The Unsolved Mysteries Of Internet Marketing

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Hello to everyone. I am Biggy Fat, President of the Internet Marketing Unsolved Mysteries Firm, or the IMUMF for short.. Today, I am here to present to you five of our top cases that many marketers have been unable to prove true or false. This thread is not intended to debunk or bring to light anything that we feel is true or false, but rather a series of cases that we and many others have been investigating for many years in our internet marketing lives. So without further ado, here are the top five cases of the IMUMF:

Case No. 1 - The Google Sandbox

What We Know: The Google Sandbox is the place where no internet marketer wants to end up. It is said that for brand new sites, one hit high rankings for a really long time then your rankings take a downward spiral into oblivion, where no potential customer will have the patience to look.

Potential Causes: Low quality content, thin affiliate sites, MFA (Made For Adsense) sites, Black Hat methods, Spam, low quality backlinks, etc.

How To Solve
: Many IMers have stated that one should create higher quality content, build higher quality backlinks, and stay patient. In about six months time, one's site will return to prominence.

Conclusion
: Because of the fact that no one has been able to actually prove that the Google Sandbox does or doesn't exist, nor did we get word from Google themselves about this issue, this is an unsolved mystery that will continue for years to come. But we at the IMUMF will continue to look into this pressing matter.

Case No. 2 - The Duplicate Content Penalty


What We Know
: The Duplicate Content Penalty is a penalty that prevents anyone from ranking for a certain keyword phrase with content that is copied word for word or is strikingly similar to someone else's content. It is used for those that do not intend or don't have the time or money to create unique content.

Potential Causes: Taking an article, blog post, or otherwise any form of content on the World Wide Web and placing it on one's own website, leaving nothing or almost nothing changed.

How To Solve: To put it simple, create or outsource 100% unique content. IMers also say that you can rewrite, or "spin" the content to make it your own, however in our studies this has created marginal success.

Conclusion: We at the IMUMF have yet to see any form of duplicate content rank high on the web for a single keyword phrase. All of the content was fully or near fully unique. Many IMers actually say that the "DupCon" penalty is a myth but we have not seen any proof of it. Until there is proof, IMUMF concludes that this is NOT a myth. We will, however, continue to look into this pressing matter.

Case No. 3 - Hyphens In A Domain Name For Search Engine Optimization Purposes On New Websites

What We Know: The hyphen (or dash) in a domain name is a workaround to grab a domain name that is otherwise taken without hyphens. These domains are "Exact Match Domains", which is a term for a domain name that has an exact keyword phrase in it. They are abbreviated as EMDs. An EMD's purpose is to gain a huge advantage for Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, which is a term to get a top ten ranking in Google for a certain keyword term using many on site and off site strategies.

Potential Causes
: Wanting a EMD that is unavailable without hyphens.

How To Solve
: Very few marketers go ahead and grab the EMD with the hyphens in it. The other option, however, is to look for an EMD that is available without hyphens and can serve one's purpose sufficiently.

Conclusion: While there are many sites on the web that have hyphens in their domain name, these sites have stood the test of time and have been heavily invested in. There has been a long argument on whether hyphens in an EMD can help rank one's website highly in the Search Engine Result Pages (or the SERPs). Many marketers have stated that Google does not see them differently from EMDs without hyphens, while others state the contrary and even state that Google frowns upon these and penalizes them. We at the IMUMF have not seen any evidence on what is true or false, but we will continue to look into this pressing matter.

Case No. 4 - High Page Rank Backlinks

What We Know
: Every internet marketer needs backlinks, which are links that point back to one's site. And marketers especially want those High Page Rank (abbreviated as PR) backlinks. These High PR backlinks are intended to boost one's website up to the top ten of Google much faster than it would with normal backlinks. These High PR backlinks can be manually found or bought from many websites on the web. However, in many cases we have seen, it is the homepage of the domain name that has the high PR, while the page that the actual backlink is placed on has little or no PR.

Potential Causes
: Wanting to get on the first page of Google for one's keyword term or wanting to sell these links.

How To Solve
: Find or buy the backlinks and build them, preferably on pages that do have actual Page Rank.

Conclusion
: The debate is very complicated. Some marketers say that the "link juice" from the main domain name is passed on to the page where the actual backlink is, thus giving one's backlink full authority. Others state the contrary and state that these links are exactly like every other little backlink. We here at the IMUMF have no concrete evidence on which is true or false, but this is a pressing matter we will continue to look into.

Case No. 5 - .info Domain Names And Search Engine Optimization For New Sites

What We Know: The .info domain extension is a seldom used extension that many marketers have been incessently preaching for others to avoid. It is very cheap compared to a .com, .net, or a .org extension, however. The debate is very similar to our third case, which was about hyphens in a domain name. The debate is very similar to our third case, which was about hyphens in a domain name.

Potential Causes: Wanting to grab an EMD that isn't otherwise available in other extensions, wanting to save money.

How To Solve: Find an EMD that IS available in .com, .net, or .org that will serve one's purpose sufficently. One can also just go ahead and buy the .info.

Conclusion: Similar to our third case, there are many .info domain names on the web today that have stood the test of time and have been heavily invested in. The debate is also similar to our third case, just that this one is about a seldom used domain extension and not about hyphens in a domain name. Refer to case no. 3 for more information. We here at IMUMF, however, will continue to look into this pressing matter.

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And that will conclude our top cases. We have many other pressing matters that we are currently investigating, but these five are our top priorities. The Internet Marketing Unsolved Mysteries Firm welcomes any and all of your comments, questions, complaints, and concerns. Thank you.
#internet #marketing #mysteries #unsolved
  • Profile picture of the author sylviad
    I have 3 sites with hyphens in the domain and from what I can tell, the only reason they ALL are not high in Google is my own fault for lack of promotion.

    What I can tell you is that my newest hyphenated domain got ranked quickly and is frequently on page 1 of results (depending on my marketing at any given time). My other hyphenated domain in the same niche also frequently lands on page 1.

    These 2 sites are seldom lower than page 5 (again, depending on my marketing efforts).

    So I can tell you from experience that hypenated domains are just as worthy as any other.

    Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
    The IMUMF thanks you for your comment. Rest assured that we are still investigating the hyphen in domain name case.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave Rodman
    Banned
    Case #1

    I don't think there is a place that Google considers the "Sandbox". Matt Cutts has denied that one exists. He said there are certain things in the algorithm that could prevent newer sites from ranking....but newer sites CAN rank. I think it mostly has to do with the link profile.

    Case #2

    There is a duplicate content filter, not a penalty. I think, again, the link profile determines which pages get ranked.

    Case #3

    I don't think it matters at all. I think the only time it MIGHT help with hypens is if someone links using your URL (no anchor text). If you have keywords in the link, then it essentially acts as an anchor text link. But the benefits of a good domain far outweigh any help that keyword stuffed domains do.

    Case #4

    I think of the big pieces of ranking as 2 blades of a scissor. You need both for it to work. To me, you break ranking down into Link Reputation (anchor Text) and Pagerank (Link juice). Big sites typically have the issue of enough pagerank, but not enough link reputation. For example, "Office Depot" might rank for their name and be a PR7, but they don't have links that say "Office Printers", so they won't rank for it. On the flipside, a lot of WF members have TONS of crappy links from article sites/bookmarking sites/etc, but no link juice.

    Case #5

    No comment...no clue about .info domains.
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    • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
      Case #1

      There is no general sandbox. There are ranking factors and filters that might create an effect that might be interpreted by some as a 'sandbox'. That's what Matt Cutts said about it. There are methods you can use to avoid the effect and there are some methods you can use that would aggravate the situation.

      Case #2

      There is no duplicate content penalty. There are duplicate content filters that try to show the most relevant sites (determined by link authority) for a particular search while eliminating duplicate information when it comes to popular keywords. On long tail searches, such as for specific news stories or song lyrics, you'll see many duplicate content pages.

      Case #3

      It's quite clear that there are no penalties applied to hyphenated domain names. What matters for SEO purposes is the quality of your site's link profile. All you have to do is a little research to figure this one out.

      Case #4

      Get an editorial link from an internal article on CNN, NY Times, MSNBC or the like and see how it affects your site's rankings.

      Case #5

      See #3.

      To add to both #3 and #5, if the exact match .com is an established site with strong links, don't expect to easily dethrone it with a brand new site on anything else, be it hyphened .com, a .net, a .org or a .info. But, if the exact match .com is parked with no links and isn't indexed because some domainer is holding out for someone to pay them $10K for it, then you have an opening.
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