Note: This post is related to my ongoing experiment to determine which Google prefers more – Fresh Content or Quality Backlinks

Ok just an update -

About 2 days after I tried to get both sites indexed by Google (used StumbleUpon, submitted sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools, posted a couple backlinks on high PR sites)…site “b” was but site “a” still wasn’t.

Now here we are a few weeks later and site “a” is indexed but site “b” isn’t. So it seems as if Google knows that they are similar in structure and content (although I tried my best to rewrite the content using synonyms and what-not so it was unique) and randomly decides to switch which one is indexed? Does anyone else find that frickin’ weird!

My assumption is that this is happening because they’re both subdomains of the same domain, so perhaps my experiment was flawed before I ever started. Maybe I should have purchased two unique domains instead of cheaping out?

Here’s the two queries to see which pages from each site are indexed:

• Site A index query
• Site B index query

Note: This post is related to my ongoing experiment to determine which Google prefers more – Fresh Content or Quality Backlinks

So since my last post I’ve done the following:

1. Created two subdomains:
   • A – Jump Higher Exercises
   • B – Jump Higher Exercises
2. Did a WordPress install into A, with SEO optimized plugins
3. Threw together a logo real quick
4. Worked on content; just enough posts to make the site somewhat worth visiting
5. Cloned the database and web server files from A to B
6. Unique-ified the content for B

Now I’m going to Stumble both sites and maybe submit them to a couple other social bookmarking services.  Just so that they’ll be indexed quicker.

I am concerned though that although the content is unique Google may reject one of them because the overall structure is identical.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Note: This post is related to my ongoing experiment to determine which Google prefers more – Fresh Content or Quality Backlinks

Well after a quick browse through ClickBank I stumbled across this -> Double Your Vertical Leap.

The World’s Top Selling Vertical Jump Enhancement System Is Back, Better Than Ever. 6 Months Of Extensive Testing – And A Mouth-watering Offer – Has Produced A Website That Converts At 5-7%… Every Single Time! Look For More Updates Shortly…

It’s got some decent numbers:

• $89 / sale
• 51% commission
• 93% referred
• 12.05 gravity
• And a 5-7% conversion rate on the pitch page

After searching for “vertical jump” in good ‘ol Micro Niche Finder, I came across a particular phrase that had solid results.

“jump higher exercises”

• Search Count = 1,300 (how many times per month people are searching on Google for this phrase – this is a tad low but not terrible)
• Exact Phrase Count = 13,200 (how many total results there are for this phrase in quotes – under 20,000 is good)
• Commercial Intent = 29% (how likely a person searching for this phrase is to BUY something – this is bad but I’m not doing this to make money)
• Strength of Competition = 14 (this is excellent, it means the competing sites don’t have very good backlinks)

So I’m all set!  The next steps are to create two subdomains, setup WordPress, and then work on the initial content.

There’s oceans of people that are on either side of the argument.  Some say it’s best to have lots of one-way backlinks from respected, authority sites.  Others say it’s best to be constantly adding new, unique content.

Personally I think both are useful in their own way.  But the nerd inside of me wants to figure out the “magic formula”.  Should I spend 50% of my time on each, or 80% on content and 20% on backlinks?  It’s quite the quandary.

So I’ve decided to perform a test.  The parameters and execution of the test won’t be perfect, as there’s only one of me and I’m not a robot.  But nevertheless, I’m hoping it can provide some useful insight into this problem.

Here’s what I aim to do:

• Site A (CONTENT)
  
  • Niche topic to be determined
  • A subdomain of an existing generically-named domain that I own (primary keyword subdomain name, with “A” on the end)
  • WordPress template with all SEO-related plugins activated
  • Initial content will be 2 or 3 posts, keyword-rich, appropriately tagged
  • After indexed by Google, I’ll add one new article a day for a month
  • Each article will use the keywords that I’m targeting
• Site B (BACKLINKS)
  • Same subdomain setup as Site A, but with “B” on the end
  • Same WordPress setup
  • Same initial content, but each post rewritten to be unique
  • After indexed by Google, I’ll add one high-PR backlink a day for a month
  • No new posts

Sounds like fun, eh?   Does anyone have a prediction on which site will rank higher with Google at the end of the month?