Comments on: Proof You Can Buy Your Way to No. 1 on Google & Yahoo

By: marius

marius — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:59:47 +0000

I see everyday parked domains ranking higher than DMOZ, 6 years old relevant websites just because of the domain name..how cool is that?

By: Allan Schmidt

Allan Schmidt — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:20:27 +0000

Oh, I got that.

My point is that they rank well because they have used whatever trick SEOs should be using.

The only way that won’t work is if the seach engines do what paul says. This would require e doing the ranking manually or develope some sort of intelligent ranking algorithm.

As it is now, the people behind the fake site know what they’re doing. Good for them.

By: Matt McGee

Matt McGee — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:50:02 +0000

Allan - the big deal is that this is a fake web site. The Buying, Selling, and MLS pages all lead to a fake search form that doesn’t really search the MLS — it requires you provide your name, phone, and email which it sends to the company that owns the web site.

The company that owns the web site isn’t a real estate agent or brokerage, it’s a vendor of web site for real estate agents.

This site has no value to the end consumer who is looking to buy a home, sell a home, or find a real estate agent.

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:25:28 +0000

Wow..interesting and sad at the same time. What a waste of time for searchers who are genuinely looking for good content.

By: paul

paul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:58:57 +0000

Matt,

If you can tell Google what rules to use to detect that this page does not belong, I’m sure they’ll oblige. The fact is, there is nothing to differentiate this page from a ‘deserving’ page - apart from the short para that gives it away. Unfortunately, Google would need to actually *understand* the meaning of words to use that little red flag. Maybe they’re working on it

By: Marios Alexandrou

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:06:02 +0000

It’s been easy to buy top rankings in Yahoo for years. They even have an official program for it - Yahoo Search Submit Pro.

By: Allan Schmidt

Allan Schmidt — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:02:28 +0000

I don’t get it?

It seems to me that they are actually using relevant keywords, title and domain name which are normally used for ranking.

Yes, it is for sale but the owners are doing what all of us are so what’s the big deal?

By: Scott Fish

Scott Fish — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:13:08 +0000

All the more reason to buy up your city.com or cityrealestate.com!

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:29:01 +0000

There are TONS of sites just like this one that rank for Bay Area real estate searches, where I have several clients. It’s sad, considering that there is plenty of good, local RE content out there, like Cari’s blog.

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:10:42 +0000

Wow, how’s that for not returning relevant results? Good spot, Matt. I wonder what they’re charging for the domain.
Miriam