Straight to the top in Google

[Andymac]

I run an ecommerce site and have never had much success with the search engines in the last two years. We just joined an affiliate scheme about 6 weeks ago and lo and behold an affiliate has put together a site which has gone straight to the top position on Google for several of our best search terms.

Now I am not complaining of course as we are getting good traffic and sales, I just wonder how it was done!

I have read a fair bit on these forums concerning SEO and I understood that success (with G) comes from relevant content, quality backlinks and the associated Page Rank. This affiliate's site has no links or PR and very limited content but still hits the top slot.

Any ideas?

[Marcia]

No links that *show* at Google and toolbar PR isn't anything you can go by. Chances are there are links that went up the same day the site did, if it's really an industrious person.

Added:
<kidding - maybe>
Tell me too, so I can check out what they're doing. ;)
</kidding>

[Andymac]

So, all the detailed advice gleaned here about 'proper' SEO is just a smoke screen to cover up the 'dark art'.

As an Englishman I find this sort of revelation rather shocking....

[ukgimp]

>>I just wonder how it was done!

Clean content/html and links in. Just because the links dont show it does not mean they are not there.

Cheers

[trillianjedi]

Clean content/html and links in.

You can delete the "clean content/html" part ;-)

[ukgimp]

clean I said, does not have to be understandable or even visible to anyone other than bots :)

[trillianjedi]

True, and you need at least a page title I think for google to really take you seriously.

But the rest can be blank, an image or a Flash site.

TJ

[Shak]

Andy

congrats on a super affiliate like the 1 you have.

going slightly off topic here, make sure you look after him/her, as it will take 1 small thing to make them point all that traffic to your competitor

sometimes/a lot of times affiliates beat the merchants in rankings, as thats ALL they do for 10 hours a day, rather than having to deal with the headache of customer service, payments, vat, tax etc

good luck

Shak

[Andymac]

Thanks Shak i I would'nt dream of upsetting my affiliates and would actively 'look after' them if I knew their identity (yes I understand why they hide)

And you are right we can't all excel at everything - I am good at making what I sell but not as it turns out good at selling what I make. Does'nt stop me being curious though.

And this from the land of drizzle and irony

[Brett_Tabke]

do a

.domain. -site:www.domain.com

on it to see all the backlinks.