High SERP rank almost instantly - with no links

[BigAdventure]

I had a coder build a new site from a similar existing site. Basically same product different city.

The site he was copying from was only about a month old and was a first page result too.

The keyword was high traffic / competitive without the city name and was mostly searched that way (say Apple Trees) and of course I was nowhere to be found.

But when you searched "Detroit Apple Trees" I was first page. My domain included the term and the city name (ex..DetroitAppleTrees.com)note to mod:not real domain

Here's where it gets weird. The guy copies most everything to a new domain name say (ChicagoAppleTrees.com)changes most of the tags and descriptions. I still have a little clean-up left to do.

But POW! it's in the SERPs for the first city right above my other site. So now Chicago and Detroit Apple Tree sites are showing on first page for searches for "Detroit Apple Trees"

The first site had some inlinks I had scavaged and a couple outbounds. The second had nothing that I can find.

I would like to repeat this accident often..although it would be better if the cities were correct.

Any ideas what happened?

[whitenight]

Give it a few weeks. :)

Unless you can get a 100-1000 high trusted authoritative sites linking to you in the next few weeks, your site will encounter the figurative "Sandbox" and be nowhere to be found.

[tedster]

I call it the "honeymoon period" - and I see it often. Essential reading for a happy life after the honeymoon:

Filters exist - the Sandbox doesn't. How to build Trust. [webmasterworld.com]
Understanding factors that restore and maintain results