How Guru-Stalker.com Avoided the Google Sandbox
by Antone Roundy | 8 Comments | SEO
I registered Guru-Stalker.com a few days ago, and already (at least temporarily), it owns the numbers one and two spots on Google for "guru stalker" (out of 280,000 results) and "guru stalking" (164,000 results), as well as several less common search terms like "Russell Brunson stalker", "Russell Brunson stalking", "Russell Brunson stalk".
Of course, I don't know for certain how I managed to avoid getting sandboxed by Google, but here are a few factors that may have made a difference:
- I registered the domain for 5 years, showing some commitment to building and maintaining it long term.
- I put a blog on it, and set it up to ping all the major blog pinging services.
- I subscribed to the blog feed in Google Reader to ensure that Google reader knows about the blog and checks it for updates.
- I linked to it from this blog, which is already established with Google and Google Reader.
- I linked to it from WhiteHatCrew.com, which is already reasonably well ranked in Google.
- I didn't go hog wild, linking to it from all the thousands of pages I control (which would likely have looked like too many links appearing too quickly to Google).
- I'm hosting it from the same IP address as several other sites that rank high in Google.
As I said, I don't know which of those factors if any helped get the site into the search results this quickly, but if you're setting up a new site, those are somethings you might consider.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Update: As of today, Guru-Stalker.com has the #3 and #4 spots for "contact russell brunson".
March 31st, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Firsy and foremost, I am an avid reader and respect your knowledge and case study communication.
When you mention "all the blog pinging services", perhaps you can provide your list?
Keep up the excellent work and I wish you the best of success in all of your seo efforts.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Joe,
Good question! Rather than posting the list I use and have it become out of date, let me point you to the place where I found the list:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Update_Services
A while back, somebody added a bunch of inappropriate entries to this list, but it's been cleaned up now and should be good.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Thanks Antone,
and thats why you are the man!
Something I have been using in addition to some of your methods/recommendations is press release optimization announcing the launch of the new site. This is working extremely well since I've added it to the process.
BTW your CARP Evolution works GREAT with our PR optimization efforts and I plan to use it alot more on our new ZealousPR project I'm building out currently. Thanks again!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:14 am
G'day Antone, only got your email about this post today, so sorry if I am re-opening the discussion, but I had to comment on point three above.
I use Google Reader to follow other people's blogs and feeds, but it has never occurred to me to use Google Reader like that! Great stuff!
As for the last point, most of the 'Gurus' say that this is a no-no, but I have never understood why -- all Google cares about is fresh, relevant content, so why would they give a damn where it is hosted? Your experience seems to back up that theory, and disprove what the 'Gurus' are preaching -- again!
Bye for now,
Terry
April 9th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Antone - thanks for this post. It' simple, conversational, and easy to digest. In the wild west world of SEO, this is a welcome change!
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 am
Great information, all my sites are new as I am new to this whole thing. I thank you for all the help your posts provide.
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thank you, Antone. Because of all the work I've had to do in the last 6 mos., I'm just now able to start reading the WHC mailings that I signed up for as a result of downloading your CARP RSS system. You are indeed a wealth of knowledge and I'm glad I've been saving your emails to read until I was able to. I'm sure it's going to take me quite awhile to process all that relevant info (including getting CARP up and running), so I'll be getting started with the catchup....now.