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What baffles me more is that searching the keyword delivers some pretty rough results and sites with a lower PR than mine are getting shown!
Anyone have any ideas how I can encourage Google to position me at least somewhere? Your help is appreciated. Thanks!
Sticky me your URL and I'll have a look if you want.
All the pages on the Internet are indexed by Google. They are then divided into a 50/50 relevance split. The 50% most relevant pages are then blocked. The remaining 50% non-relevant pages are then shown to the user if they are also listed in the DMOZ. When the user realizes there are no good results the stupid user clicks on adwords and makes Google CEOs rich.
For many months I believed EXACTLY what you believe BUT I have seen something in the last few weeks that have totally opened my eyes!
NOW I am totally convinced there are NO FILTERS at all!
I found this tool that will search for your site plus the top ten for any keyword search. The results show the number of pages on the main site (site size), the number of backlinks to the page returned in the results (as reported by Google PR>4) and position in the search for allinanchor:www.domine.com.
If you look at these factors, it is very plane to see that SIZE DOES MATTER and if you are a small site, they only way you can compete with large sites is by beating them (big time) in Backlinks and more specifically ANCHOR TEXT.
This is even more evident on highly competitive keywords!
If you have evidence to the contrary, I would love to hear about it.
What I find odd is that when I search for results of me and competitors all that rules that are discussed in SEO here are all broken!
Sites listed above me have spammed by filling the pages full of keywords to the extent that you can visibly SEE that's what the intention was! Sites that don't validate are listed high too. I have given up trying to fully validate my pages any more and just use the validator to tidy my HTML code up.
The results that Google gives out for my keywords just baffle me thats all. I guess for the time being I shall have to sit tight and hope I can do something to my site that Google likes.
It is highly recommended that you target only ONE keyword/keyword phrase per page. Then try to get the links pointing to that page to contain your targeted keyword or phrase in the anchor text for your link.
These types of links pack the biggest punch!
I, like you, have believed a lot of these "theories" about keyword density, html compliance, etc.
You know what?
I also see the top sites break ALL the rules. These theories are nothing but conjecture. They are not founded in reality.
If you look at the factors I have told you about, it should cut through all of the smoke. I am not asking anyone to believe anything they can't verify for them selves. It is just a simple way to "cut through the smoke" and see the simple facts.
Important searches to use on Google:
site:www.domain.com
link:www.domain.com
allinanchor:keyword/phrase
if you compare your results (numbers) in these searches with the results (numbers) of your competitor/s, you will see why they are beating you (or visa versa)
Sometimes it is not really spam. I have seen recently(this week) where an SEO forum started ranking #3 for a commercial product!
Why? Because of the shere size of the site 8,400 pages and high site PR.
A member merely mentioned a keyword phrase they wished to target in a thread. There was no link. There was no anchor text. Just text on the page. The page itself had a PR0.
Since that post, the forum page now places #3 in Google results for a search on that phrase for a commercial product.
That is an example of the power a large site has. THAT is the reason that sites having to do with regional stuff like travel and such are lost. Once you enter the location, it opens the door to the HUGE .gov and .edu and chamber of commerce, yellow pages, sites that by ther very nature are large and the location is naturally repeated on those sites.
The only one rule that seems valid about Google is that the size of your site seems to matter. All the top ranking sites I have seen or Top 10 seem to be 250+ pages.
