Why am I number 1 on Google?

[Gemini23]

Okay, Probably not very often you will get asked this question. Not how to get to Number 1 on Google but how come a single page website less than a year old, with competition of over 1 million websites for a certain key phrase gets to rank at Number 1 on Google. Yes that website is mine!

Okay I have 100+ backlinks (that really is not many) but with many (I am not sure but it maybe all) of those backlinks on web pages with no Page Rank. This mini website is no different to several others that I have but they don't rank as well as this one.

I have gone through my list of how to get to number one.. or even on Page 1 of Google.. but cannot understand how this one has made it!

Answers on a postcard...

[aakk9999]

...with competition of over 1 million websites for a certain key phrase...

This is a very crude measure and may not show you whether all these websites really compete for that phrase.
Have you tried "allintitle", "allinurl", "allinianchor" operators? Also search for your keyphrase in quotes to see number of results?
And have you checked your phrase against average number of (exact) searches per month ?

What I am going towards is that perhaps the phrase is not so competitive despite number of search results shown and hence it is easier to obtain #1 position.

[backdraft7]

Can I assume it's a thin content MFA site? If so then that #1 position makes perfect sense.

[Gemini23]

Ok.. in answer to the above... in quotes competition is not so large BUT it is still well over 115,000 for the "search term" and with other similar sites with competition of less than 50,000 I am not on page 1. It could be that for this particular website to rank well the competition may not be so good... but in my market niche I don't see evidence of that for this search term. Sad to say that I don't know what an MKA site is?
Anchor text all above 90,000, allinurl and title not that high 3-5,000 but my website is not shown on page 1 of those search variables.

[Gemini23]

okay Made for Adsense.... MFA .. and yes I do have a few websites that have adsense on them and this is one.. but would that be a reason why it would rank highly?

[bwnbwn]

Just the way the algo has been the last several weeks. I do feel this will change real soon after G does a study of the mess and adds to filter these type of results out.

[backdraft7]

@Gemini - sorry my response was tongue in cheek due to the recent algo update's fast promotion of questionable quality sites. I'm also noticing a traffic increase on my neglected, outdated marker sites. It typically won't last. It just means Google is FUBAR again.

[Lame_Wolf]

and yes I do have a few websites that have adsense on them and this is one.. but would that be a reason why it would rank highly?

No.

[Lame_Wolf]

Also search for your keyphrase in quotes to see number of results?

This is always a good test to see how many people are actually targeting that keyword/phrase.

One of mine was #1 out of 1.2 billion without quotes (a year or so ago). When I check now it is still #1 out of 351,000,000. But when I use quotes, I am still #1 but only 210,000 results. So always check with quotation marks.

[topr8]

it's about traffic ... how much traffic do you get from that number 1 position - that is a better indicator,

if you don't get much traffic then that isn't a competitive term at all

[netmeg]

Are you sure it's #1 for more than just you?

[TheMadScientist]

Because I'm #2 and Google's broken; I should sue!

[Lame_Wolf]

it's about traffic ... how much traffic do you get from that number 1 position - that is a better indicator,

if you don't get much traffic then that isn't a competitive term at all

If you are referring to me... a lot from that keyphrase.

[Lame_Wolf]

Are you sure it's #1 for more than just you?

Sorry, I do not understand the question.

[topr8]

>>If you are referring to me... a lot from that keyphrase.

oh, sorry Lame_Wolf it was an answer to the OP!

[topr8]

>>Sorry, I do not understand the question.

i assume that netmeg was referring to the OP too and was meaning SERPS can vary for different people, in different locations and from different computers, and if you visit your own site a lot then it could appear higher in SERPS just for you.

[topr8]

... dupe post deleted

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I think what the above question refers to is that Google is so bloody smart nowadays it thinks it can decide what you personally what you want to see. If you are regularly searching for and looking at websites something happens in Google that can cause "personal" results to be presented to you.

See [webmasterworld.com...] this thread from the other day, which covers some of this.

If I were you I would try checking the results from someone else's PC and ask a few others to check it for you. Please let us us know if this makes a difference.

[Lame_Wolf]

i assume that netmeg was referring to the OP too and was meaning SERPS can vary for different people, in different locations and from different computers, and if you visit your own site a lot then it could appear higher in SERPS just for you.

Ah, okay. In my case, it is a strong #1. Been at that position for a number of years in both google.com and .co.uk

[Gemini23]

I do get a good amount of traffic from it and as far as I can tell number one whichever computer I am at.. it is simply a single page 'website' and with quotes well over 120,000 competing sites.. and as for traffic.. keyword in quotes get 4,500 a month.. so pretty good I think...

[topr8]

that's astonishing - you get 4,500 page views a month from google from people searching using quotes in the search box?

[Gemini23]

sorry... I went to google keyword tool..and with quotes the search term results in 4,500 - this particular single page website got about 1700 high quality page hits in January.

[Lame_Wolf]

it is simply a single page 'website' and with quotes well over 120,000 competing sites

If you have adsense on the site (i've no idea if you have) then it will have to be a two page website, as you need a privacy policy.

If you don't have adsense, then ignore the above. :)

[Gemini23]

Thanks Lame_Wolf, there are a couple of images on the webpage so I guess they are also two other 'urls', and there is also a privacy policy, but there is only one page with actual elevant content on it.

[Samizdata]

Answers on a postcard

I did that but couldn't find a stamp.

I would strongly suspect Google's "personalised search" as mentioned above.

...

[Gemini23]

Okay, this is NOT just about being number 1 in SERPS on my own computer. For one thing, IF that were the case then I wouldn't be getting several hundred targeted leads every month for the past three months. I have a single content website (with three other urls for images and policy). The search term that I rank for has 4,500 hits in Google Keyword Tool. I really don't know why this website of mine has got to be number one on Google and it may well not last, but I feel like I have acheieved something special but don't know why! I have numerous other websites including a website with over 100 pages and with 5 years experience. I also have about 40 other 'similar' websites that haven't ranked as well but with virtually the same backlinks and onsite seo.

[TheMadScientist]

I've been on a little sarcastic roll, and this is half tongue in cheek, but really in some ways I'm sure true...

What's really concerning about this situation and depending on Google for a living as some do is GOOGLE'S ENGINEERS ARE ASKING THE SAME QUESTION ABOUT YOUR SITE!

They about have to be, if they knew why it was there for sure they could twist that knob and move it down... Think about the scale of things they have to deal with for a minute.

They have billions of pages 200+ variables and people looking at a single page trying to figure out how it got there. Huh?

Seriously, can you imagine?
Hey, people look at this page at #1...
How did it get there?

Who's got the list of variables?
Are you sure this is all 227?
What's each one weighted at?

Where's the new version of PageRank?
Do you have a copy?
I can't find mine...

Why is your site #1?
Is this a serious question?

My most serious and thought through answer is:
Because it's not 2 or 10 or 876 or 942 or... lol

[Gemini23]

Thanks TheMadScientist.... I appreciate your input.. Having spent the past 5+ years working on trying to get my main website to rank well on Google I have an 'idea' as to how to do it. I have well over 100 pages of unique content with numerous keyword/key phrase search terms that rank well AND bring good qualified traffic. Yes I have achieved page 1 and top position on the major search engines for various phrases. During the past couple of years I have noticed a handful of websites that are extremely thin on content that rank very well. I have sought to replicate how others have done this. I have obviously been successful but I am not sure why. Why does it matter? Well, why am I busting my gut doing all of the things that everyone says that you need to do for seo purposes when actually I don't need to. For sure no Google engineer will bother being interested in it. The fact is that customers coming to the website are offered what they are looking for and I am making good sales from it, but they would also be able to do this on hundreds of other websites. The question I am asking myself is why or how has this happened... is there a 'key' as to why this has happened or a number of factors. I have created several of these 'mini' websites but only one has achieved the no. 1 spot and yet they have all been set up with the same criteria. (several have achieved page 1)

[TheMadScientist]

Okay, well if you're really trying to figure it out, look at it the other way around... You built your sites all the same, so on your end they're 'equal' (same model) whatever.

What's not under your control that's different?

Links? (PageRank is included here)
Link churn?
More closely related links to this one than others?
A more 'stale or fresh' query as determined by user behavior?

Click thru rate in the SERPs compared to other results and relative to position?

A more stale or fresh link profile based on the freshness of the pages linking to you and the links on those pages? (To the best of my understanding freshness cascades like PageRank)

Really, to nail it down and say 'this is it!' without really knowing the site isn't really possible, and even with really knowing the site, then it's difficult.

My guess is a combination of links, freshness relative to the freshness determined beneficial to the query, and visitor behavior as related to other results in the SERP set...

They're all 3 out of your control (basically), they all 3 impact results and they are most likely different (possibly highly) for each of your sites.

[Gemini23]

Thanks again for your input MadScientist - I will doubtless endeavour to delve deeper but ensure that I make hay while the sun is shining!