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Right - what i propose is a completely fair, NON PR based optimisation contest.
entrants would each be allowed one page - on one topic - which would either be in a very very uncompetitive field - or be a made up, o result word (single word)
all entrants would have their page at the same location off the root - and non would be an index page
the aim would be - without any incoming links - yes WITHOUT ANY INCOMING LINKS - people can optimise their page (which would only be one page) - however they choose for this one keyword (say "asklplop") - they could decide to have asklplop as the title - and as one H1 tag at the top - or they could write asklplop 1000 times down the page - its totally up to you...
the point being - it would be an amazingly valuable tool for comparing - fairly, like nowhere else on the net - side by side, what works best - you can work out optimum page size, keyword density ect ect - and because its such a sandbox example - comparing them would be easy...
if it could be worked out so it was truly fair - then wow i think it would be great...
ive started building it in asp.net - since i want to be able to dynamically create HTML pages, and have a single link on them to a non indexed 'profile page' - im sure i can make it awesome - but input from you guys could make it great...
would you like a page like this?
one thing that concerns me greatly is getting banned from google - not for anything im doing wrong - but for people spamming pages in the site to try new things...
thoughts?
Harley
You do run the risk of a penalty so I would use a non associated domain that you can risk to loose. This would be a fantastic way for understand Google's algo and seeing how other people do "their thing".
You should use a made up word. For example, Sqilukal [google.com].
Simple provide people with information about the term. For instance you can make it a new invention that rearranges carbon atoms to turn pencils into diamonds. (Thanks RedDwarf :))
Chris
Simple provide people with information about the term. For instance you can make it a new invention that rearranges carbon atoms to turn pencils into diamonds. (Thanks RedDwarf )
LOL - I am speech less :-S
If you give me the url I'll sort it of you ;)
Dave
I know this must be obvious but I don't see it. If the page has no incoming links, how will Google find it?
Bob
the problem of penalisation is one that swings the whole system - surely any penalty that was caused by spam would be applied to the whole domain - rather than just the page?
if not - then it could be a problem - as the whole benifit of this is you can try naughty things - everything - to test...
the domain will be a totally clean domain - brand new...
one problem i can see is that of PR being passed through internally - there must be normal links going to each page - or else google cant follow and index - but the order in which the pages are 'listed' - and any occurences of a page being linked to more than once (i.e - high score ranking / site of the day ect) - would perhaps cause problems. unless all but one main link was a JS link - non followable...
hmmm
i would be interested to hear googleguys thoughts on this - if it was something that google frowned upon (for allowing people to 'understand' the google system with much more accuracy) - then they could very easily make it impossible to impliment...
damn it would be cool though hey?
Harley
1 x domain
1 x keyword (whatever, as long as the word does not exist on google)
1 x page
it will only work if google know about it and leave the domain alone.
So.. some people optimise the hell out of their page using all the legal tricks, and other people spam the hell out of their page using all the illegal tricks, no holds barred!
Then we (and google) can look at the returned keyword results and see who is top and why, see if the good guys or the bad guys are winning, i think it would be very interesting for all SEO's and even more interesting for google!
just a thought, must admit not completely sure if technically/ethically possible
colinf
I think you have to keep this project secret and publish it when the competition is over; When people know about your site and the competitors pages they might start to link them on their own site.
That's how we tried to nail their algorithms (as did many others).
All that before PR came along :)
Of course, it would be nice to see many real people trying their stuff, but the old approach was the one with a million monkeys with typewriters.
2) any internal link system will skew the results
My thoughts :- It has to be an extremely carefully planned exercise. No free for all contest bcoz you will get better results in carefully controlled environments. So what you need is a Page with some incoming links from where you will assign each participant a specific link through a number system. So your home page will have something like :-
1 [widget1.com]
2 [widget2.com]
3 [widget3.com]
etc.
Each participant will get one link from these nos. The linked page is where they will use their SEO expertise. All participants will go for a single obscure word which has No SERPS on google. Never mention the word on WW bcoz then WW will always be no 1 for that term ;)
This is a basic outline. If this thing ever goes into practical stage I would be interested in helping with the Logic :) HTH.
> I suggested a similar idea a good few months back and admin deleted the thread. Something to do with actively skewing the SE results if i recall correctlyl, and perhaps people using it to promote their sites.
But that was based on the pages being actual content.
> The problem is, when you begin to target non-words and limit linking, then you remove all value to users and cross into the realms of spamming Google to "test the water".
Now, even though the intention is a bit of fun, with perhaps some insight into how Google works, it is still spam.
No users are taken into account and the purpose of the site is for SE rankings.
> Not only will you be spamming Google, but you have stated your intention to do so in a Google News forum, on a web marketing website which is frequented by a rep of Google.
Hand penalty anyone?
I do see the fun aspect of doing this, but im sorry, I really dont think admin will allow this to continue and if they do Im sure the many of the eyes at Google will be paying attention to your progress (maybe even influencing it? ;)).
Scott
yes WITHOUT ANY INCOMING LINKS
Since PageRank, anchor text, etc. are known to be among the more important ranking factors at Google, once you eliminate these you really aren't testing yourself against Google's algorithms and won't really, when you find your winner, have found the person most adept at optimizing for Google.
The first point is why I personally wouldn't put any time into it... directing that time instead towards "real work" as well as towards research and experimentation that produces valid inforamtion about the optimizing for the whole of Google's algorithms.
Have fun, though! :)
Here's how I'd see things working (With 'Sqilukal' as the subject - cheers, chris_f):
Someone needs to buy 'Sqilukal.com', (bet it's taken before tomorrow!) and create a four digit subdomain for each user - representing their username in the competition, such as 3546.Sqilukal.com.
The main site, seo.Sqilukal.com, has an index page with 1 x text link to each user's subdomain. There's a folder within Sqilukal.com where all the rules, information about a Sqilukal, and sign-up pages live. There's a Robots.txt file here to stop Google getting in and putting the host site at number 1.
The competition can then run for a period of time - perhaps a year - and each month people are awarded something (a prize perhaps, or banner impressions) donated by the sponsor (There's gotta be one somewhere!).
Only thing no one would be able to stop (Except Google ;)), would be the joker who thinks it's funny to disqualify someone by linking to their site...
Sounds fun though... ;)
Steve.
No external links he. . .
So you will have to lock out all other spiders, crawlers, search engines and directories. . . not so easy.
What about someone finds some of these pages by accident by searching for some of the other words that are used and then because of the strange nature and the strange word: 'Sqilukal', puts this on his local football-fan forum as:
Does someone knows what 'Sqilukal' is, just found it at [Sqilukal.com...]
How to avoid all these things!
You can not disallow the whole world and only let google inside.
Regards,
OH, to get past linking, two pages a day could be submitted instead of linked to from the home page. Course then the test would be limited.
Suggest we get Brett to create a guestbook or contest page on which every site is listed. Maybe a cloak so that only the googlebot can see it. That way it will get crawled, and only by Google. Also that way we all get the same number of links, PR and (if the link text is the same) link relevency. Agreement not to drop others in guestbooks, and agreement that extra backlinks = automatic disqualification.
Maybe GG could stump up a prize. 20 Minutes alone with one of their servers :-).
