Lets dissect the current top three for the phrase ‘car insurance’ in Google UK.
How are they there? What techniques are they using and do they abide by Google’s Guidelines? Lets take a look at the three sites:
Go Compare
First, lets cross the standard SEO on page tactics off the list shall we…
‘Car insurance’ present in the Title, H1 Heading and approx 3 times in copy, as well as in several navigational links pointing back to the home page.. all pretty standard.
Moneysupermarket
Same story here really. ‘car insurance’ present in page title, H1 heading, about 12 times in copy (with density of around 6%)
Tesco Finance
And again, Car Insurance present in title, H1 Heading, 6 times in copy and in navigational links from around site.
So - no variation in any of the ’standard’ on site tricks, no indication of any on-page spamming, no doorway pages, cloaking or BMW style Javascript redirects, just plain well built HTML.
So how about we look at page 11. Result number 101. What is so different to the site at 101 to the big 1,2 and 3?
So what are Isure doing wrong to be one hundred and first? A quick glance below the fold of this (particularly ugly) site will tell you - not that much different to the big 3. Car Insurance in Page Title, H1 Heading and 11 times in copy as well as in 5 headings, a total of around 6%. Now although slightly spammier in keyword density than say Go Compare, certainly not breaking any rules.
Now lets turn our attention to links. Firstly the numbers. Yahoo Site Explorer tells us:
- Go Compare: 11,900
- Money Supermarket: 26,600
- Tesco Finance: 365,000
- I-sure Insurance: 2,520
OK - so Yahoo is not the most reliable of link tools - especially for numbers, so lets have a look at some of the link sites themselves.
- Go Compare: Example GC1, Example GC2, Example GC3, Example 4
- Money Supermarket: Example MS1, Example MS2, Example MS3
- Tesco Finance: Example TF1, Example TF2, Example TF3
- I-sure Insurance: Example IS1, Example IS2, Example IS3
Clearly, all 4 sites have been purchasing links. Look at GC1 - plain old link buying. Approach a site, offer some cash, up goes the link. Money Supermarket have found a novel way in MS2 with non-rel=nofollow’ed links from most of the major papers - this example being the ‘best buy’ section in the telegraph. Example IS1 - some form of network. Links in straplines, easy to detect one may think - perhaps hence the PR1 of the link site, and poor position of I-sure? Perhaps most interesting of all, check out TF3 - very interesting. Look at the other sites on the page with similar links, now look at this Agencies client list…?!
Plenty of questions now spring to mind. Considering Google’s crackdown on paid links, how can these sites still be there?
Matt Cutts - what are your thoughts?
As a web master for an insurance company you may be asking - how can I even expect to abide by Google’s guidelines and rank in the top 100 if site number 101 is using paid links?
If companies are paying so much for these links, are these results actually very natural? The companies with the deepest wallets ranking the highest?