There’s something going on with SERPs for my keyphrases that makes no sense to me, but if figured out may provide a clue as to GG’s ranking method. I’m in the audience response business, also called audience voting. On numerous TV game shows, you may see that the audience is asked to vote on a question. They use keypads (usually wireless) to enter their votes. This technology is very common in business meetings, giving the presenter an effective means to communicate with the audience. Okay, so the number one most searched term for this stuff is Audience Response Systems. Since my company primarily rents these, my second most important phrase is Audience Response System Rentals. No one would search for this stuff using the single word, ‘audience’. But here’s how my 6 month old site ranks. audience response system rentals: pool size = 67,000 rank = #5 audience response systems: pool size = 2,240,000 rank = #47 audience response: pool size = 5,860,000 rank = #141 audience: pool size = 37,300,000 rank = #7 Out of a pool of more than 37 million pages, my site in position #7. Why? What is Google telling me that I just can’t understand? My anchor text is somewhat mixed in that about one third of BL anchors are ‘audience response systems – rent or buy’ about one third are ‘audience response system rentals’ and about one third are ‘audience response systems’. There are a handful of links from directories that use the company name Audience Response Rentals, LLC. Am I being filtered on my primary keyphrases? Any ideas on why I position so well on the single word? There's a clue in there somewhere.
What about the keyword 'response' ? That is in all of your anchor text as much as audience. I think that because there are 37million other variables (the competition) it would be hard to say why, or even come up with a good clue as to why this is happening. It's a good start though.
Good thought... I hadn't checked before. Just did: response: pool size = 112,000,000 rank = #51 Also unbelievably good position, number 51 out of 112 million. I sure couldn't do that if I were trying. Taking that thought a step farther: systems: pool size = 283,000,000 rank = ? not in top 1000
You have the word "Audience" twice in your title. You have 2 keword matches for "audience". That makes the page more relevant. For "audience response" you have 1 match in the title. (titile keywords hits weight a lot). For "audience response systems" you have 1 match in the title. For "audience response system rentals" you don't even have a phrase match in the title, but the competition is less severe. I don't see anything unusual here.
plus in the text I the word audience is more common as it you have other terms with it ("audience voting" & "audience polling") so it makes sense to rank higher for it.
Is it the fact that 'audience' is used twice, or maybe the fact that nearby text is different? (audience response and then audience voting). Is GG saying, 'this page title references two *different* things having to do with audience, therefore it is very relevant to the word 'audience' overall. It's a very subtle point, but maybe important. That is, two references versus two references to different, related terms.
It's the fact that it is used twice. No. Google just counts keyword hits. Look, titles carry a lot of weight. If you can squeeze 2 keyword hits, that's a lot of added weight compared to one (maybe not twice as good but much better). Two keyword instances per anchor text should also work better.
nohaber, your view is truly appreciated. I thought I was on to something unique. Time for some experimenting
I thought Google penalized for repeating words in the title.. eg: Title = computers, computer repair, computer help? Have I heard wrong on that?
Yes, you've heard wrong on that, you can repeat keywords, although I personally think it's pointless unless you market different types of the same thing. Onpage optimisation counts for little in Google however the title is THE most important piece of onpage in my opinion so you need to get it right. 5 words in the title would equate to each word having an importance of roughly 20% (I say 'roughly' because I believe the first word has greater importance than the last word). By that reckoning, the fewer the words, the greater percentage of importance. Having a title of 'blue widgets' or 'blue widgets, blue widgets, blue widgets' are equally optimised. For different types of the same thing, I'd have 'widgets - blue widgets' for one page and 'widgets - red widgets' on another etc. You need to find a balance between getting the best keywords in the right place in your title AND coming up with a title that will actually get clicked on by the user. Jane