Strange Google behavior

Post a link and get the number one position

[mercur]

We host about 100 websites and we have sites with a gray bar and sites with PR8. for the last 2-3 months I've been experimenting on linking between sites and monitoring the results of this on Google. What I discovered is a site that we have that is PR4, the content has not been changed for the last 2 years. It's a free dating site so besides the privacy statement and the terms of use there is no content what so ever. The site it self does not have good Google ranking but whenever I post a link from that site to another, totally irrelevant site, the pointed sites gets on the number one spot or at-least the top ten for the search term that the site is optimized for.

Any suggestions why that may be?
The only positive thing about it is that is fairly old site (since 1998)

[richardb]

Welcome mercur

I think I’d be straight onto a link auction for that 1.

£1,000 PCM per home page link should be in order.

P.S. mine’s a pint ;)

Rich

[cabbie]

outward links with good anchor text helps the linking site.It also helps-if the site you are linking to is relevant but perhaps in your case the competition is not great so just a outward anchor link is enough to make such a difference.

[Dave_Hawley]

I wouldn't pay too much attention the PR we are shown. This is often not correct.

Dave

[nippi]

what is the search terms you have tested

are we talking single search words like "porn" or something more like "the most amzing really whak porn site"

[killroy]

Well here is an experiment. Pick a mediium expensive main stream, popular product, like a book or toy, make a 3-6 page website about it, optimized for "buy ProductName".

Then link to it and see if it works ;)

SN

[mercur]

OK, here is what I did over the period of 2 months.
Linked 3 sites from the dating site that are optimized for different search terms with Google result counts of about 150000 each. 2 Days later they are on the number one spot. Few weeks after, I removed the links and all 3 sites moved to page 3 for the search terms on google. Inserted exact same links on a PR8 site that is at least as old and no effect at all... Then I inserted the links again on the dating site and 2 days later all 3 sites are back on the #1 spots. I did this several times and always the same results. I've tried it with search terms that return much more results and the outcome is the same except that instead of getting the #1 spot, I get a spot in the first ten.
This has been done over the period of 2-3 months. I have been experimenting with about 10 sites that all get the same google behavior. All the sites I am linking to are normal sites (not doorway sites) that are dynamic with a main page optimized for the search term.

[edited by: mercur at 2:33 pm (utc) on Nov. 10, 2003]

[egomaniac]

> optimized for diferent search terms with Google result counts of about 150000 each.

As cabbie said, a single link can bump you up high in the rankings when there is little competition. 150,000 results is very low competition. It appears that you also have done an excellent job in on-page optimization.

Congrats.

[mercur]

> As cabbie said, a single link can bump you up high in the rankings when there is little competition.

Yeah, the only problem is that a single link placed on other site does not give me the same results.

[airpal]

I must agree with the rest of the crowd in saying that you are seeing great results for very uncompetitive terms (which is quite common even with PR0 pages). However, if you still notice this huge surge in rankings for some highly competitive terms, send me a sticky mail and maybe we can talk some business ;) Actually, send me a sticky mail anyway, heh.