Wait a minute... Ask The Builder really is a bad website...

14 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Following up on the interview thread here:

http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...rview-mp3.html

I've been talking about AskTheBuilder for years.
I've been quoting AskTheBuilder for years.
I've been referring people to the Adsense Case Study for years.

But today I realized, I've never really looked at AskTheBuilder at the level that I should have.

So I just did. And in my opinion, that website is pretty bad.

It doesn't suck in the way a total spammer website sucks.

But have a look for yourself:

http://www.askthebuilder.com/sitemap.xml

I had always placed Tim in the same category as people like YoungHouseLove or thepioneerwoman.com.

But, after going through a few dozen pages of his, I wouldn't rank him in anywhere near the same category as them.

Consider the three articles:

AskTheBuilder - Deck
thepioneerwoman
Young House Love

Lowes is ranked number one right now: Lowes.com : How to Build a Deck

I mean when I peruse Tim's pages, I can see he gave a 45 second speech about the keyword.

But that's about it. He didn't teach anyone how to "build a deck" in that post... The title doesn't even make sense...

His site content is mostly a remnant of the early days -- when we all did strictly verbatim Google Keyword Tool-based content creation.

Not to mention the horrendous navigational structure of that site. What were they thinking there?
Also, a now non-existant homepage... basically just an email optin box now AsktheBuilder.com - Do it Right Not Over
And the immense CPU usage that that annoying advert video causes...
And the three static Div's that float over the content...
And as you can see in the comments, he doesnt have near the 'level of engagement' that the other two examples do.
And what is with the h1 tags all over the page...

its like they were trying to make a confusing page on purpose...

I dunno...

Now its not all bad. He does have some winning posts.

But man... It's definitely not hard for me to see why his "light-content posts" are bringing down the rest of the site...

(A lot of his posts seem to often have less than 200 words.)

And its full of "product keywords" like: Joist Hangers

Anyway, all interesting...

But it ain't too hard to see why this site got booted.
#bad #builder #minute #wait #website
  • Profile picture of the author Oranges
    You just gave him more backlinks with 384 words long article.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6364153].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
    Its all part of the secret plan
    Signature

    Get Keyword Reseacher at CleverGizmos.com.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6365056].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
    Banned
    Originally Posted by thatkeywordguy View Post


    But it ain't too hard to see why this site got booted.
    Yep, his site is just terrible. That's why Google used it in numerous case studies on how to do things the right way and paid him $1,400 a day in Adsense.....because they just love paying for clicks on garbage sites.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6365496].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Carl Brown
      Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat View Post

      Yep, his site is just terrible. That's why Google used it in numerous case studies on how to do things the right way and paid him $1,400 a day in Adsense.....because they just love paying for clicks on garbage sites.
      He didn't say that. He said the site wasn't deserving of it's position. It's not a terrible site, but it seems to be geared more for making a buck than actually helping the visitor solve a problem.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6369252].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mosthost
    Absolutely. His site is pure crap. He's been getting overpaid for years and isn't even the slightest bit grateful for his luck.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6365566].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
    ya i think what happens is Google has two faces

    the adsense team just thinks in terms of clicks. So were happy to use a nice guy like Tim as their poster boy.

    but the Google Search Team has vastly different plans.
    Signature

    Get Keyword Reseacher at CleverGizmos.com.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6367893].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6367923].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jakecoop79
      Originally Posted by Paul Gram View Post

      1. His site is completely different now than it was before he got hit with penalties.
      That's true. He totally changed his site after the penalties. So not sure this post is totally fair.

      His site might still have been crap according to the OP, but what you see now is not what it was.
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6368093].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Is it required now that someone post this once a week on the WF?

    Once, twice,..... was not enough?

    Paul
    Signature

    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6367946].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
    its quite a debate i've been having elsewhere.

    here's an older link to how his site used to look

    Ask the Builder - The Home Improvement Resource

    he seems to be moving content behind the pay wall on the new site

    but the point of panda was having a flurry of lite content, keyword-targeted posts would bring down an entire domain. Consider the archive.org snapshop linked to above.

    gutter repair
    workbenches
    ceramic flooring tile

    he's using post titles that are merely keywords themselves. And "product keywords" at that.

    And then, when I read his posts, I don't really feel like he answered the spirit of the commercial intent of the keyword.

    I mean if i was google, and someone typed in "workbenches", i wouldn't send them to Tim Carter's page on workbenches.
    Signature

    Get Keyword Reseacher at CleverGizmos.com.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6368713].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author retsek
    His site was setup differently before Panda hit it, but many of the issues you point out still existed then. All of which can be seen on waybackmachine.

    He shoulda put time into fixing those issues rather than blaming Google.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6368920].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ThatAblaze
    Hmmm... all his conspiracy theories.. were they really conspiracies of their own?

    What is really going on here? I guess we'll never know..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6369026].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dmtaylor247
    Honestly he made too much for that site, there are better sites that earn less. Back in the hay day when people searched for how to build a shed there was probably only his website, that's why he made so much wenga, now things are different, times change and what Google thought back then doesn't apply now. He doesn't know what he is doing otherwise he wouldn't be in this mess, he's a builder not a webmaster.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6369098].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
      right

      Tim started building a keyword-based "content farm"--in the days before the word "content farm" even existed.

      it worked great!

      Even the Google Adsense Marketing Team was impressed.

      But remember, the Adsense Marketing Team are not builders. Nor do they seem to talk much to the Search Engine Team.

      So, the world moved on. And the Search Team decided that better, more content-rich sites should appear in their index.
      Signature

      Get Keyword Reseacher at CleverGizmos.com.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6369149].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
    Ya in retrospect, i'm surprised how mad Tim got.

    His site was fixable. and with his site revenue, he could have parlayed that money into making a few changes that probably would have got him past panda.
    Signature

    Get Keyword Reseacher at CleverGizmos.com.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6370949].message }}

Trending Topics