A curious ranking observation

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27
As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic.

A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.

Anyhow, curious to see what google would serve up on a search for "nutrition discussion forum" my forum of choice was listed at #5 today. Not bad. Now I can see why #2, 3, and 4 are there. . . but the #1 spot goes to BeverlyNutrition.com.

Crossfit.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 10,793 with 1,479 sites linking in.

Beverlynutrition.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 5,343,188 with 6 sites linking in.

Now what would make Google think that Beverlynutrition.com is the top dish of the day?
#search engine optimization #curious #observation #ranking
  • prob better on site seo, aged domain, maybe they targeted that exact kw? maybe those are some bad ass 6 links

    maybe it owned by google...haha jkjk

    those r my guesses
  • more SEO efforts I guess, content + quality backlink..
  • Well, having an old domain name and the website being the search engine + user friendly may be the reason behind all this...Traffic can be a factor also...
  • Crossfit.com domain backend moves around alot and hasnt been around longer than Beverlynutrition.com domain.

    Crossfit.com is also a vbulletine site where alot of spammers like too hang out
    • [1] reply
    • Please explain further about what you mean by "domain backend" and how you were able to determine that it moves around a lotl
      • [1] reply
  • I think you should develop your own nutrition forum and easily outrank them as neither site has good SEO.
    • [1] reply
    • Funny you should mention that as I was just thinking the same thing...
  • More and better inbound links. That's probably the answer you're looking for.
  • They just targeted the keywords well in their anchor text that's why they outrank Crossfit.com.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi drmattnd,

      Google ranks results based on relevance. Just look at the on-page SEO and you will see beverlynutrition is optimized for the keyword and crossfit isn't. There is no need to look beyond that, it explains why one page is ranking better than the other.
      • [1] reply
  • There are few things to be considered.

    (1)The age of the domain. The older the more it gains credibility among Internet users.

    (2) Site listings. Is it listed in DMOZ? Yahoo Directory? Google Maps?

    (3) Meta Tags. Is the meta title, keyword and description suited for SEO?

    (4) Quality of backlinks. Number is not always the factor. Quality can also be a basis.

    (5) Relevance. Already laid down by dburk above.

    and there more that should be elaborated. Hope this can clear things up a little.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • CrossFit first registered in 1999. Beverly 2003

      DMOZ: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - Yes

      Yahoo: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - No

      Google Maps: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - No

      Crossfit has meta tags. Beverly does not. So I would assume Crossfit wins by default.

      link:beverlynutrition.com Zero results

      link:crossfit.com About 1770 results

      As a user, I don't find their site to be more relevant. But that's just me. Obviously Google disagrees and I wanna know why!

      Such as...? Obviously there is something I'm missing here. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I am just trying to understand this example from Google's perspective.
  • I do agree with RegalWeb. There are so many things to be considered. That's a reason why SEO is not done like magic. Certain studies and evaluation should be first conducted in order to ensure rankings.
    • [1] reply
  • Further to them having better SEO........

    There is a site that I am trying to knock off the top spot - we both have exact match domain names and both are top level. (it's not my indigojack.com domain)

    Their site is top because in addition to the usual SEO stuff they have posted articles and press releases all over the place.

    Plus, their domain has been around longer than mine which means they have lots of keyword rich content that has been built up over time.
  • The older the better site for me.
    Instead of worrying about the questions in your mind why don't you focus on your site and keep on improving your Off and On Page Optimization.
    In the end the google rankings will react on your efforts.
    • [1] reply
    • Forgive what may be a completely ignorant thought .... but I get the impression (judging by what happens to my few sites) that Google sometimes 'bumps' you up to see what response your site gets - and if you *deserve* a higher spot.
      I have a site that was stuck at result about 16, but slowly moving up based on my (weak and ill-informed) backlinking. One day, I shot up to slot 8, only to drop back to about 12 the next day. No change in content or backlinks between the 2 days (at least not that showed up on Google Analytics).
      I think they just move you around to see where you get a great response.
      Could be they put these guys at the top 'just to see'.
      JP
  • waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.
    Google chooses those sites who's title and description is better optomized, but THEY can pick and choose what they consider to be your best description!! LOL
    • [1] reply
    • Hi jonrpatrick,

      Yeah, that is funny isn't it? :rolleyes:


      Here's a little video where Google engineer Matt Cutts explains their policy:

      YouTube - Snippets and Titles
      • [1] reply
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    A curious ranking observation

    As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic. A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.