Manual Rank Adjustment?

I was doing some keyword research today and I came across this site, ranked #2 which has about 50 backlinks and 22 pages indexed in Google. However, it outranks PR 5/6 with 20k+ backlinks and with far more better opimizations for that keyword.

In fact, on the #2 site the keyword barely appears on the page once or twice. However, it does supply exactly what the search keyword says and none of the other sites listed who also appear on the SERP supply it.

So my question is.. would Google do manual adjustment for such a thing? If none of the sites listed for a keyword actually supply what the person is searching for, would they find a less authoritative and not so well ranking site and manually rank it better just because it supplies the certain product?

 

I think it is automatic ranked for the exact keyword phrase. That is why it is listed higher than sites with better pr but do not have exact phrase.

 

I think that they do have people who manually edit search results and stuff. John Chow doesn't even appear first for his own name, which is probably down to some manual editing.

 

Yes they do manually edit it sometimes, google is a hybrid between a automated search engine and a directory.

 

Yeah, I knew about John Chow but the fact that this site doesn't actually deserve to be ranked for this keyword phrase as it's not SEOd for it. And also the fact that only this specific site out of the first 20 results provides exactly the product that it's being searched for with over 400,000 competition makes me wonder if they haven't put it there manually.

Well anyway, I'm going to see if I can compete with it and if I'll get nowhere near, I'll learn my lesson.

 

I don't think anything is done manually with the search results, I just can't fathom that Google would find the return to be worth the cost, especially since the number of searches is nearly infinite. Which leads me to scratch my head how that one is coming up at the top above the big dogs. I have observed the same phenomenon in other cases, I have no idea why it turns out that way.

 

Why so?

Isn't it why all the cry against Google going on?
Just imagine why Google is punishing sites and cracking down on paid links that pass PR (read SE juice). Google want most relevant results generated organically and not through SEO -manipulated.

Suppose - I am a big company - with big cash. I hire the best SEO firms and rank for everything --even for some terms that hardly relates to my topic.

Isn't it for which Google is fighting for?

On the other hand a small family owned company can't afford to spend much on SEO but sells/provide the exact product the searcher is looking for. Naturaly, a searcher will be hapy to find his/her product than go through lots of clicks to monsterous sites who won't offer the exact product.

IMO- the days of SEOed oriented results are numbered with advances in Google's algo. After all Google has to provide better result to keep searchers happy and thus advertisers through AdSense.

 

I agree, being SEOd is becoming less and less important and I'd much rather have a site which is badly SEOd but with good content.

 

Yes, Google do have moderators, editors or whatever you call them.
It's not a surprise, especially if the content is good.

 

google does not assign rank manually but i believe one of the criterias for modemartor comments

 

Compared to other sites, if the site provides better information for the searched keywords it definitely deserve the position.
Google insists you to build site for the surfer and not for search engines. I am sure a time will come when google will start seriously penalizing over optimized sites.

By the way this need not be a manual adjustment. Google looks much more factors than the keywords and links. Like, domain age, surfer behavior on the site, synonyms of the searched term etc...........

 

page rank has nothing do with the ranking only links count where your site is listed i mean inbound links i have seen many of sites which rank higher with no page rank

 

I have seen pages with no backlinks + PR0 out ranking PR5 pages. In most cases, if not all, this happens because google love new content, and places it well in search results and but only for few days.

When I first launched my website, I was also on top for 3 days. There is a New content Boost for new sites.

 

I believe its content and relevance to the keyword. Another is still due to seo. When we view an optimized site with keyword enriched content, it might actually considered spamming or not optimized by Google bots. You need to view the optmized page via the robots view too. I think that makes a diff. And finally due to Google latest crack down on paid links.

 

Google is using human feedback to improve search quality.

"Larry Page says search is finding content… and that Wikipedia found a better way to organize information. he seems to like the model of using humans and process and machines. "

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/the-role-of-humans-in-google-search/