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A curious ranking observation

by drmattnd
24 replies
  • SEO
    • |
As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic.

A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.

Anyhow, curious to see what google would serve up on a search for "nutrition discussion forum" my forum of choice was listed at #5 today. Not bad. Now I can see why #2, 3, and 4 are there. . . but the #1 spot goes to BeverlyNutrition.com.

Crossfit.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 10,793 with 1,479 sites linking in.

Beverlynutrition.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 5,343,188 with 6 sites linking in.

Now what would make Google think that Beverlynutrition.com is the top dish of the day?
#curious #observation #ranking
  • Profile picture of the author joelraitt
    prob better on site seo, aged domain, maybe they targeted that exact kw? maybe those are some bad ass 6 links

    maybe it owned by google...haha jkjk

    those r my guesses
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  • Profile picture of the author marieluy143
    Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

    As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic.

    A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.

    Anyhow, curious to see what google would serve up on a search for "nutrition discussion forum" my forum of choice was listed at #5 today. Not bad. Now I can see why #2, 3, and 4 are there. . . but the #1 spot goes to BeverlyNutrition.com.

    Crossfit.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 10,793 with 1,479 sites linking in.

    Beverlynutrition.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 5,343,188 with 6 sites linking in.

    Now what would make Google think that Beverlynutrition.com is the top dish of the day?
    more SEO efforts I guess, content + quality backlink..
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  • Profile picture of the author craigcdz
    Well, having an old domain name and the website being the search engine + user friendly may be the reason behind all this...Traffic can be a factor also...
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  • Profile picture of the author Google.me
    Crossfit.com domain backend moves around alot and hasnt been around longer than Beverlynutrition.com domain.

    Crossfit.com is also a vbulletine site where alot of spammers like too hang out
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    • Profile picture of the author drmattnd
      Originally Posted by Google.me View Post

      Crossfit.com domain backend moves around alot
      Please explain further about what you mean by "domain backend" and how you were able to determine that it moves around a lotl
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      • Profile picture of the author Google.me
        Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

        Please explain further about what you mean by "domain backend" and how you were able to determine that it moves around a lotl
        whois statistics- easy
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  • Profile picture of the author JoeMbulu
    Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

    As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic.

    A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.

    Anyhow, curious to see what google would serve up on a search for "nutrition discussion forum" my forum of choice was listed at #5 today. Not bad. Now I can see why #2, 3, and 4 are there. . . but the #1 spot goes to BeverlyNutrition.com.

    Crossfit.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 10,793 with 1,479 sites linking in.

    Beverlynutrition.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 5,343,188 with 6 sites linking in.

    Now what would make Google think that Beverlynutrition.com is the top dish of the day?
    I think you should develop your own nutrition forum and easily outrank them as neither site has good SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author drmattnd
      Originally Posted by jnm007a View Post

      I think you should develop your own nutrition forum and easily outrank them as neither site has good SEO.
      Funny you should mention that as I was just thinking the same thing...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
    Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

    As my practice and website revolve heavily around nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to participate in discussion boards on that topic.

    A few days ago I found a fantastic forum hosted by CrossFit. Highly recommended for anybody interested in fitness and nutrition.

    Anyhow, curious to see what google would serve up on a search for "nutrition discussion forum" my forum of choice was listed at #5 today. Not bad. Now I can see why #2, 3, and 4 are there. . . but the #1 spot goes to BeverlyNutrition.com.

    Crossfit.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 10,793 with 1,479 sites linking in.

    Beverlynutrition.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 5,343,188 with 6 sites linking in.

    Now what would make Google think that Beverlynutrition.com is the top dish of the day?
    More and better inbound links. That's probably the answer you're looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Corvinus
    They just targeted the keywords well in their anchor text that's why they outrank Crossfit.com.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi drmattnd,

      Google ranks results based on relevance. Just look at the on-page SEO and you will see beverlynutrition is optimized for the keyword and crossfit isn't. There is no need to look beyond that, it explains why one page is ranking better than the other.
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      • Profile picture of the author drmattnd
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi drmattnd,

        Google ranks results based on relevance. Just look at the on-page SEO and you will see beverlynutrition is optimized for the keyword and crossfit isn't. There is no need to look beyond that, it explains why one page is ranking better than the other.
        Perhaps I am a bit dense... but it's not that obvious to me. Could you elaborate?

        I mean, the home page of Beverly Nutrition has almost nothing on it at all, and the forum page looks like any other forum page to me.

        I'm not arguing with you, I just don't understand. :confused:
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

          Perhaps I am a bit dense... but it's not that obvious to me. Could you elaborate?

          I mean, the home page of Beverly Nutrition has almost nothing on it at all, and the forum page looks like any other forum page to me.

          I'm not arguing with you, I just don't understand. :confused:
          Hi drmattnd,

          Google has never relied totally on meta tags. They will choose what they think is the best title and description snippet if they don't see them on the page.

          In this case, the title and description that Google used for the page was better optimized for the keyword query in question. That's how it works, the most relevant page, based on Google's criteria for relevance, is what gets ranked highest.

          If you look strictly at the listings on the SERP you will see that the title (chosen by Google), description, and URL are all a better match for your search query. These are the on-page elements that are among the most influential for SEO relevance.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Originally Posted by drmattnd View Post

          I mean, the home page of Beverly Nutrition has almost nothing on it at all, and the forum page looks like any other forum page to me.

          I'm not arguing with you, I just don't understand. :confused:
          In this case the relevance that Dburk is talking about is in the title. It "works" for them because frankly from what I see you may have been the first person to search for that term this month.

          So in this case google can't do anything better than put that site first because my bet is that NEITHER site really even cares or tried to rank for it. Its a zero traffic term
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  • Profile picture of the author RegalWeb
    There are few things to be considered.

    (1)The age of the domain. The older the more it gains credibility among Internet users.

    (2) Site listings. Is it listed in DMOZ? Yahoo Directory? Google Maps?

    (3) Meta Tags. Is the meta title, keyword and description suited for SEO?

    (4) Quality of backlinks. Number is not always the factor. Quality can also be a basis.

    (5) Relevance. Already laid down by dburk above.

    and there more that should be elaborated. Hope this can clear things up a little.
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    • Profile picture of the author drmattnd
      Originally Posted by RegalWeb View Post

      (1)The age of the domain. The older the more it gains credibility among Internet users.
      CrossFit first registered in 1999. Beverly 2003

      (2) Site listings. Is it listed in DMOZ? Yahoo Directory? Google Maps?
      DMOZ: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - Yes

      Yahoo: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - No

      Google Maps: Crossfit - Yes Beverly - No

      (3) Meta Tags. Is the meta title, keyword and description suited for SEO?
      Crossfit has meta tags. Beverly does not. So I would assume Crossfit wins by default.

      (4) Quality of backlinks. Number is not always the factor. Quality can also be a basis.
      link:beverlynutrition.com Zero results

      link:crossfit.com About 1770 results

      (5) Relevance. Already laid down by dburk above.
      As a user, I don't find their site to be more relevant. But that's just me. Obviously Google disagrees and I wanna know why!

      and there more that should be elaborated.
      Such as...? Obviously there is something I'm missing here. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I am just trying to understand this example from Google's perspective.
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  • Profile picture of the author jesus72knight
    I do agree with RegalWeb. There are so many things to be considered. That's a reason why SEO is not done like magic. Certain studies and evaluation should be first conducted in order to ensure rankings.
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    • Profile picture of the author drmattnd
      Originally Posted by jesus72knight View Post

      Certain studies and evaluation should be first conducted in order to ensure rankings.
      Such as....?
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  • Profile picture of the author IndigoJack
    Further to them having better SEO........

    There is a site that I am trying to knock off the top spot - we both have exact match domain names and both are top level. (it's not my indigojack.com domain)

    Their site is top because in addition to the usual SEO stuff they have posted articles and press releases all over the place.

    Plus, their domain has been around longer than mine which means they have lots of keyword rich content that has been built up over time.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    The older the better site for me.
    Instead of worrying about the questions in your mind why don't you focus on your site and keep on improving your Off and On Page Optimization.
    In the end the google rankings will react on your efforts.
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    • Profile picture of the author jonrpatrick
      Forgive what may be a completely ignorant thought .... but I get the impression (judging by what happens to my few sites) that Google sometimes 'bumps' you up to see what response your site gets - and if you *deserve* a higher spot.
      I have a site that was stuck at result about 16, but slowly moving up based on my (weak and ill-informed) backlinking. One day, I shot up to slot 8, only to drop back to about 12 the next day. No change in content or backlinks between the 2 days (at least not that showed up on Google Analytics).
      I think they just move you around to see where you get a great response.
      Could be they put these guys at the top 'just to see'.
      JP
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  • Profile picture of the author jonrpatrick
    waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.
    Google chooses those sites who's title and description is better optomized, but THEY can pick and choose what they consider to be your best description!! LOL
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jonrpatrick View Post

      waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.
      Google chooses those sites who's title and description is better optomized, but THEY can pick and choose what they consider to be your best description!! LOL
      Hi jonrpatrick,

      Yeah, that is funny isn't it? :rolleyes:


      Here's a little video where Google engineer Matt Cutts explains their policy:

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      • Profile picture of the author bamtastic
        I suppose Crossfit.com's forum is not really a nutrition forum per se and not the content is not optimized for "nutrition discussion."

        Although there are several threads on nutrition, I myself who goes to their forum everyday see that majority of the threads are about the work out of the day and the member's progress in performing them.
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