Content Network Test Week 5-7

Posted by on August 11, 2011 No comments

Build My Rank vs. SEO Linkvine vs. Linkvana Test Week 5-7

Wow it has been a long time since I last posted about the content network test. Since my last post I have not submitted any new articles for any of the test networks. This waiting period has given me a great look at how the rankings perform when the link building stops. Interesting enough all of my networks are now ranking.

If this is your first time on my blog you can go back to the start of the content network test on my menu.

Build My Rank
Current Page Rank: Page 5

SEOmoz Stats:
Page Authority for domain: 28
Domain Authority for domain: 14
External Links: 15
Referring Domains: 5

Majestic SEO Stats:
External Links: 32
Referring Domains: 9

Of all my links in Majestic SEO only one has an AC Rank of 1. The rest of the links have an AC rank of 0.

SEO Linkvine
Current Page Rank: Page 10

SEOmoz Stats:
Page Authority for domain: 30
Domain Authority for domain: 16
External Links: 31
Referring Domains: 10

Majestic SEO Stats:
External Links: 57
Referring Domains: 23

Of all my links in Majestic SEO only one has an AC Rank of 3. The rest of the links have an AC rank of 0.

Linkvana
Current Page Rank: Page 9

SEOmoz Stats:
Page Authority for domain: 29
Domain Authority for domain: 17
External Links: 14
Referring Domains: 10

Majestic SEO Stats:
External Links: 22
Referring Domains: 11
All of the Majestic SEO AC ranks are 0 for every Linkvana backlink.

Conclusions
Not surprisingly Build My Rank continues to crush the other networks in rankings. However, if you went strictly off the quality and quantity of links you would think SEO Linkvine is the best network. As you can see though their links don’t always result in ranking increases.

Starting this week I am going to start back up the link building efforts at 2 articles per week. It will be interesting to see how it affects the rankings and if the Google dance drops our current rankings down.

 

Getting Your Links Indexed with Pinging

Posted by on July 19, 2011 No comments

Getting your Links Indexed Part 1 – Pinging

Through this many part series we will explore ways of getting your links/webpages indexed quicker. I will provide real SEO case studies that can hopefully help you start the link flow. For part 1 of my series I tested the effects of pinging versus not pinging articles has on your index rate.

Over the last month I have been conducting a pinging test for lower quality articles. I thought this test would be great to share to help people understand some best methods to getting your links indexed and passing some link juice. This article is not meant to dispute the value of links but merely show if pinging your links actually works.

 

Test Set Up:
For my test I took the lowest form of articles that I have been submitting for a test domain, spun articles. I chose spun articles because there rate of indexing is so low it needs help. I took 5 original articles and make 10 spins each. I used The Best Spinner to spin each article with a unique factor of around 55%. The spun

versions weren’t the most amazing quality but I am not going to waste much time on these lower quality links. I then submitted the 50 different articles to a wide variety of article directories.

Once my article had gone live I checked to make sure none of them had been indexed by Google. I then divided the articles of those that I would ping and those I would not. For my ping articles I used the website Ping Goat. I then pinged my 25 articles once around the same time.

The Results:
The results of my ping test were actually very impressive. Of the 25 articles I pinged 21 had been indexed by Google within a week and a half. That is an 84% index rate of my terribly spun articles. Of the 25 articles not pinged only 2 had been indexed within that same period. Normally I would be happy with an 8% index rate but when I compare it against the 84% I know I must ping every article from now on.

Quick Stats Glance:
Pinged Articles – 84% index rate
Non Pinged Articles – 8% index rate

Conclusion:
It is easy to see that pinging articles works and should be used whenever you want new content to get indexed. Now I am sure this is not a perfect method but you should treat it as a tool to help get the full value from all your links.

For my next indexing test I will be checking out Google+ so please stay tuned.

Content Network Test Weeks 3-5

Posted by on July 18, 2011 No comments

Linkvana vs. Build My Rank vs. SEO Linkvine – Week 3-5

This update is for weeks 3-5 of my test. In week 3 all of rankings had mysteriously disappeared. At first I thought Google actually banned my sites (paranoid me). However, I was able to see each individual domain with the handy site operator site:mydomain. Every page was still indexed which showed I wasn’t completely booted.

My next logical thought was that Google had devalued the links coming from the different content networks. I checked in a few different forums and saw that a few people had seen declines in rankings and a few people had not. Therefore I could not really draw any conclusions from other people.

Therefore last week (week 4) I started submitting articles again. Happy to update that my Build My Rank domain has bounced back to page 19 and we are back in business. Sadly enough I have not seen my rankings come back for SEO Linkvine. Even sadder is the fact that Linkvana (the most expensive network) has not resulted in any rankings.

Adding a New Domain/Content Network to Test:

With the lack of rankings from these two networks I have decided to add another domain to my test. I will be testing Article Ranks Pro based off some great feedback they have been receiving. Please understand that this domain is a few weeks behind the other test. Therefore every update will be slanted. However, if we see increases in rankings it will show how well it works.

Build My Rank
Current Rank = Page 19

SEO Linkvine
Current Rank = Page 0

Linkvana
Current Rank = Page 0

Article Ranks Pro
Current Rank = Page 0

 

Content Network Test Week 2

Posted by on July 18, 2011 No comments

Update Week 2

This is just a quick update on my rankings and progress. I submitted four articles for each network this week. Strangely enough my SEO Linkvine rank has now dropped off and is no longer found in the top 300. However, my Build My Rank domain is still holding steady in its position.

I will provide some better stats for you in my next update.

 

Content Network Test Week 1

Posted by on June 24, 2011 2 comments

Linkvana vs. Build My Rank vs. SEO Linkvine – Week 1

Welcome everyone to the first week of my content network test. If you have not already read the test overview, I would suggest you start there by going here, Content Network Test Overview.
Last weekend I posted 7 articles for each of the test networks. Each of these articles are 100% unique original content written by me and the keyword targeted was the same in all articles. I must say that the article writing is very basic and does not cover advanced topics. I have found that if I write about a topic I know well the writing comes a lot quicker.

Article Stat Reporting
For my article stats I will follow this style to make it easier to read. Article, page rank of domain the article was posted to, and how many articles are published on the front page of the domain. This last number will be important to showing how long your article/link will get link juice. It is generally understood that once your article falls off the first page of these domains there isn’t a lot of link equity. For example if the article sits on a homepage of a domain for 4 days versus 1 day you might get a longer lasting link effect. However, we will see…

Build My Rank
Ranking = Page 17

I posted 7 articles to this network. Within 1-2 days of my article posting they were all indexed in Google. Before experimenting with content networks I usually added articles to place like ezine, go articles etc. It could take weeks and even months to have an article indexed. This was a great change in what I had expected.

On a side note for each of these networks I track a large number of related keyword rankings. I have started ranking for a closely related keyword on page 24. This other keyword is also very competitive so this is a great bonus. Let me also clarify that I did not build any backlinks for this term or any others.

Article Stats
Articles 1: PR 3 – 22 posts on the homepage. The article will be on the homepage for about a week.
Articles 2: PR 2 – 20 posts on the homepage. Article sits on the homepage for about 4 days.
Articles 3: PR 3 - 20 posts on the homepage. Article sits on the homepage for about 4 days.
Articles 4: PR 1 - 20 posts on the homepage. Article sits on the homepage for about 4 days.
Articles 5: PR 2 – Not Indexed
Articles 6: PR 3 - 20 posts on the homepage. Article sits on the homepage for about 4 days.
Articles 7: PR 3 – Not Indexed

It looks like BMR allows articles to sit on domain homepages a lot longer then Linkvana. This could help with the initial boost of link equity.

Build My Rank also has this really cool dashboard that shows the actual PR distribution. You can also track important stats within dashboard about if you have been indexed, PR, and actual URL. BMR dashboard is already more amazing then the other two networks. However, I would love if you could export all those stats to an excel file.

SEO Linkvine
Ranking = Page 27

SEO Linkvine is the only network in this test that allows spun syntax in your articles. For this week I submitted 7 articles with spin syntax. Because each article is spun in a random way I can’t actually go back and try to see if the article was indexed by Google. If anyone knows of a way to track in SEO Linkvine that I am not seeing please let me know. However, SEO Linkvine does show a published and acceptance rate.

I am not terribly impressed with SEO Linkvines dashboard but I like the idea of being able to submit spun content. Although a blog that accepts spun content is most likely a lot less quality then one that does not accept it. Most spun content is pretty junky, therefore I am making the assumption these networks might also be less quality. Although my test domain is ranking for its keyword so I can’t complain.

Linkvana
Ranking = 0

At $150/month I have the highest expectations for this network. However, in the first week I am pretty sad I have not seen my test domain in the top 300 results. I really like Linkvana’s dashboard but I wish they would add an article tracking link and PR like BMR. While I am disappointed in this week’s results I must remind myself it’s only been a week.

Article Stats
Articles 1: PR 2 – Posts lasts about 4 days on the homepage.
Articles 2: PR 4 –10 posts on the homepage. You will last about 2 days on the domain.
Articles 3: PR 2 – Post lasts about a day.
Articles 4: PR 4 – Posts lasts about 4 days on the homepage.
Articles 5: PR 2 –5 posts on the homepage. Not a lot of time to get value.
Articles 6: PR 3 –7 posts on the homepage.
Articles 7: PR 4 – 10 posts on the homepage.

It is pretty even with the amount of posts that will fall of the home page within a day to those that will stick for a few days. I always like to see a link that will stick at least for 2 days so that I can get more link equity.

Conclusion: Build My Rank is winning after Week 1

Content Network Test Overview

Posted by on June 19, 2011 1 comment

Linkvana vs. Build My Rank vs. SEO Linkvine Test – Overview

For this SEO case study I will be testing 3 major content networks against each other in the ultimate death match to settle all arguments. I will be using 3 separate domains that will target the same competitive keyword. Each domain will also utilize the same on page metrics which will result in the backlinks being the only ranking factor. I will be testing Linkvana, Build My Rank, and SEO Linkvine. So follow me closely as I will be updating the rankings, articles posted, and more over the next few months.

Let me first start by saying this SEO test is completely unbiased, I have no actual affiliation with any content network companies I will be testing. I however have become an affiliate of each in the event someone wants to test them also. I will promise you this, any dollar earned from affiliate sales will be used for SEO testing only! These content networks are not cheap to say the least. Therefore if you are going to sign up for one of the networks please use my affiliate link so I can afford to conduct more tests.

SEO Article Test Set-Up

Domain Selections:

To begin the test I bought three domains that are completely unique. I wanted to ensure that my test was completely impartial so the three domains had no keywords and were pretty random. Each domain is set up on a separate c-class server in different locations around the country with all the SEO hosting goodness. This will help ensure each domain is seen as a completely unique entity.

Keyword Selection:

I am not going to give you the actual keyword used for this test (want to protect my pages) but I will provide you will all the stats about the actual keyword.

Head Term Exact Search Volume – 1,600 searches per month

SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Estimate – 52% or Highly Competitive

Average amount of links for each competitor ranking on page 1 – 694 links

Content Networks being tested:

Linkvana – $157/month

At a steep monthly price I expect this one to perform best.

Build My Rank – $59/month for 5 domains

I have heard great things about BMR so I can’t wait to see the results.

SEO Linkvine – $67/month

Not sure what to expect from this network.

Article Submissions:

Every week I will submit 4-6 articles to each network. I will always submit the same amount of articles for each network to ensure complete neutrality. Depending on the network I will be using 100-300 word articles. Depending on the topic each article will take me about 15 minutes to write. However, I may outsource the article writing.

Reporting:

Every week or at the very least bi-weekly I will update my rankings and progress for each content network. I will do my best to track each link and let you know the quality of the webpage with which it is being posted. I will also answer any questions about the project you have in the comments section. So if you want certain reporting let me know and I might add it.


Welcome

Posted by on June 19, 2011 No comments

When I originally thought about this blog I wondered what niche I would cover. I didn’t want to be another SEO blog that rehashes the same SEO tips all the time and never actually adds value to the internet. I used to be bothered by the fact I would read SEO blogs and hear the same ideas all the time. Even well know blogs have so much filler content that there is no actionable information. That’s not to say some of the content doesn’t add value, I just dislike reading one article on SEOmoz and then a few months later seeing the same idea covered somewhere else.

Therefore I decided this blog would be dedicated to SEM testing. I will be constantly testing the latest SEO techniques from white-black hat. If you have a test you want done let me know and I will try to make it happen. I will share almost every part of my SEM tests. I will always try to be open, honest, and completely unbiased. You can rest assured that every test I run will only show the truth.

You may notice a few affiliate links on my webpage. I hate to liter my webpage with these terrible advertisements but every dollar made on this webpage will be used strictly for SEM testing. So every link you click allows me to conduct another SEM test I can share with you all.

While this blog will have mostly only case studies I may occasionally share my opinions on SEM topics. Feel free to skip over anything you don’t like. You may also notice my lack of English skills; I must now say school was not a strong point so please excuse any errors. With that in mind welcome and please feel free to share your opinions and research you have completed.