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Does anyone REALLY know how Google operates???

by seniorsmithg
3 replies
  • SEO
    • |
1
About a year ago, when I knew about a 1/4 of what I think I know now regarding SEO, I haphazardly threw up a site around a keyword phrase. Within a week, it was on the first page at #3 for search results. I haven't done squat to the site since, and it is still at #4.

I recently started dabbling in this mystic art of SEO stuff again. I thought, well, if I can rank that easily for a key phrase that had around 250,000 competing pages, I should be able to kill, with all the tips and tricks I've learned, on a keyword phrase with a fraction of the competing pages.

That said, I picked a keyword phrase with only 1,600 competing pages. I even noted that of top results for these 1,600 competing sites, NOT ONE even matched the keyword phrase. For instance, let's say my phrase is:

how to do a backflip in one day (just an example - although close)

The top results are something like:

learn how to do somersaults in one hour (NOT an exaggeration)

Ummm, thanks Google. That's exactly what I'm looking for.

I have "mykeyphrase.com," the "All in One SEO Plugin" installed/configured, and several quality backlinks. Yet - NOTHING! I've written, admittedly, crappy articles that have even found there way into the top 10 search results for this obscure key phrase within ONE day - but even those can't beat out the top result for "somersaulting" and the like,

I just don't get Google. In all their efforts to ensure quality results, they've managed to make what you WANT to find irrelevant in such cases.

Your thoughts?
#google #operates
  • Profile picture of the author ed22
    Your competition is purely the top 10 sites currently displayed on Google.

    I keep reading about how people do competitive analysis regarding SEO with reference to how many pages have a similar keyword profile...

    Its just not relevant. At all.

    What you are competing against is the Top10 sites' SEO profiles - ie on/off page SEO, domain age, indexed content etc etc

    Thats it.

    If you beat them, you get to no1. It really doesnt matter how many sites exist that are queing up to serve that keyword phrase, you just need to beat the current occupiers
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    “If you don’t know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favourable” Seneca 4BC-AD65, Roman philosopher and poet
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    • Profile picture of the author seniorsmithg
      That makes sense.

      I just think it's funny that conceivably, I could be searching for particular information (i.e. how to "ABC"), and there could be a page that contains the Holy Grail of what I am looking for. However, none of that matters. I may never find that page because perhaps the site owner isn't in business to appease Google and doesn't care about creating backlinks. As a result, Google gives me some completely irrelevant results. I'll only see sites that provide information on "how to XYZ." Because even though this isn't relevant, they sure do have a lot of backlinks. Well, that is until Google decides to make some other unrelated aspect OF "relevance" the most important factor FOR "relevance."
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Roy
    The number of competing pages means NOTHING...ABSOLUTELY nothing.

    The number of competing sites is only an INDICATOR that the competition MIGHT be low, it doesn't mean that it is.

    I can't even remember the last time I looked at the number of competing websites.

    You could find a keyword with only 100 competing results and still never hit page one.
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