Do you check your referrers? I do. I even try to learn things about search from my referrers. Today, I learned two thing when I investigated why I had a high rank for the Google search PageRank Zero October 2007.
What did I learn? First, no matter what else happened during the PageRank dust up, Google still likes older pages. Second, we should all give some attention to our archives.
Now, a bit of background. When I was my highrank for PageRank Zero October 2007 I thought three things:
- Google relevancy on this search term is not so hot.
- Who ranks #1 for “PageRank Zero”? and most importantly.
- Archives matter.
These thought led to a bit of investigation, from which I “learned” a thing or two. Below, I’ll expand on these thoughts, and provide the lessons they taught me about Google search.
Why do I think Google’s relevancy for this search is not so hot?
Two reasons.
- The #2 result was the top page of my monthly archive. The top page of my October archives were relevant for this search several days ago when they matched the current Google cache. That shows text from Ten Google Page Rank Haikus. which matches the topic of that search rather well.
Today? There is no mention of “PageRank Zero” on that url.
- The #1 result for that particular long tailed search is Courtney Tuttle’s Going From PageRank Zero To PageRank Hero. (I’m condomizing the link in my never ending effort to seize the #1 position for totally useless search terms!)
Sound relevant, right? The problem? Whoever was searching for “PageRank Zero October 2007″ likely wished to read articles about the “Google Page Rank Debacle of October ’07″. Courtney’s post was published in April; his October article would have been relevant.
Lesson:
Before proceeding, it’s worth noticing something: My October Archives page is older than my haiku page. It also has a direct link from my main blog page. Court’s April 2007 article is older still and it’s older than his October article.
Google still seems to like older pages.