3 ms·

You're a professional "SEO guy" and still surprised that your four-month-old, 50-page, one-level-deep, affiliate-linking site is not outranking the hundreds of

by gk1 8y ago

You're a professional "SEO guy" and still surprised that your four-month-old, 50-page, one-level-deep, affiliate-linking site is not outranking the hundreds of established review sites? Come on, man. If it were that easy...

styles 8y ago
Right? I feel like this article was just another way to get publicity and social traffic to his domain. Anyone worth their salt would know he's probably stuck in the "Google Sandbox" https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox/ https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox/
- ziont 8y ago
  we see this dark pattern deployedall the time on hn
- taneq 8y ago
  You mean... it was, itself, an attempt at SEO? :P
- tyingq 8y ago
  It seems to be working. We are all here commenting on a page that's linked to a page, that's linked to his "slightly better than thin" collection of affiliate link loaded articles. And, despite all the various measurable quality signals, content quality, etc...Google organic rankings still mostly care about links.
- midef 8y ago
  It's a good article. There are some quotes in it that galvanize my point. E.g. "I know for a fact that it’s possible to circumvent these sandbox effects. If a site goes even somewhat viral and is getting a few hundred to a few thousand daily unique visits, some social media mentions each day, and real backlinks, that site will immediately be taken seriously by Google’s algorithms. I’ve seen this happen twice so far with brand new websites, eventually ranking #1 for their top keywords." My experience has been the same. Except in this case...and it just struck me as strange.
midef 8y ago
I'm genuinely surprised that the site hasn't found more traction than it has. Don't get me wrong: I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire or outrank the big players, but I have seen young sites do a lot more with a lot less (including some of my own).

3 ms·

You're a professional "SEO guy" and still surprised that your four-month-old, 50-page, one-level-deep, affiliate-linking site is not outranking the hundreds of

by gk1 8y ago

styles 8y ago
Right? I feel like this article was just another way to get publicity and social traffic to his domain. Anyone worth their salt would know he's probably stuck in the "Google Sandbox" https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox/ https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox/
- ziont 8y ago
  we see this dark pattern deployedall the time on hn
- taneq 8y ago
  You mean... it was, itself, an attempt at SEO? :P
- tyingq 8y ago
  It seems to be working. We are all here commenting on a page that's linked to a page, that's linked to his "slightly better than thin" collection of affiliate link loaded articles. And, despite all the various measurable quality signals, content quality, etc...Google organic rankings still mostly care about links.
- midef 8y ago
  It's a good article. There are some quotes in it that galvanize my point. E.g. "I know for a fact that it’s possible to circumvent these sandbox effects. If a site goes even somewhat viral and is getting a few hundred to a few thousand daily unique visits, some social media mentions each day, and real backlinks, that site will immediately be taken seriously by Google’s algorithms. I’ve seen this happen twice so far with brand new websites, eventually ranking #1 for their top keywords." My experience has been the same. Except in this case...and it just struck me as strange.
midef 8y ago
I'm genuinely surprised that the site hasn't found more traction than it has. Don't get me wrong: I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire or outrank the big players, but I have seen young sites do a lot more with a lot less (including some of my own).