Good News

[peteark]

Today my longest standing client was awarded authority status for their main keyword. It's nice when hard work over a long period of time is rewarded

printed bags - Google Search

 

[Mike Lewis]

Well done, Peter.

I'm showing my ignorance here, but what exactly is "authority status"?

Mike

 

[peteark]

When doing a search you often come across the number 1 ranked site displaying site links in 2 columns.

These are known as authority websites.

It is easy to be given authority status for keywords related to your domain name, but very difficult for competitive keywords.

Having an authority status website should never lead to complacency, it could be stripped at any time. It is simply Google's reward for sites they consider worthy.

 

[Boxby]

I've got authority status for "Boxby" then
Just as well, really!!

 

[peteark]

Sandra get it for 'courier' and I will be impressed

 

[Boxby]

If I manage that - there'll be one great big party!!

 

[peteark]

Everything is possible, Craig never dreamed 3 years ago, that we would go from surviving on benefits to running a successful business

 

[stuarty]

Well done!

We have two on Google.co.uk

"rafting" - 4 sitelinks for rafting . co . uk
"email lists" - 5 sitelinks for businessmailing . co . uk

EDIT: Sitelinks are displayed in the columns depending on the number. Google seems to displays it as two columns when you have 5 links or more otherwise it displays them in a row - like the rafting site.

 

[peteark]

Rafting is too closely linked to the URL, so this needs to be discounted

The other one is good though, well done

 

[stuarty]

Rafting is too closely linked to the URL, so this needs to be discounted

And printed bags isn't?

 

[peteark]

Stuart let me explain how it works

Site links for url terms are common

It is normal for www dot rafting.co.uk to display site links for the keyword 'rafting'

This would not be the case for terms like 'rafting uk' 'rafting equipment' etc

Of course The Printed Bag Shop displays site links for the term 'the printed bag shop' it has for years. However it was only recently awarded site links for

printed bag
printed bags
printed carrier bags

Google gives a lot of weight to URL related keywords this is done to validate their index. They do not want people typing in BMW and coming up with 100 affiliate websites.

I hope this is a suitable explanation, if not I am sure someone else can help you out.

 

[stuarty]

Stuart let me explain how it works....
I hope this is a suitable explanation, if not I am sure someone else can help you out.

Er...I think I know pretty much how it works thank you very much. I've been studying Google's patents for years actually.

The way you post you'd think it was you that wrote the sitelinks algorithim for Google!

Matt Cutts told everyone "Everybody, regarding Sitelinks, the most we’ve revealed is that our method is algorithmic....in the past more than 10,000 pages were necessary but the threshold has been reduced"

Google says - "Google has refined its Site Links (formally SiteLinks) since the first version of our Best Practice Guide was released in April 2006."

Patent here -> United States Patent Application: 0060287985

If you read the patent you'll learn that the generation of these additional links are derived from user behaviour information - so I'd be really interested to know how you can get user behaviour info from a domain name!

You can't get user behaviour from a domain name (obviously) but Google can get user behaviour info from their log files from stuff like...

How often was the page accessed?
How long was the visitor on the page?
How many times the page has been accessed.
Did the user click a link without scrolling?
Did the user click on links to these pages?
Are these pages popular by virtue of the links connecting them?
Did the user purchase from clicking a link?

Peter's site has hundreds of pages and blog posts and has high traffic!

You said...

It is normal for www dot rafting.co.uk to display site links for the keyword 'rafting'

normal? How do you work that out exactly?

Why doesn't rafting .com rank till page 7 for the term "rafting" on google.co.uk then? It's all part of the same algorithim is it not?

Hmmm

 

[Adventurelife]

This would not be the case for terms like 'rafting uk' 'rafting equipment' etc

I would check that first one and many more:lol:

 

[Employment Law Services]

I'm confused dot com!!

If I can see a link below my site in the Google search results for the keyowrd phrase hr services, does that mean I've got 'authority status' for HR Services or does that mean something else?