TrustRank? AuthorRank? Social Metrics? Check again… It’s still the same old backlinks!
The post that’s ranking 4th in Google for ‘Rand Fishkin’ is actually part of a case studyย by Charles Floate.
Just drop the URL of that page in a links checking tool such as Ahrefs, and you’ll notice that Charles gamed Google by posting that link in spammy, irrelevant sites.
The post is in the first page of Google for more than a month. No penalties, no manual actions taken.
There are MANY other sites like that one that boast a link to that article within completely irrelevant content. Whoever has done that link spamming, that person surely has some sense of humour. I lol’ed so hard checking out quite a few results similar to the one in the picture. :v
And it wasn’t me either, many SEO practitioners laughed out load after checking out the screenshot above on Twitter. Some, like London SEO consultant Gareth Bull, went ahead and didn’t restrain themselves from posting tweets filled with pun and praise for this fellow UK SEO wiz.
So, after all, Google’s algorithms aren’t as smart (yet) as Matt Cutts himself sounds, it seems. ๐
P.S. : I’m far from being a blackhat SEO. I’m not involved with this. ๐ No offence intended to Rand. ๐
Glad you enjoyed the laugh Rohit ^.^
I found it quite funny as well, don’t worry though – There’s an even larger case study to come ๐
LOL. I’ll be looking forward to it. ๐