What do you want to see in a ranking test?

14 replies
  • SEO
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I'm going to be doing some SEO testing and I'd like some input from the group as to what would be interesting to see. I'm going to try to keep things as controlled as possible, but obviously it won't be perfect.

I'm going to be testing both on-page and off-page stuff. The onpage stuff is pretty easy, so I'm more interested in what would be interesting for the off page.

Here's what I'm thinking of doing.

Set up 3-5 sites (no keyword in domain name) that all target the same keyword.

Optimize all sites identically. They'll have unique content, but it will essentially be equal if that makes sense.

Then apply a different strategy to each site.

I'm thinking
1. Exclusively Build My Rank
2. Exclusively spammy blog comments
3. Exclusively profile links
4. Exclusively AMR blasts
5. Some sort of link wheel or pyramid


I'm totally open to suggestions, but the only paid service I belong to is BMR. I'd rather not join 5 other networks just for this test. If there is overwhelming response to test another network I might consider joining for the good of the community.

The purpose of the test is to see which method works best. There's always a ton of theory thrown around, but I want to do some testing for myself. So I figured I'd do it in the open so maybe someone else can get some value out of it.

Please note: I'm going to intentionally find extremely easy to rank for keywords. This test is to simply test which of these strategies works best. I think the best way to do that is rank for something that has no competition.

I'll likely rank for a phrase that doesn't make sense and has no results in the SERPS.

Anyway, give me your suggestions and I'll get the test formalized. I'll either update here or I'll set up a blog. Not sure if the Mods want another one of these update threads or not.

7.6.11 Update

1st on-page test complete. 2 pages optimized equally, but one has 2% keyword density and one has 6% keyword density.

The 6% keyword density ranks higher than the 2% page.


According to this test, higher keyword density is better all other things being equal.

More tests are coming...
#ranking
  • Profile picture of the author ZachWaldman
    I would like to see the effectiveness of sites that do your directory submissions and social bookmarking for you. For example, I use Directory Maximizer and would like to know how well their service works.
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    • Profile picture of the author frogman
      Ya, how about just bookmarking? Or a couple of fiverr gigs?
      Or just no link building at all (but of course well optimized, maybe clickbump style)?
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      • Profile picture of the author packerfan
        Originally Posted by frogman View Post

        Ya, how about just bookmarking? Or a couple of fiverr gigs?
        Or just no link building at all (but of course well optimized, maybe clickbump style)?
        I don't know what "clickbump" style is. But I think it's a good idea to include a site with no links. Will certainly add that to the list.

        And I'll be using fiverr for everything but BMR, AMR, Scrapebox blasts. So if I do bookmark, profile, etc. I'll be using fiverr for that.

        Thanks for the suggestions.
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        • Profile picture of the author brendan9971
          would love to see another fiverr gig test!
          Andrew from passive proiteer is currently doing one, it would be great to see more though.

          I believe it would be awesome if a bunch of use from warriorforum did like a directory of the best fiverr gigs. So we have a directory of different things, such as graphics, blog commenting gigs, profile backlink gigs etc

          ^ that would be awesome!
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          • Profile picture of the author packerfan
            Originally Posted by brendan9971 View Post

            would love to see another fiverr gig test!
            Andrew from passive proiteer is currently doing one, it would be great to see more though.

            I believe it would be awesome if a bunch of use from warriorforum did like a directory of the best fiverr gigs. So we have a directory of different things, such as graphics, blog commenting gigs, profile backlink gigs etc

            ^ that would be awesome!
            This wouldn't so much be a fiverr gig test, but a link test. I'm just going to use fiverr to get the work done. Do you have a link for the fiverr test? It will help save me some time when I need to get the work done.
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            • Profile picture of the author brendan9971
              Originally Posted by packerfan View Post

              This wouldn't so much be a fiverr gig test, but a link test. I'm just going to use fiverr to get the work done. Do you have a link for the fiverr test? It will help save me some time when I need to get the work done.
              what do you mean link for the fiverr test?

              do you mean a gig i want tested?

              regards,
              brendan
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              • Profile picture of the author packerfan
                Originally Posted by brendan9971 View Post

                what do you mean link for the fiverr test?

                do you mean a gig i want tested?

                regards,
                brendan
                I meant to the guy doing the test you mentioned. If he's testing gigs, I'll be sure to use some of the ones that got good reviews. Sorry for the confusion.
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        • Profile picture of the author mytoy78
          Originally Posted by packerfan View Post

          I don't know what "clickbump" style is. But I think it's a good idea to include a site with no links. Will certainly add that to the list.

          And I'll be using fiverr for everything but BMR, AMR, Scrapebox blasts. So if I do bookmark, profile, etc. I'll be using fiverr for that.

          Thanks for the suggestions.

          Hey Packerfan

          I think the poster is refering to 'Clickbump seo', which is a similar wordpress plugin to 'seopressor'.

          I works by making sure that your onpage seo is perfect. It's great, I have both and have found the clickbump seo, doesn't make my sites lag, like 'seopressor' does.

          I hope that helps.

          Colin Armour
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    I'm thinking
    1. Exclusively Build My Rank
    2. Exclusively spammy blog comments
    3. Exclusively profile links
    4. Exclusively AMR blasts
    5. Some sort of link wheel or pyramid
    This does not make sense, you simply ignore how important DIVERSITY is.

    Otherwise you are already using a very good system (BMR)...but i still think you need to diversify and NOT rely on only one source of links.

    ***

    Much more sense it would make if you test several systems of the same kind, let's say ONLY blog networks. BMR, Articleranks, ALN, whatever.

    And then do tests on sites/keywords which have about the same chance to rank...however this might be somewhat difficult.

    ***

    More advanced link building (for me) usually means combining several things (although i stopped comment spamming...)...backlinking links from A to B etc.... blast articles with AMR...then backlink them on a blog network, etc..etc...

    You cannot simplify link building since the "real" web is not that simple either...its more or less random and you need to "simulate" such randomness IMHO.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      George,

      Here's what I'm trying to figure out....

      I have X links from BMR, X links from AMR, X links from scrapebox blast, X profile links, X bookmarks, etc. Which is more powerful.

      I'm not trying to determine the best link building strategy here. Here's my rationale.

      I pay $59/month for BMR. If I find that an AMR blast is more powerful than 10 BMR posts, I'll have to figure out if that $59 is worth it. Likewise, if a scrapebox blast is less powerful than 100 social bookmarks, well then I'll focus more on bookmarks.

      I completely agree about link diversity, and on my real sites I always have a diverse linking strategy. But I want to know what really works.

      Thats why I'm going to try to control as many variables as possible. If I start building a ton of links from different sources it gets real complicated.

      What I might do is do it in levels. Base level, try each method on a single page. Then add one more link type, see which combination is more powerful, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Well, If it's for testing only.

    Example:

    1) Make every single bit of the on-page seo try & rank for the keyword train (example keyword).

    2) Make every single bit of the off-page seo (keyword anchor-text) try & rank for an unrelated keyword apple (example keyword).

    See which keyword ranks...
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Well, If it's for testing only.

      Example:

      1) Make every single bit of the on-page seo try & rank for the keyword train (example keyword).

      2) Make every single bit of the off-page seo (keyword anchor-text) try & rank for an unrelated keyword apple (example keyword).

      See which keyword ranks...
      Will include something similar to this. I think I'm going to put one page on the site that doesn't include the keyword, then see what I have to do to outrank the fully optimized page.

      I think that accomplishes what you're after. And I'm curious as well.
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      • Profile picture of the author packerfan
        I have two pages of straight PLR both optimized for a keyword with zero search results. They have the same on-page optimization except one is 2 percent keyword density and one is 6 percent keyword density.

        I've submitted the site to webmaster tools, submitted sitemap and pinged the two pages. Just waiting to get both pages indexed and we'll see how the ranking falls out.

        I'm hoping to see how important keyword density is with this specific test. If the 2% outranks the 6% I'll be a happy man. If the 6% does, well I guess I need to start adding the keyword a few more times...

        Both pages have similar word counts as well.

        Still putting together off page plans.
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        • Profile picture of the author packerfan
          Original post updated. Higher keyword density ranks higher.
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