Site Poll

[Larkino]

Hey All

Quick poll, I have 2 domains:
Site 1: Free Xbox 360 Elite, Free Wii, Free PS3, Free iPhone and much more!
Site 2: Free Xbox 360 | Get a Free NextGen Console from Free-Xbox-360.co.uk

I want to get topspot for "Free Xbox 360". The question is, which site should I work on?
Site 1 has over 5k backlinks, is already perfectly optimized and is on page one for the search.
Site 2 is the perfect domain, is PR2 and is most probably quite an old domain.

Which site would be easier to achieve topspot for?

Thanks in Advance

[Ilikefree]

Free-Xbox-360.co.uk hands down as it actually has keywords in the url related to the 360.

[omairt]

I'd go with the one that is better established with your content. I wouldn't base it on the domain alone, since keywords in URL, compared to content, are insignificant.

For e.g. if you search football, the first result is news.bbc.co.uk, that domain doesn't have the term football in it, but it's first because of its content.

Besides, your iStuff site is higher up for 'free xbox 360' anyway, so you might as well concentrate on that.


Also, I read something about 301 redirects, which I think means that you have permanently moved content to another location, so search engines apply your ranking from your old domain to your new one.

[Dunstan]

just carry on with your istuff site.

[Larkino]

Originally Posted by omairt

I'd go with the one that is better established with your content. I wouldn't base it on the domain alone, since keywords in URL, compared to content, are insignificant.

The only reason im asking is because I think that google dislikes my free-istuff site. I have 6k backlinks, (more than all my competitors for my keyword), and yet my site is 13th, and has a PR of 0. And this is a fully optimized site.
If you search free xbox 360, you can see all the domains have either xbox 360 or similar in its URL. Coincidence?

For e.g. if you search football, the first result is news.bbc.co.uk, that domain doesn't have the term football in it, but it's first because of its content.

That's most likely to do with some sort of special arrangement BBC have with Google.

Besides, your iStuff site is higher up for 'free xbox 360' anyway, so you might as well concentrate on that.

My iStuff site has now dropped to 13th... so it's only a few spots above my other non-optimized, not worked on site (which has a PR2 status).

Thanks everyone for their comments, keep them coming please.

[Dunstan]

"That's most likely to do with some sort of special arrangement BBC have with Google."
That won't be true.

Surely your istuff site should have a higher PR if that's the site you've been link building for?

[Larkino]

Originally Posted by Dunstan

"That's most likely to do with some sort of special arrangement BBC have with Google."
That won't be true.

Oh..

Surely your istuff site should have a higher PR if that's the site you've been link building for?

That's exactly what I'm saying. I've been working hard on that site for a while, and have yet to really see results. I've gone up to about 6th for free xbox 360, but haven't been able to maintain that position, let alone improve it.
My istuff site has almost 6000 links according to Yahoo, and my free-xbox-360 site has 749, and somehow has a higher PR .

SEO and Google just confuses

[Ilikefree]

Originally Posted by Dunstan

"That's most likely to do with some sort of special arrangement BBC have with Google."
That won't be true.

major businesses have deals with google to get higher rankings. My friends dad has done it for his business.

[Dunstan]

Companies pay for Adwords if that's what you mean?

[Ayo312]

Forget the PR of the other site. The iStuff site is more established and more likely to go up easier compared to the free xbox one which would have to build a considerable more links before it enters the first 2 or so pages.

[omairt]

Originally Posted by Larkino

The only reason im asking is because I think that google dislikes my free-istuff site. I have 6k backlinks, (more than all my competitors for my keyword), and yet my site is 13th, and has a PR of 0. And this is a fully optimized site.
If you search free xbox 360, you can see all the domains have either xbox 360 or similar in its URL. Coincidence?

I wouldn't sya coincidence, but as I said, I wouldn't decide on the domain alone. Content is King.

Originally Posted by Larkino

That's most likely to do with some sort of special arrangement BBC have with Google.

I don't think that's true. I can't find anything about it and I'm pretty sure that there are others who can pay up a lot more than BBC for that top spot. They don't show any adverts either, so it's not like they're getting any financial return on that ranking.



Regarding you having 6k backlinks, remember you have got around ~5000 posts on this forum alone, and yahoo counts that as a back-link as well. Your iStuff site is older so perhaps the Yahoo back-link tool only started counting the links for your free-xbox-360 site for the posts you made after putting the site link in your sig.

As I said in my previous post, have a look at that 301 redirect thing if you really want to use your free-xbox-360 domain.

Originally Posted by Dunstan

Surely your istuff site should have a higher PR if that's the site you've been link building for?

Google and the pagerank stuff is confusing, when I started building links for my macbook site, it went from a PR2 to a PR0 even though I did get a few PR4 link to my site. Now in the recent update it went from PR0 to PR3, so maybe it's just one of those things.

[Ilikefree]

Originally Posted by Dunstan

Companies pay for Adwords if that's what you mean?

no...

I dont know the details of it, but companies pay a sum per year/month (depending on what they choose) to google and get high rankings.

[Dunstan]

That won't be true as that would completely undermine the whole of Google search. They order results by relevancy and not by highest bid.

[Ilikefree]

Originally Posted by Dunstan

That won't be true as that would completely undermine the whole of Google search. They order results by relevancy and not by highest bid.

why dont you contact google and ask then? this is what i've been told by 2 companies now...

[omairt]

Originally Posted by Ilikefree

why dont you contact google and ask then? this is what i've been told by 2 companies now...

If you don't mind, can you please tell me which search terms these companies are top for?

I have to say it seems really odd as there people out there charging thousands for non-guaranteed SEO, when a one off payment to google could sort it.

[Ilikefree]

Originally Posted by omairt

If you don't mind, can you please tell me which search terms these companies are top for?

I have to say it seems really odd as there people out there charging thousands for non-guaranteed SEO, when a one off payment to google could sort it.

I have no idea I'm afraid.

I don't know if they meant adwords but I did ask them to explain it thorughly and they said they paid google to get higher rankings

[omairt]

It's probably those highlighted yellow sponsored links that appear at the top of the results.

[Ilikefree]

Originally Posted by omairt

It's probably those highlighted yellow sponsored links that appear at the top of the results.

possibly yeah

[moviedrome]

seems a relevant post - please be careful if you're using adwords - a lot of companies do NOT allow bidding on brand names (apple being a notable example)

Last year I got a nasty email asking me to stop my adwords campaign for apple when I wasn't running one! (Although the screenshot provided showed someone was)

[xbox360guy]

you'll neeeeeever get top spot :P