Leosghost - 2:43 am on Apr 27, 2012 (gmt 0)

but what is your definition of a "branded" site versus a "generic"

Using WebmasterWorld ( here ) for an example..major web-marketing and webmaster resource site..

type in a question about javascript , css or htaccess, or panda, or which adsense alternative is best etc ..

Serps will have an thread from WebmasterWorld at or very near the top..it is a "brand"..it is referred to and linked to by very many serious people in the industry..

Lower down the page you'll get various other sites also some very reputable ones dealing with the same questions..

Somewhere much lower down the page or on page two or three or further in..you'll have sites that reproduce word for word the same threads from here ( scraped )..but change our "nicks" to other "nicks" in an attempt to capture traffic for the search terms..

you'll also find the kind of sites that will say "over at webmasterworld crobb305 said I saw a Search EngineLand article declaring it was over, not true" ..well I ( insert other website owner-blogger pundit-guru name here ) think what Danny meant was blah blah blah, and meanwhile randle had said..brands etcetc..and jeykay posted..etc etc ..

it all says pizza ..but real pizza has more taste and more topping and more care goes into the making of it..the rest is varying degrees of ersatz bread dough and tomato flavored goop with cardboard anchovies.

Google doesn't want to put ersatz pizza with tomato flavored goop and cardboard anchovies at the top of a search ( unless you pay them to do so ..and even then G has been known to say .."no the thing you are moving is crap, we don't want your money" ) ..in the organic serps at the top, they want a real brand..whether it is a big known brand with loads of signs pointing to it so people will go direct most of the time without passing through serps..or a real Italian home made Mom and Pop pizza parlour delight, that g knows about just because a few people genuinely praise it..and don't do so because the pizzaiolo paid them to say good things..G is trying to spot the quality by listening for the lip smacking and the contented belching of the customers..Because if you don't like anchovies..they might be running an ad alongside or above it for another Pizza parlour who make a pepperoni based one..

Yes I know that pizza have more than just those ingredients..but we talk food ..in Foo ..or at least I try to restrict my posting recipes to there ;-)