Noting that I was ninth on a PHP vs Java googling has bought me the top spot. Lesson: Want to climb Google on a specific topic? Just talk about climbing and your current ranking.
Don't count on it. My site was 4th when googling for "værnepligt" (danish for army draft, basicly).
Now I'm 6th. Maybe it's because I just mentioned my rank in the comments section, and not on the front page?
Looking over that comment again, I notice that it doesn't make a lot of sense. I was 4th, then I mentioned that fact in a comment (like zis one), and then I fell to 6th.
I doubt it as the result Google shows is exactly the "Ranked nine on PHP vs Java" posting. Not the Loud Thinking front page. Not any of the actual PHP vs Java debates.
David, take a moment to think about the implications of being able to boost your Google ranking by linking to your own site or a Google search for your own content, from within your own site; it would render the system useless. But then again, it might work... in a world of make-believe, with flowers and bells and leprechauns and magic frogs with funny little hats :-)
If you want to climb Google on a particular topic, such as PHP vs Java, then of course it's beneficiary to talk about said topic on your site. Including the search phrase you want to own in the title of your documents helps even more.
And of course it does. Google is scanning Loud Thinking and acknowledging the topics I talk about as a place to send users searching for just that.
So talking about "PHP vs Java" brings me Google's attention. Getting others to link to Loud Thinking that also talks about "PHP vs Java" brings me a top stop.
So no, talking about Google rankings and your topic doesn't propel you to the top of the charts in isolation. But combined with other "real" efforts, it most certainly does.
'So talking about "PHP vs Java" brings me Google's attention. Getting others to link to Loud Thinking that also talks about "PHP vs Java" brings me a top stop.'
Indeed. What you're describing is the exact way in which Google is supposed to work; hence we can hardly describe that as "tricking Google". I merely objected to your notion of having found a way to exploit Google's ranking system to your advantage.
The trick is that the "Ranked nine" post didn't actually talk about PHP vs Java. It just talked about how talking about it elsewhere bought me that ranking.
So that meta-post alone propelled me further up the ladder. Despite the fact that Loud Thinking was no more of an authority on the topic.
The before/after relationship between the two events maketh no cause/effect relationship. The fact that the heading of your "Ranked nine" post contains the string "PHP vs Java" (which none of your other headings do), is a much more probable cause.
That would also explain the fact, that Google returns your "Ranked nine" post, and not any of the actual posts on the subject, when one's searching for "PHP vs Java".
Your Honor, we claim that the defense has yet to prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that "Just talk about climbing and your current ranking" is sufficient to improve your Google ranking.
I just bumped into here by accident, and thought I could give you some pointers.
What Google (And other SEs like):
1. Use the term you want to rank highly for in your title.
2. Use the term a few times in the body. Make it look natural and dont exaggerate. Use it in the beginning, in the middle and in the end. Should be between 2-7% (NOT more than 7!!) of the total text.
3. Exchange links with other sites. Use the term you want to rank highly for in the anchor text.
Link exchange is currently the most powerful method. You can also consider "illegal" methods like cloaking, referral spam, doorway pages etc. if this is a site you dont care so much about. These are all good methods to trick Google.
