation structure - plays a part in the the Google algo.

In your case, how does the Key West theme play throughout the site? Are there a lot of general real estate or other pages that do not tie in to Key West?

YES, this is the same google behavior I am observing, the KWs "Key West" is being diluted. I also see it in Yahoo, but not nearly as pronounced. I am adding ~20 pages of Key West information. Now I need to figure out the best overall navigation strategy to tie them in. I hadn't thought about a sub domain but it is something to consider.

I hope others are following this thread and learning from this exercise.

Phoenix Realtor

06-11-2005, 11:45 AM

I hope others are following this thread and learning from this exercise.

I know I am! I just haven't wanted to post and interfere. Keep chatting please. :D

gemini

06-11-2005, 12:33 PM

frobn

06-11-2005, 02:04 PM

do you consider 'keywest' different from 'key west'? On my opinion they are completely different variables that somewhat related, but can not be compared. It is the same if you compare 'key west real estate' to 'southern florida real estate' and try to figure out why the first one is rakning differently from the second one. Their ranking conditions are complitely different - what do you base compaison on? I said it before - you could compare exactly the same phrases for different sites in the same niche, it makes much more sense.

It's different but for google it is related. For MSN it is different and not related. In my second post I realized that the difference was due to a restricted search. In a later post I added diluting the key words to restrict the search. In both cases the results have implications as to how google parses key word phase for SERPs.

In a post HHI Golf Guy talking about one of his sites:

"The site had top rankings on Y and MSN, but was languishing on the 2nd and 3rd page in Google. My hunch was that the high volume of golf pages was diluting my overall theme."

HHI called it a "hunch" and from what I have seen his hunches are pretty damn good. I observed similar google behavior on my site, not from a hunch but from an analysis of the data. I don't have HHI's intution so had it not been for the data I would have missed it, my SEO focus would be different on a differnt tract and in opinion not as effective as I believe it is going to be.

I have already learned a lot about how MSN and google parse key word phases.

Phoenix and others please join in. I am not trying to prove I am right, I want find efficient ways of optimizing a site.

HHI Golf Guy

06-11-2005, 03:18 PM

HHI called it a "hunch" and from what I have seen his hunches are pretty damn good. I observed similar google behavior on my site, not from a hunch but from an analysis of the data. I don't have HHI's intution so had it not been for the data I would have missed it, my SEO focus would be different on a differnt tract and in opinion not as effective as I believe it is going to be.

Thanks for the compliment. Please remember that this worked for one of my sites in part because of how the rest of the site was SEO engineered. It may work for you, then again it may not. There are just too many other variables to be certain.

frobn

06-12-2005, 10:15 AM

The experiment will have to go on hold for awhile. I mentioned in previous posts that the "Bourbon Update" was still in progress. My numbers are irratic to say the least so comparisons would be worthless at this time. If and when things settle down I'll be back.

San Diego Real Estate

06-13-2005, 08:27 AM

Ok Guys...

Whats up with Google today??? :confused:

Phoenix Realtor

06-13-2005, 11:04 AM

I see nothing wrong with Google on my end.

Be more specific next time, give us a tiny bit of info on what the heck you are talking about.

Shimmer

06-13-2005, 02:19 PM

I started a online connected story that represents the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder, which one do you want to read. The stories are linked let me know what you think.

http://GSaint.blogspot.com

http://GDevil.blogspot.com

frobn

06-13-2005, 04:03 PM

well.. I'm #1 for my city real estate and #2 for mycity real estate - the two competing web sites are also there as usually.

I am happy for you but as I said in a previous post it's us new guys on block who have a lot of catching up to do so we need to learn to work smart. I have a lot to digest from what I learned from my breif experiment. One major factor I discovered is that because key west and the florida keys is a premier travel destination that my major web key word competion is not with real estate sites but with travel and key west hub sites. Good real estate content takes time to develop but is available, but overcoming the competition for long establish travel sites and hubs is going to take a lot more time and a lot more effort. I have already done it with MSN and I believe I can with Yahoo, but Google's convoluted parsing of key word phases makes it a bit more difficult.