In my last post, I discussed the SEO impact of Google Caffeine, and I mentioned a ‘junk’ authority site that does well under the new Google Caffeine.
But before I continue, I need to make it clear that my intention is not to belittle this site. I simply want to use it as a case study to show you that it is still possible to dominate Google’s search result, without having to build the next wikipedia.
Without beating around the bush, here is the site.
This site has lots of page 1 ranking in Google (see proof here).
But if you study into this site, you will realize that most of the articles in this site are PLR articles, either partially rewritten or with sentences jumbled up.
Question is, how on earth does this site do so well in Google?
As I explained in my previous post, Google is biased towards authority sites. This site is an aged site (started in 2003), with PR 5, and it has tons of articles (though not original). That basically meets the requirement of an authority site.
To Google, this site is technically looking like another Wikipedia or Ezinearticles.
But that is not all. This site is good at categorizing its contents.
For example, if you go to one of its article pages, say a page on bathroom decor, you can see that there are many other links to articles related to bathroom decor.
Google loves the idea of a niche encyclopedia. It loves this concept yesterday, it loves this concept today, and I am very sure that it will continue to love this concept in the future.
Why? Because that’s what Google is all about. Google’s aim is to return the best webpages with the info that people search for, and the best webpage is one that contains everything related to the search term.
In this aspect, this site has done quite well.
Last but not least, the site owner has spent a lot of effort in establishing backlinks, not just to the homepage, but also to the internal pages. (You can do a link search in Yahoo to verify this.) This is an important factor in establishing the authority level of the site.
So in summary, an authority site + encyclopedia-typed of content management = great ranking in Google. That, I believe, is the success of this site.
So, how tough is it for you to do something like this? ;)
This is great post about google caffeine, it is good to know how new google caffeine works, thanks for sharing.
Thanks much for the info on this. I have not seen any sweeping changes with Caffeine. I personally think Caffeine is mostly a lot of hype about some minor algorithm changes.
No, it’s not hype. Check out some IM forums. Many people have reported that their made-for-adsense sites have been dropped. Mine too. Of course, if you are building high value sites and has good backlinks, the new Caffeine should work in your favor.
Kenneth
I have been working on a few of my blogs over the past week, getting some great results, just a shame that Amazon pays a very small %.
Thank you for the info, just viewing the websites!
Greetings from Germany
Trevor
Thanks for sharing your case study findings. It’s interesting to discover how google works and get around with it.
Yes an interesting post. It is hard to keep up with googles changes and is important as such; so as not to harm your business
Hi there Kenneth.
I’m from Malaysia and are you from here too?
Can I ask you one important question?
ADSENSE
My keyword-phrase is already ranked No. 1 in page 1 Google.
e.g. “mens blue widgets” is ranked No. 1
But my keyword-broad is ranked in other pages.
e.g. mens blue widgets is at page 2
Since nobody types “mens blue widgets” when they search for it, majority are searching for mens blue widgets.
The question, must the broad-match-keyword be ranked No. 1 to achieve Adsense success?
(This is because I noticed there is not much traffic… Despite being ranked No. 1 for the keyword-phrase “mens blue widgets”)
Traffic from one search term is always small. It’s the collective traffic from the ‘small traffic’ from all kinds of search term that result in substantial traffic.
For example, I may get say 30 traffic a day from a hot search term, but I get 300 traffic a day from hundreds of other search terms that only generate anything from 1 to 5 traffic a day.
That’s how search engine traffic works.
Kenneth
“In this aspect, this site has done quite well.”
What does quite well mean?
I have been using Adsense for about 6 weeks now, the Page CTR is 2.55%! Is that good or bad?
Thanks
Trevor
Quite bad if you ask me. My average is about 9-10%.
Kenneth
Thanks Kenneth,
how on earth do you get 9-10%, that is a big difference to 2,55%.
Would you be so freindly and do me a favoue, please send me a link to one of your sites that has 9-10%?
Thanks
Trevor
No secret actually.
– Make sure you put ads above the fold
– Don’t frame up the ad
Most important of all, selection of niche. I go for niche where there is a need for solutions, such as headache, yeast infection etc. People visiting the sites are looking for cause, symptoms and…. SOLUTIONS. Since my site only has info, but the ads say CURE …… they will click the ads to look for what they want.
Kenneth
Thanks Kenneth,
great too see that although you have lots of work going on, you still find time to answer!
Thanks for the tips!
Trevor
Alright. Thanks for the explanation.
so the key to get ranking well under google caffeine is our site must have high pagerank and aged domain?? i have aged domain, but to get a high pagerank is difficult..
Dear Kenneth,
Thank you very much for the info.
I find a program, can offer your own best on Google Adsense Website. This web is integrated with the latest cutting edge technology so it makes money on auto pilot. Once setup you won’t even have to do anything and still rake in the cash day after day. And it can search the net and find whatever you need as well. From music to fishing accessories and everything in between. Search Right Here. – computer, travel, finance, car, shopping, video, marketing, adsense, clickbank, tours, travel guide, shopping tips, finance guide:
http://www.adsensetips.org.uk
RUTH
HAVE A NICE WEEKEND.
Hi Kenneth,
Thanks for the insightful article. I don’t build made for adsense sites or any other kind of spammy sites, so Google Caffeine hasn’t really affected me. I’m only involved in 1 niche, which is IM. That’s why I only have a select few number of websites :)
Best!
Welly Mulia
Great information.
Internet newbies have many difficulties with all kind of problems that you meet on this voyage.
Trying to get qualified traffic is very difficult if you have to learn what happened with the last failure and you have each time less money to keep trying new systems or to make the correct changes.
Some marketers try to start with free tools and systems but these are slow and sometimes don’t have all the features to just get even ten page rank.
When you think that you have fixed a problem then you don’t have the money to correct it or get the tool to be a success.
Now many marketers are learning to build blogs.
I think that the most difficult aspect is being honest and being legal.
We are competing with dishonest and marginally legal sites that seem to have better opportunities.
Building and working to have success with a honest online business, to help people, without hurting them, you have to compete with powerful dishonest marketers that are have high ranks.
Getting a good rank is a battle with so many competition and specially, those that are marginally honest.
Any insights?
Sincerely,
Kenneth, I really enjoyed your series on SEO.
As usual your content was most informative and well above par
Wow very interesting article, your equation of “authority site + encyclopedia-typed of content management = great ranking in Google” is a great thing to keep in mind. I found another great article on BM that also explains Google’s Caffeine opportunities
Very interesting post! It does kinda make sense that this site could rank so high (with mostly duplicate content) using these techniques that you point out. One thing that it has going for itself is that it is an aged site, which gives it a huge advantage. So although these methods may work for this Google Caffeine site, it may not work as effectively for sites launching today. Quite possible, you would have to have more original material present on your site to achieve such high rankings. But hey I guess it’s worth testing. Who knows…
Kenneth, Im very glad that I can learn from you. My domain post in first site by Google and are about 5 day. My domain are write by Czech language only, Web pro každého (Web for everybody).
My health are very bad, about 5 months I cant speak and I can little write. But your blogs are very easy go to up.
Thank you very much.
Beginning today, I’ll instill your tips in my mind that to get great ranking in Google I need to have an authority site + encyclopedia-typed of content management. This is what I’m doing now to my new sites.
Thanks for sharing,
it is good to know how new google caffeine works,
This blog is so great blog. I have learn a lot about it and many interesting things that i have saw. So thank you for that one. You made your websites so great you insert effort in it and thank’s for sharing it with us.