Google Organic Results Baffle me sometimes

kflanagan28 · 07-31-2009, 07:58 AM

Sometimes I am just amazed by some of Google's results. They make no sense when you know what should go into top placed ranking.

For example, in a market I am looking at, there is a site ranking 1st for a competitive keyword. It's not even the home page of the site, it's an internal page i.e. www.example.com/page_1. The page does not have much link equity, there are maybe a 100 links pointing to it. Not one of those has the competitive keyword as anchor text. The keyword is also not used anywhere on the web page or in any internal links pointing to the page.

The site has an overall PR of 6 and this page also has a PR of 6 (this also surprises me).

The site in second place has their home page optimized for the keyword, has the keyword in all the right places, on page, in internal links and has way better external links using that keyword. It's also a PR 6.

Basically, the site ranking first is not optimized for this keyword and there is no indication of how google is deciding to rank it for that keyword. In all my time doing competitive analysis, I have never seen anything this strange...

Oh, I can't show the site I am afraid !!!

Lucid · 07-31-2009, 08:50 AM

> They make no sense when you know what should go into top placed ranking.

Well, obviously, Google has a different opinion than you of which sites should be ranked at the top.

> It's not even the home page of the site

Why would it be? The home page has no special significance which seems to be what you are implying.

> The page does not have much link equity

I'm no SEO guru but it seems people are putting way too much value on this.

> The keyword is also not used anywhere on the web page or in any internal links pointing to the page.

That would seem strange to me too. Must be other factors affecting the ranking. Is the theme of the page related to the keywords used?

> The site has an overall PR of 6

This I know people are putting waaay too much value on.

It also occurs to me that maybe you clicked on a sponsored result that appears before the SERPs. Sometimes they do look much like an organic listing.

07-31-2009, 07:58 AM	#1
kflanagan28 Active Warrior Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 87 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Social Networking	Google Organic Results Baffle me sometimes - Comments Wanted Sometimes I am just amazed by some of Google's results. They make no sense when you know what should go into top placed ranking. For example, in a market I am looking at, there is a site ranking 1st for a competitive keyword. It's not even the home page of the site, it's an internal page i.e. www.example.com/page_1. The page does not have much link equity, there are maybe a 100 links pointing to it. Not one of those has the competitive keyword as anchor text. The keyword is also not used anywhere on the web page or in any internal links pointing to the page. The site has an overall PR of 6 and this page also has a PR of 6 (this also surprises me). The site in second place has their home page optimized for the keyword, has the keyword in all the right places, on page, in internal links and has way better external links using that keyword. It's also a PR 6. Basically, the site ranking first is not optimized for this keyword and there is no indication of how google is deciding to rank it for that keyword. In all my time doing competitive analysis, I have never seen anything this strange... Oh, I can't show the site I am afraid !!!
	Search Engine Optimisation in Ireland Follow me on Twitter

07-31-2009, 08:50 AM	#2
Lucid HyperActive Warrior Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 417 Thanks: 8 Thanked 37 Times in 34 Posts	Re: Google Organic Results Baffle me sometimes - Comments Wanted > They make no sense when you know what should go into top placed ranking. Well, obviously, Google has a different opinion than you of which sites should be ranked at the top. > It's not even the home page of the site Why would it be? The home page has no special significance which seems to be what you are implying. > The page does not have much link equity I'm no SEO guru but it seems people are putting way too much value on this. > The keyword is also not used anywhere on the web page or in any internal links pointing to the page. That would seem strange to me too. Must be other factors affecting the ranking. Is the theme of the page related to the keywords used? > The site has an overall PR of 6 This I know people are putting waaay too much value on. It also occurs to me that maybe you clicked on a sponsored result that appears before the SERPs. Sometimes they do look much like an organic listing.
	Create high click rate, high conversion rate PPC campaigns Google Adwords Management: Catch More Flies in Your Web