Jul
10

A Mystifying Case of Top Search Engine Ranking: Solved

By Sid

SEO MysterySam was a bit perplexed.

He hadn’t really done much search engine optimization of his site. He wasn’t even near the top ten for his primary keyword phrase. And yet…

Sam discovered that he had top search engine ranking (number 1) for a keyword phrase he wasn’t using – ANYWHERE on his web site.

In fact, it gets even more mystifying. Sam had top search engine ranking for the phrase “universal folder gluers”, even though the word “universal” was nowhere to be found on his web site. Nada. Not on a single page, link, or even graphic image.

“How can this be?” Sam asked.

Solving The Puzzle of Top Search Engine Ranking

I decided to do a little investigating.

First, I did a quick review of Sam’s site (Folder Gluers). Yup. “Universal” wasn’t anywhere on the site.

His site was using frames (not the best of ideas), so the “Title” for each page was the same – just the URL. He was using his primary keyword phrase on his pages, so there wasn’t much to go by there.

Next, I used the SEOBOOK Firefox Toolbar to see if there might be some back links from other sites using the word “Universal” somewhere on the page.

Hmmm….

I found a very strange Spanish-language site: www.cosmos.com.mx/5/U__3.htm

Aha!

There it was:

folder-gluers

Mystery Solved?

The mystery wasn’t quite solved…

My next stop was to Archive.org, where I did a search for folder-gluers.com.  Sure enough, there was the history. At one time Universal Equipment owned the rights to folder-gluers.com and had their own little web site there.

What This Goes To Show You

There’s are two HUGE lessons here, which I hope you get:

1.  The power of back links in search engine ranking

All it took was one simple back link from an obscure site and Google was able to associate “Universal folder gluers” to folder-gluers.com.

Imagine what you could do with hundreds, or even thousands of quality back links to your web site!

2.  Do your research

Do you have a previously-owned URL?  Especially if you are surprised by the fact that your chosen URL is available, it would be wise to do a little research. If your URL was previously owned, then do a little digging to see if your URL is already ranked for certain keyword phrases.

If so, it won’t take much to get even higher search engine rankings for those keyword phrases because, according to Google, you’ve got some “history.”

I think Mr. Holmes would have been proud…

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Categories : SEO-Search Engine Optimization
  • b2bcopywriting
    Thanks for the comments. Yes, the outcome surprised me. It never occurred to me that an "available" domain name might have some history. It's a good thing to check!
  • That was a great post and thanks for writing it in a compelling manner. I sure am glad you didn't leave us with a cliff hanger. :) Backlinks are important and the importance of the context was highlighted in your relaying the account. By the way the Sherlock Holmes style detective definitely added to the nuances.

    Now to doublecheck the domains I bought lately to see what ranking. :)
  • Nice post. I agree with Jim. You tell a very engaging story. It's hard to stop reading. The point about backlinks reminds me of the well-known example of Adobe ranking number one for the phrase "click here" since so many sites mention downloading Adobe Acrobat. But the point about previously owned domains is less well known. Research should probably start before acquiring a domain that was previously owned. Good insights.
  • Great detective work! The game is afoot!

    Those two lessons are ones we should all remember. Amazing the power that one backlink had. It certainly shows that getting such backlinks is a worthwhile effort.

    I had not considered the importance of past history of the url. But I see now that it's something worth checking into.

    Good work!

    Steve DeVane
  • Very interesting article, never knew the power of back links was huge. I've got back links to a few sites that really good so i should be seeing my rank going up too... Doing research on the URL? Massive discovery, i would never have thought of this! Great article, points noted.

    Thanks
  • Great story telling - very captivating.

    Glad you had the patience to investigate that fully so we can learn.

    I cannot see how backlinks won't always be very important since that is the whole purpose of the "web" to link sites and relevant information together.
  • Well Sherlock... your story opened my eyes to some things we all take for granted especially in regards to haveing a pre owned URL. You could even I guess have a back-link that was irrelevant too which supports your statement that it's always worth researching. An excellent informative article by way of taking the reader through the exercise.
  • Definitely an interesting approach to your article, story-telling is always a great way to convey a message.

    Though there is much debate about whether back-links are still "King", they are definitely still highly relevant and important. The main reason of course pertains to the fact that the search engines use them in ranking and in crawling (the more authoritative the linked sites, the better).

    You also point out a risk when there is a web-trail that may deliver visitors to your site who instantly click off. Other factors the SEs use are time the visitor spends on a page, number of pages visited, etc. This is due to the fact that they are indications of how valuable the visitors find the content on your site. The longer they spend, the more useful the content (or at least that is the assumption).

    Great insight and very thought provoking, thanks for the post!
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