After spending a considerable amount of time researching SEO tactics and strategies, I decided to take a detailed look at just how beneficial (or not) having a .com, .net, or .org domain extension for ranking for your long tail keyword.

The last time I analyzed search results, I looked at the correlation between Google PageRank (PR) and SERP rank (rank in Google). However, that study did little in terms of providing you with knowledge you can use to build (or expand) another sector of your business to drive additional, diversified revenue. Let’s take a look!

Analyzing Long Tail Keywords and Domain Extensions

For this study, I looked at 45 different keywords (phrases), ranging from 3 to 5 words in length. The keywords that show more than 10 results on the first page are typically caused by YouTube or other Google-related product results. I wanted to see just how many domains that do not have a .com, .net, or .org extension are ranked on page 1. For this study, I also omitted any .gov, .mil, and .edu domain extensions.

After picking 45 phrases (15 three-word, 15 four-word, 15 five-word) to analyze, I looked to see if any other domain extensions were ranked on the first page, as well as how high they ranked.

Here’s the results:

Domain Extension Results – Three Word Keyword Phrase

Domain Extension Results – Four Word Keyword Phrase

Domain Extension Results – Five Word Keyword Phrase

Detailed Results

• Percentage of domains analyzed with non .com/.net/.org domains on page 1: 16%
• Total number of keywords showing non .com/.net/.org domains on page 1: 7
• Total number of domains showing on page 1 for 45 keyword phrases: 9
• Percentage of page 1 results that are non .com/.net/.org: 2%
• Average rank of ‘other’ domain extension (given it is on page 1): 6+
• Highest rank of ‘other’ domain extension: 2
• Results from three-word keyword list: 2
• Results from four-word keyword list: 1
• Results from five-word keyword list: 6
• Domain extensions on page 1: .co.uk (3), .biz (2), .me (1), .info (1), .com.au (1), .us (1)

A lot of data there, but how does it do anything to help you make business decisions?

Well, the main reason I went for three-, four-, and five-word phrases for this analysis is that most of the broad terms (one-two words) are taken already. I know for a fact that PLENTY of longer keyword/phrases exist, and many of them have decent search volume – untapped niches.

I only looked through 45 keywords (or about 450 total results on page 1), and only 7 non ‘premium’ domains were on page 1. Go for the .com/.net/.org!

The more I deal with building sites, the more I believe domain extension plays a role in making it easy to rank.

Personal Example

I bought a .net EMD (exact match domain), the keyword having about 900 searches per month. I put a single article (1,000+ words) on the site, a couple other pages, and pinged the site. Within a week, I was sitting on page 1. I’m going to continue to let it sit and see how high the site gets without any backlinks, but I really don’t see why it would go anywhere as it is quality content with an exact match, premium domain extension.

Unless something changes, or unless I am doing some kind of other test, I will be buying .com, .net, or .org domains.

SEO Interview

I finally received answers to my interview request with one of the top SEOs in the affiliate marketing industry. I am working on compiling the questions and will release it exclusively to my subscribers. I am making some changes with my newsletter as well, so I will be sure to let you know where you can sign up to read the exclusive interview and get some insane tips for diversifying your business with SEO campaigns.

Also, let me know your thoughts on this study. I really appreciate your comments and believe they help everyone (generally), including myself. Do you have any ideas for an analysis/case study?

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Factors (Part 2)
2. SEO Case Study – Initial Results (Part 4)
3. SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned (Part 5)

Recently, I have been spending some time researching SEO and building some SEO properties for a couple reasons. First, researching for new niches and new topics is very interesting, and the understanding that an endless supply of niches is still available is intriguing. On top of that, the idea of building potentially long-term, low-maintenance income streams to supplement any other projects is exciting as well.

My initial plans for the case study took a turn south after my entire monetization structure was demolished, but I decided to build it regardless. Here is what I have learned throughout the case study, and a few tips I believe will help you.

If you have not read through the entire case study, take a look at the previous posts:

• Part 1: Introduction – Overview and initial strategy
• Part 2: Success Factors – Gauging success
• Part 3: Backlinking Strategy – Describing the types of backlinks I planned to build
• Part 4: Initial Results – Explaining initial results after content and initial backlinking

SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned

My initial plans for the case study included building a site with quite a bit of content on it and then building a variety of backlinks to help rank the site well. After building most of the content for my site, I started building backlinks relatively slowly. With just a few links to the site, I started to see promising rankings. Here are a few of the statistical results for this niche site.

SEO Niche Site Results

• Primary keyword rank: Anywhere from 3-6
• Traffic level: 10-20 uniques per day
• SEO strategy: A few articles/mini-sites working on a single anchor text (primary keyword)
• Total revenue: $0

While it is nice being on page 1 for my primary keyword and starting to see some consistent traffic, not making any money is frustrating. I do plan to re-structure the site to help make it easier to rank for a variety of keywords as well as start generating some revenue from this site.

Here are a few of the lessons I learned:

1. Exact match hyphenated domains are fairly easy to rank – I have read a number of discussions about the effectiveness of using hyphens in a domain name. Personally, I found using a hyphen to be very effective and was able to rank the site very easily. My site is currently hovering between rank 3-6 on page 1.

My suggestion: I am definitely a fan of domains without hyphens (I think they look cleaner), but if it is unavailable and the keyword is worth it – use a hyphen.

2. Ranking for terms that show Google News and Google Shopping results can be a pain – Google News displays a few news articles based on keywords if they are available. Sometimes they show and other times they are gone. The same thing with shopping results. The annoying part: News/Shopping results show in the #1 or #2 spot for this keyword, moving rankings down, and moving the page location down significantly in most cases.

My suggestion: Look through the SERPs for your keyword and related keywords to see how the News/Shopping results are displayed (if any) and keep that in mind when building your site. Not a show-stopper, but can be irritating to see the drastic differences in traffic when/if the Google products display.

3. Have some kind of monetization strategy in mind (as well as alternatives) prior to developing your site – My initial plan was to use Amazon on this site, but the tax laws killed my account. I have since been using eBay Partner Network and am having a hard time generating income.

My suggestion: If you plan to build smaller sites, using a product that automatically matches ads based on your content can be a quick and easy hands-free solution. If you plan to build a larger site, a list may be an effective method for generating long-term income from your site.

The most interesting thing for me about Internet marketing (or any sub-set of it), is how quickly it evolves, and more importantly, how little I actually know. At the start of this case study, I put together a decent idea for a smaller site I could rank well and monetize easily. Now as I am building new sites, I look back at this one and have a list of ways to improve the idea.

Whether this shows how much I learned from the case study or how quickly Internet marketing changes, either way it has been well worth my time and effort.

Closing recommendation: Just because you are killing a niche/traffic source/offer does not mean you cannot learn more. I do not mean you shouldn’t celebrate your successes. What I do encourage is continuing to build on them and think of ways to improve. Becoming complacent can be devastating to your business.

Keep learning, keep growing, and keep profiting!

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Initial Results (Part 4)
2. SEO Case Study – Backlinking Strategy (Part 3)
3. SEO Case Study – Intro (Part 1)

I did this a little while ago with an email submit campaign. The point here isn’t to give you a handout and start making money (although you can with this campaign with the right targets). The point is take the general idea and incorporate some of your own ideas with these landing pages for dating or any other campaign.

Anyways, here’s some information and a screenshot of the exact landing page I used in my campaign.

PPV Dating Campaign Overview

I ran this campaign for a few weeks and it was profitable after removing non-performing targets. The main reason I decided to move on was because it was not scaling as well as I hoped.

Traffic Sources: TrafficVance and LeadImpact

Niche: Dating

I was initially direct linking, but quickly tested a few landing pages and started converting better with landing pages.

Landing Page Stats

Not tons of data, but it definitely showed promise and profit after some minor tweaks. The only thing that changed between the two landing pages was the headline. If I were to continue running this campaign, I would test other landing page styles as well.

My PPV Dating Landing Page

This is ‘LP2′ from the table above. The only difference between LP1 and LP2 was the headline.

The state in the headline was geo-targeted and the image was pulled directly from the offer page.

Here are a few of the things I learned from this campaign:

1. The “Scroll Bar” I added on the right side of the picture has potential with a lot of campaigns
2. The simple “Click Here” call-to-action in blue and underlined definitely works
3. Making users curious (the half-showing pictures and scroll bar) can work well
4. Keep things simple

A principle forgotten by many is to just keep it simple. Too many people, myself included, over-complicate campaigns, landing pages, and ideas. Just do it, and sometimes the more simple and/or boring, the better!

You could create this landing page and have the entire campaign running in 20-30 minutes, but I am hoping you will take the idea and build on it.

Happy Thanksgiving, now go profit!

Also, advertising in the 600×80 spot (above content) and 250×250 spot (sidebar top) will be available next week!

Related posts:

1. PPV Landing Page Case Study
2. 5 Tips for Killer PPV Landing Pages
3. Have My PPV Campaign

On a number of traffic sources, and with a variety of niches, amateur pictures perform better than professional ones. However, sometimes it just easier to find professional-looking pictures. I have recently been using this easy trick to make some of my more professional pictures look a little more amateur.

The trick?

Blur your images!

Take a look at a few examples:

I think a few reasons explain why these images perform better:

1. Less ‘crisp’ = less professional – Professional photography is very high resolution and very clear and crisp. Using images that appear to be amateur can help you relate better with your audience in certain markets.
2. Makes people wonder – In the blurred picture in the upper left, it’s hard to see their facial features. For dating, this can be a goldmine as people are clicking to see more or see what the people ‘actually’ look like.
3. Can drive focus to a specific part of the picture – In the picture in the upper right, I blurred the background but did not blur the couple. This brings focus to the couple in the image. Try this on other types of images to draw interest to a specific part!

Remember, amateur images don’t perform better in EVERY niche. Two niches I know for sure this works well on: Dating and mobile.

Go make some money!

Related posts:

1. If It Doesn’t Make Dollars, It Doesn’t Make Sense

As an Internet marketer, chances are you have found yourself in a period of slow (or no) production. Whether this was because you became complacent with your income level and wanted to ride the wave for a bit, or you were having a difficult time finding that next big success and wanted to take some time off, it can happen to anybody.

In my experience, the key to re-energizing yourself (and your motivation) requires the proper mindset.

Personally, I have found myself on both ends of the spectrum. There have been times when I felt I was making enough money (or had made enough) and wanted to relax for a bit and see how long my previous hard work would carry me. On the other hand, I have been in situations where I felt as though nothing was going my way and experienced lack of motivation. In most cases, any of the following (or a combination of) have been helpful for me.

1. Think About Your Goals

Depending on what situation you are in, having goals will almost always help. For instance, if you want to make $XX,XXX/month, it should be motivating for you to continue (or start) working hard to build your business to achieve those earnings. Additionally, if you are working to achieve something other than an earnings goal (have more time for yourself, allow your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend to stay at home, be able to work from home), it should be a driving force for you.

2. Use Momentum To Your Advantage

If you are riding a high wave, DO NOT STOP! I have had campaigns go from 4-figures profit one day to a loss the next. I have also had campaigns go from losing money to mid 3-figure profits in a matter of a day. Depending on the niche and traffic source, your business can be VERY volatile if you are using paid traffic. Because of this, continue building/expanding/scaling while you are on the upside and use your existing profit, momentum, and energy to grow.

It’s a little easier to use momentum when you are on that end of the spectrum, but if you find yourself on the other side of things (struggling or less motivated), it’s definitely something you can work through too.

The key is to start doing something. A new Facebook campaign, a new PPV campaign, research for a new SEO site. Usually, starting on something will re-kindle that internal flame and you will be back on top in no time! Also, think about when you first started. You had NO campaigns and very little knowledge about how anything worked. Start building and KEEP building.

3. Utilize One Strategy

Too often I notice people who are struggling to be bouncing from one idea to the next. It’s incredibly difficult to profit, let alone learn how to improve, if you are working in a variety of niches on a bunch of different traffic sources. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying diversification is bad. I am saying that there are people making money on any of the major traffic sources out there, so it CAN be done.

Stick to a niche or two on a traffic source or two, and spend some money testing and learning. View your initial campaign spending as an investment and not a “wow, lost money, let me try something else” situation.

4. Ask

This does not mean: “How do I profit on Facebook?”

This can mean: “I have tested a variety of landing pages, targets, and offers for a campaign on PPV, and found a pretty good landing page and offer. I’ve tried (angle 1, angle 2, angle 3) for targets, but cannot seem to make it work. Do you have any suggestions?”

Most people have no problem helping if you have put in some effort and are genuine and not just asking for a handout.

What Else Is Happening

I have some plans to make it a little bit more fun around here.

Be prepared for some PPV and/or FB case studies in the near future. Those are usually interesting and can be implemented much more quickly and easily into your businesses than an SEO case study.

I hope you are doing well and working hard. As always, feel free to leave me comments or questions. Have a great week!

Action is the foundational key to all success.
- (Pablo Picasso)

Being the first formal case study on my blog, I have been watching it like a hawk. While the results are not staggering by any means, I have learned a handful of tips and tricks first-hand, and to me, using the knowledge in the correct way can be a key to success in the future.

Just because somebody says they got XYZ results from doing ABC to their campaign, does not mean they have the secret. While the strategy I used is a carbon copy of the “how to SEO a niche site” strategy, I was able to learn from it anyways.

Initial SEO Case Study Results

Less than 4 months ago, I started this case study with the intention of ranking my new niche site well. I explained about how I would measure success and how I planned to achieve success with my niche site. After completing most of the initial strategy, I have seen consistent (knocks on wood) page 1 rankings for my primary keyword.

Here is a visual representation of what I have done with my niche site to this point:

As you can see, I have not created a Facebook or Twitter account for my site and I have also done 0 blog commenting (weird, huh?). On top of that, I have really only done 50% of the articles that were initial intended, as I have been having some issues with approvals lately. Still, I have been on page 1 for a couple weeks now for my main keyword.

Lessons Learned and Myths Busted

Although this site is in its infancy, I have learned at least a few lessons during this process and I hope you can take something from it as well.

1. Don’t believe everything you read – I have read a lot of articles and topics about whether or not to use a hyphen in a domain. For the purposes of building a niche site, I see absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, when you have a longer keyword, hyphens help to break it up. You can also get some pretty decent domains if you expand your search to include hyphens.
2. People are really lazy – The purpose of my site is to list the price of the phones, but instead of searching around through the archives of phones, people contact me asking for me to tell them the price.
3. Page 1 does not mean traffic – Although I am hovering right now and have not solidified my rank, the traffic numbers are still relatively low.
4. Doing a niche site the right way takes time/money – Depending on the niche you are in and how you decide to build the site, it can take a considerable amount of time to just keep the content fresh on your site. If you are looking for a set it and forget it solution, make sure you spend more time researching a niche that does not change frequently.

I will continue to look at my rankings for various keywords as well as continue building the SEO juice for my site, and hopefully I will have more lessons and tricks for you!

Have you built a niche site yet? Let me know how it’s going and what you have noticed to work well in the comments!

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Intro (Part 1)
2. SEO Case Study – Backlinking Strategy (Part 3)
3. SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned (Part 5)

After using a similar strategy with a few other sites and noticing positive results, I decided that a simple backlinking strategy can be very effective when building up a niche-based site.

When discussing potential SEO strategies with a number of people, I pieced together a number of aspects that I thought would be beneficial to ranking well. I have also incorporated ideas found on other sites that discuss SEO strategies. I feel this modified strategy provides a great base for the initial (and usually long-term) SEO strategy for niche sites.

Niche Site Backlinking Strategy

If you have done any research about backlink strategies, chances are you have heard of a link wheel or link pyramid. I like to think of the strategy as a pyramid, because the goal is to build the strongest asset on the bottom, but to allow ‘juice’ to flow from the top down.

To make it easy, here is a picture of the strategy I plan to use for the case study.

The image is relatively self-explanatory, but I will elaborate.

The point is to keep the content great on the Money Site, and build everything around the solid foundation.

Properties To Use For Mini/2.0 Sites

The initial sites to be used will be:

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• Squidoo

There are definitely others that can be used, but that’s where I have started in the past, and they seem to provide a solid foundation to work from.

Sites To Use For Articles

While I was originally planning to use tons of article directories (and people still have mixed feelings about the benefits of using article directories at all), I have decided to stick to just one:

• EzineArticles

Some believe the more the better, but I like to stick to the big guns to start and work from there if additional properties/articles are needed.

How To Do Blog Commenting

I plan to do SOME manual work, but ScrapeBox is the best tool I have found to perform blog commenting on anything other than a manual level. The goal is to start slow and build up as properties age and grow.

Forum Profiles

This is a strategy that I usually avoid from the start and only implement if I feel the site needs more juice of any kind. I have purchased blasts from WickedFire users in the past and I was also subscribed to DripFeedBlasts for some time. Unfortunately, I never did a formal study of either, but I believe both are beneficial if used properly.

Social Bookmarking, Facebook, and Twitter

Buying a small package of social bookmarks is usually a great start to SEOing any site, as well as creating a Facebook page and Twitter profile. Anything helps, and these also provide a solid foundation.

Overview

Although most of what is listed here can be outsourced or automated, it is definitely possible to effectively build backlinks without spending a dime if you are on a tight budget. Aside from the forum profiles, spending a solid week or two getting content done for your properties and articles should be enough if you crank through it. Then, it’s just a matter of finding blogs to comment on (although this can be an extremely time-consuming task).

My goal with this post was to explain that you do not have to develop an extravagant strategy to get your site ranking well, especially if you do the initial research and find a niche that is not overly competitive.

I’m in the process of having the interview polished up and ready to go, and it will be a GREAT resource to use alongside this case study.

As always, if you have any questions please leave comments and let’s get a discussion going.

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Intro (Part 1)
2. SEO Case Study – Initial Results (Part 4)
3. SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned (Part 5)

I have been doing a variety of tests on domains and the importance of having the keyword somewhere in the domain, regardless of the extension (.com, .me, etc.).

What I have noticed is that in most cases, just having the keyword/phrase in the URL itself can drastically improve the ability for a site to rank. Although it is not critical, it can make the initial ranking of your site and domain that much easier if you can find a domain with the keyword somewhere in the URL.

Now, the purpose of this post is to be a baseline for the entire case study and provide a few metrics by which I plan to measure the success of the study.

Measurement Factors

Even if I don’t physically write/type out the objectives of a study, I find it to be very helpful to have some idea in mind of what you want to accomplish when you start a specific task. After all, if you don’t have a goal in mind, aren’t you just performing mindless work?

Here are 3 factors I will use to determine how successful this SEO case study is:

1. Rank in top 10 for primary keyword
2. Maintain rank for at least one month (bouncing may occur)
3. Recover site investment in 3 months (domain and hosting)

I have never done an SEO study this structured, so it will be a learning experience for me as well.

On top of that, here are a few additional facts:

• Site was ranked at #151 for primary keyword, then dropped to #183, and now is not in the top 200
• These rank fluctuations occurred before any link-building
• Traffic has started to come organically from Bing

My goal is to start by building some links that would typically be seen nearest the “money site” on a link wheel. From there, I will branch out and expand as necessary, but I do not want to overdo it, especially if it is unnecessary for the purposes of the study.

I want to determine how I can get the most bang for my buck, and ideally, the most residual bang for my buck.

If you have any tips or insight about how you would proceed, I would love to have your input. Just leave me a comment and let’s get a discussion going!

Have a great weekend, and be expecting an update in a few weeks.

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Intro (Part 1)
2. SEO Case Study – Initial Results (Part 4)
3. SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned (Part 5)

I have been working on setting up a completely transparent SEO case study in true follow-along fashion.

For the study, I plan to tell you everything about the site from start to finish. (Finish = when the site starts ranking well). As I’m building this site in a relatively small niche, I don’t believe it’s going to be a substantial source of income, but it could provide the basis to ranking smaller niche sites which can be beneficial if you have an interest outside of weight loss or making money online.

Anyways, I’m not sure how many parts the study will have, but this intro will serve as a starting point and show you how I chose the niche and a few other details about how I got started.

SEO Case Study

First of all, I wanted to find a niche with relatively low competition. For this study, I didn’t care too much about how much clicks for the keyword were worth, and part of that was due to my initial monetization strategy (which has since gone out the window).

After reading how Pat finds profitable niches, I decided to do some similar brainstorming. I came up with a small list of fears, problems, and interests of mine. The topics I spent the most time with were technology and exercise related.

Eventually, I decided that a product-oriented niche would be fun to build, and potentially easy to rank for.

Most of my research was done using Market Samurai. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know I don’t endorse many products/companies. Needless to say, I love this product.

I’m a huge BlackBerry fan, and saw that this niche in particular had relatively low competition. With a solid strategy, I don’t see why I can’t dominate it.

In fact, the site ranking first for the keyword ‘BlackBerry Prices’ right now, is another small niche site with less than 50 pages indexed and less than 25 backlinks (showing in Market Samurai).

Picking a Domain

In my short SEO experience, I have found that domains that contain the keyword you wish to rank for are much easier to rank for. All of the exact match domains were taken, but I decided a hyphen in the domain wouldn’t hurt.

My domain: blackberry-prices.com

My Initial Content Strategy

Ranking for long-tails is significantly easier than gunning for the broad keywords, so I wanted to try to capture some of that traffic as well. On top of that, my original monetization strategy was going to be using Amazon, but with the new tax laws, I had to change my strategy.

Here’s my plan:

• Have a page for each and every BlackBerry phone model (starting with the 8300 models)
• Write some general posts about BlackBerry tips/tricks/information

Pretty basic overall, but we’ll see how it goes.

Monetization Plans

With Amazon out the window, I may use eBay Partner Network and see how that goes.

Link Building Strategy

My primary backlink strategy will be article distribution and blog comments. I will cover this in more detail later in the series.

Anything Else?

Depending on the traffic volume, I may build a list as well.

Great Things Coming Soon

I will work on finishing content up for my niche site and then start doing some link building for it. Expect an update in 2 weeks or so.

Also, the SEO interview should be available in the next week or two. It is only going to be released to my newsletter, so if you are interested in some SEO information, I would suggest signing up. If you have not opened any newsletter emails from me in the last few months, chances are you were deleted and will have to re-subscribe.

Related posts:

1. SEO Case Study – Initial Results (Part 4)
2. SEO Case Study – Backlinking Strategy (Part 3)
3. SEO Case Study – Lessons Learned (Part 5)

With many marketers placing more weight on the SEO aspect of Internet marketing, I’ve decided it would be nice to do some SEO case studies. I am working on building a niche site for a follow-along SEO study as well.

For this study, I looked at the results of various keywords and analyzed the Google PageRank (PR) of each result, looking to find any correlation between where a site ranks in Google and the PageRank the site has.

Analyzing Google SERP Rank vs. Google PageRank

Many marketers explain that building a long-term income stream is more plausible with SEO than PPC, PPV, or any other paid traffic source. While the jury is still out on that one, building authority (or seemingly authority) sites usually have a lot of potential to hold high SERP (search engine results page) ranks for a long period of time when done correctly.

In my experience, the number of people focusing on and discussing PageRank has been trending down for the past 2 years, and this study may hold a little information as to why people are less worried about what their site PR is.

The Study

I looked at 20 different keywords, broad search results ranging from 5 million 3.5 billion.

I analyzed 2 different groups: 10 keywords with less than 100 million results, and 10 keywords with more than 100 million results.

I analyzed the top 10 results for each keyword for a total of 200 pages.

I included WikiPedia, Amazon, Google News, and Google Images in the results if they did occupy a specific rank spot.

I did not include local results, although they do in fact occupy various SERP spots.

The Keywords

Here are the keywords and corresponding results. Thanks to @gcarivey and @layeredseo for their keyword suggestions.

Under 100M (Low Group):

• identity management: 5M
• coffee cup: 13M
• leather boots: 15M
• chandelier: 19M
• mortgage rates: 25M
• mountain bike: 30M
• curtains: 38M
• green tea: 80M
• sports car: 83M
• fireplace: 85M

Over 100M (High Group):

• nutrition: 195M
• weight loss: 210M
• Justin Bieber: 215M
• tea: 300M
• coffee: 350M
• quotes: 410M
• computers: 450M
• iPad: 540M
• Charlie Sheen: 585M
• TV: 3.5B

Overall PageRank range for both groups was from 0-9, each broad group having at least once site PR9.

PageRank Findings

• Average PR High Group: 5.2
• Average PR Low Group: 3.8
• Average WikiPedia PR: 5.9
• 16% (17 pages from Low Group, 15 pages from High Group) were PR0
• 22% of PR0 were Google News pages
• 13% of PR0 were Google Images

Additional Findings

• 75% of keywords (15/20) had a WikiPedia result
• 4% of all results were YouTube
• 9% of all results were either YouTube, Google News, or Google Images
• 60% of results for ‘Charlie Sheen’ were PR0
• 40% of results for ‘Justin Bieber’ were YouTube
• Google News listing appeared most at SERP rank 4 (three times), and next at SERP rank 1 (two times)
• WikiPedia appeared most at SERP rank 1 (four times), and next at SERP rank 2 and 6 (three times in each)

A Graphical Analysis

My assumption, and the assumption of many other marketers, is that a direct correlation exists between SERP rank and PageRank. In a perfect world, that would look something like this:

However, as with anything, especially in marketing, there is no “perfect world” and it is usually not safe to make assumptions.

Anyways, here are graphs of each keyword.

Low Group

High Group

When looking visually, it’s very easy to tell that not a single keyword analyzed, granted there were only 20, followed the ‘assumed’ relationship between PageRank and SERP rank.

Here’s the averages:

As you can see, the highest PageRank was actually in the top SERP spot.

However, based on the overall averages, it appears as though PageRank is not a clear-cut factor for SERP rank, although again, I only analyzed 20 results.

My Analysis

This study lead me to 6 conclusions.

1. WikiPedia appears pretty damn often. I could be wrong here, but I thought Google penalized content farms with the last algorithm update. If you ask me, WikiPedia is a content farm of epic proportions. What’s the deal here?
2. Analyzing 20 keywords may not be enough for this study. I realize it isn’t statistically significant anyways, but I did try to look at keywords from a variety of niches/industries, and used a wide variety of competition as well. Either way, I may have to look at this in more depth.
3. PageRank may just be a good indicator of overall ranking ability. While the results were not staggering in favor of “a high PR guarantees a high SERP rank,” most sites with a higher PR also had more links, a longer domain age, and consequently, higher rankings.
4. Keywords with more results generally have listings with higher PageRank. With the exception of Charlie Sheen (average PageRank of 2), no keyword in the ‘High Group’ had an average PR lower than 4.
5. Google loves Justin Bieber.
6. Niches with high profit potential and low competition still exist.

Although I did not take into account any other factors for SERP ranking, I feel the study was a success.

What’s Next?

First of all, I would love any comments about this study. If I receive good feedback, I’ll continue looking for similar factors to analyze whether it be with SEO, PPV, Facebook, POF, or whatever. If you liked it, simply leave me a comment, re-tweet it, or ‘Like’ it using the little widget on the left.

I truly appreciate any feedback or support YOU can give me.

Also, I am getting ready to launch my follow-along site. It’s a small niche site and I’m just going to try to rank it well for my primary keyword (originally).

Have a great week and weekend!