Help:Search Engine Optimization
| Help:Contents |
See also Search engine optimization (SEO) for a general discussion of SEO.
 This page in a nutshell:
|
| Content created in MyWikiBiz has a way of showing up toward the top of search engine results. |
MyWikiBiz contributors enjoy the effects of MyWikiBiz Search Engine Optimization. MyWikiBiz listings that utilize semantic tags achieve higher rankings in search results, through a combination of relevance and linkage.
An amazing example
Here's an example we've noticed in December 2006:
The Church of the Loving Shepherd is located in West Chester, PA. Assume that you were driving by the church one day, but you only caught a glimpse of the church's full name. Later that day, you might search Google using a pretty common method: entering city + name fragments, which in this case might be the stream-of-thought keyword phrase West Chester church shepherd (because that's all you remembered from your drive-by observation). Click the following link to see the actual result you would get on Google:
See how the semantic tags recorded in the Church's MyWikiBiz Directory listing improve not only Google's search term relevance, but also trigger the correct address and contact information to be displayed?
In addition to context and relevance, semantic tags also improve overall rankings through the effect of MyWikiBiz's internal cross-linking. That is, the combination of MyWikiBiz listings, automatically-generated summary reports (at the end of each listing), cross-referenced ASK queries, and (probably) our tolerance of Google AdSense ads, all serve to improve overall search rankings by providing multiple reference points.
The Church's listing on MyWikiBiz was authored only as recently as December 9, 2006. We noticed that the MyWikiBiz listing had jumped to #1 or #2 for the Google search results above, as soon as January 4, 2007 -- less than one month for the Power of MyWikiBiz to impact the Church's SEO. Note, also, that the Church's own website comes up much lower in the search results.
Other fun examples
Additional proof of these search engine optimization (SEO) results can be found by trying these search queries at Google:
- lowrider performance artist -- -- A MyWikiBiz listing ranks #2 out of 194,000 results
- Littleton graphics stationery -- -- A MyWikiBiz listing ranks #1 out of 20,600 results
- Florida stone crab scientific video -- -- A MyWikiBiz listing ranks #1 out of 126,000 results
- Ellie Rountree -- -- A MyWikiBiz listing ranks #2 out of 13,800 results
The stone crab article in MyWikiBiz took its author about 10 minutes to create, and it now comes up first out of 126,000 Google search results -- even higher than Wikipedia's article about stone crabs. Imagine what careful, dedicated authors of encyclopedic content on MyWikiBiz could achieve.
Two test cases
At the end of the first week of January 2007, MyWikiBiz developers created two new "test cases" to explore the dynamic impact of MyWikiBiz on Google search engine rankings for small businesses. We selected two real-life businesses in competitive trades -- plumbing and real estate -- and settled on Superior Plumbing & Heating of Rochester, Minnesota, and Pinnacle Realty Services of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
We drew up what we thought might be some common search engine queries that potential customers of these businesses might input on Google. We checked where each of the companies' own web sites (Superior and Pinnacle) emerged on these hypothetical Google searches. Then, we created MyWikiBiz Directory pages for each company, including no more data or information than could be derived from these companies' existing web sites. Finally, we waited a little more than a month for Google's spiders to crawl MyWikiBiz and appropriately rank these new Directory pages.
Honestly, some of the results were enticingly good, while others were a bit of a disappointment for our very high expectations. Here is the data from the Superior Plumbing & Heating test:
| GOOGLE SEARCH TERMS | Rank of corporate web site before MyWikiBiz | Rank of MyWikiBiz Directory page after 5 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| plumber zip 55901 | None of 152 results | 2nd |
| plumber 55901 | 11th | 8th |
| "hot water" company Rochester MN | 175th | 41st |
| "drain cleaning" Rochester MN | 16th | 20th |
| superior plumbing | 4th | 9th |
| superior plumber | 2nd | 6th |
| superior plumbing & heating | 2nd | 11th |
And here is the data from the Pinnacle Realty Services test:
| GOOGLE SEARCH TERMS | Rank of corporate web site before MyWikiBiz | Rank of MyWikiBiz Directory page after 5 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| realtors 02740 | 69th | 6th |
| realtors zip 02740 | Not in top 300 results | 13th |
| "se habla espanol" "real estate" "New Bedford" | 15th | 2nd |
| pinnacle realty services | 3rd | 13th |
| realty Bristol Plymouth counties | 53rd | 160th |
As one can see from these tables, MyWikiBiz (even in its formative stages of content-building) has the capability of giving small businesses another "chance" within Google searches to be found by prospective customers. This is especially true if one carefully targets some highly-specialized searches that might be taking place (as in the "se habla espanol" example). Why would Pinnacle Realty Services settle for a 15th-place ranking of their home page on that search, when they could achieve a 2nd place ranking with an equivalent MyWikiBiz listing?
