Ranking Experiment

Just please dont post the live URL, here or anywhere else, it will have some kind of effect.

 

That's an important reminder, DA.

 

Yep, is there anyway to edit the live ones out of this thread?

 

DA, try sending a PM to Shawn (digitalpoint), Vicious Summer, wkw, TOPS30, or disgust... (admins and moderators: see http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showgroups.php).

 

I have pmmed tops..

 

I'll need requests from the individual posters.

 

Huh? Why, TOPS? The links in questions are all in this thread... just scan them and they should be easily visible...

 

It would be censorship. We don't alter posts here because people want us to. We'll only do that if the poster requests so (or if post violates forum rules). I can see the use here but the principle stands. I'll be happy to do so but need to hear it from the poster.

 

DOH i did that
i fixed what i could
ill get the other edited

 

I'm not going to debate forum policy -- that's for Shawn and the moderators tyo decide.

However, I would note:

1. I don't see how it could be considered censorship -- all that's required is that you find any live links to the page in question and change [ url ] to [ /url ] in the bbcode. Nothing is deleted. All that's changed is that you now have links that are not live.

2. If it's going to make a difference, you can't wait for people to PM you. On a forum like this, it may be already too late anyway... any post in existence for more than about 10-15 minutes may well have been spidered by Googlebot. In that case, the experiment is already corrupted.

 

I have had 2 responses who have sorted their posts.. one left I believe.. TOPS is following the principle, not the fact in this case.
No worries, It is almost done + the link from here (if spidered) can be 'taken into account'. It would be a bigger concern if loads of people posted on their blogs "theres this experiment and pointing to the site.

 

I fail to see how it can be classed as censorship too

 

OK censorship might be a strong word or even inappropriate but I just won't alter people's post or clean up their shit unless THEY request it to me OR the post violates forum rules.

You don't get a painter to fix your neighbours bad looking door either do you?

If Shawn is chucking loads of weight to it then how is a couple of forum links going to skew results?

Anyway I don't want to discuss this any longer. I won't change it unless they ask me.

 

Has anyone here had any sites shoot up the ladder because of their forum signature? I know I haven't.

 

i got 95 in yahoo
link:http://www.supportcave.com forums.digitalpoint.com
http://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?p...UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&vc=&x=wrt&meta=vc=

2 in msn and 0 in google

 

I'm not even tracking the results.

then why have this going then?

 

Since I've gotten some comments about this, I'll clarify a bit by what I meant.

A forum signature link won't increase your rankings for competitive terms much. The term charity is fairly competitive and has roughly 5000 searches a day. That's not too bad. For terms that aren't very competitive, a forum signature may be all you need to rank number one for what you want. I primarily target highly competitive keywords. I know I can rank well for some lower keywords, but if it doesn't drive traffic, then it's not really worth the time unless you know people will be searching for you based on your business name. If you don't rank for that, it seems like some PR needs to be passed your way a bit (when I say you/your, I mean your friend).

The point of this experiment is to show that the co-op can indeed increase rankings in search engines. This is true, however the real question is how well can it help sustain those rankings. As the network grows, more class-c IPs come on board, which means a wider BL distribution. Based on my research, I've noticed that in about 2 weeks after ads are approved, Google will normally give you a first page result for your term (depending on weight, of course). After this time, rankings slowly begin to slide. This was what I observed. Now, I have a pretty average amount of weight, and I target some fairly highly competitive terms, so my experience may be slightly different. So, we'll see how well this works out.