Looking at Google Trends today, I noticed that the phrase “how to write a resume” made the list. I couldn’t help but wonder if Demand Media’s eHow was dominating the search results for the query, given the site’s general how-to nature and history of ranking well in Google.
Demand Media recently revealed that its search referrals had dropped by 20% folloiwng the Panda update, but it has still been ranking in numerous areas. I have no idea if eHow was ranking for this particular query pre-Panda, but it’s hard for me to imagine that even if it wasn’t the top Google result it wasn’t somewhere on the first page. Just a hunch.
Even knowing about eHow’s Panda hit, I was surprised to find when visiting the SERP for the query that eHow was nowhere to be found on the first page. What I found was actually how-to-write-a-resume.org ranking at the top. I let some time pass (a couple hours or so) to tend to some other content before writing this, and page one has already changed, and now has a Mahalo article at the top. This is interesting in itself for a couple reasons. For one, I have to wonder why Mahalo suddenly jumped up there, while when I looked at the query before, it was ranking on page two or three. Secondly, Mahalo was another one of the big Panda victims.
At the time of this writing, I’m not seeing an eHow result until lower page 5, and it even has the exac title, “How to Write a Resume”.
If you search that on eHow’s site, you’ll find that they have numerous articles on the topic. I will say that Mahalo’s content in this particular case does seem to be somewhat “deeper”. Is it the best result for the query? Hard to say.
Just a post-Panda observation.
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on May 22nd, 2011. 
Looking at Google Trends today, I noticed that the phrase “how to write a resume” made the list. I couldn’t help but wonder if Demand Media’s eHow was dominating the search results for the query, given the site’s general how-to nature and history of ranking well in Google.
Demand Media recently revealed that its search referrals had dropped by 20% folloiwng the Panda update, but it has still been ranking in numerous areas. I have no idea if eHow was ranking for this particular query pre-Panda, but it’s hard for me to imagine that even if it wasn’t the top Google result it wasn’t somewhere on the first page. Just a hunch.
Even knowing about eHow’s Panda hit, I was surprised to find when visiting the SERP for the query that eHow was nowhere to be found on the first page. What I found was actually how-to-write-a-resume.org ranking at the top. I let some time pass (a couple hours or so) to tend to some other content before writing this, and page one has already changed, and now has a Mahalo article at the top. This is interesting in itself for a couple reasons. For one, I have to wonder why Mahalo suddenly jumped up there, while when I looked at the query before, it was ranking on page two or three. Secondly, Mahalo was another one of the big Panda victims.
At the time of this writing, I’m not seeing an eHow result until lower page 5, and it even has the exac title, “How to Write a Resume”.
If you search that on eHow’s site, you’ll find that they have numerous articles on the topic. I will say that Mahalo’s content in this particular case does seem to be somewhat “deeper”. Is it the best result for the query? Hard to say.
Just a post-Panda observation.
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Internet Marketing Tools For The DIY’er HERE
Filed under Internet Marketing by on May 21st, 2011.
The topic of content farms, and specifically, what search engines are going to do about them has constantly been in the news lately. As a result of this constant outcry from consumers, the search engines are being forced to step up their game against content farms.
Blekko and DuckDuckGo have actually banned Demand Media’s network of sites, including eHow and Answerbag, from their search results. Google has also taken action and released a Chrome extension that blocks content farms from its search results.
DuckDuckGo also recently promoted wikiHow’s content to its Zero-Click Info box, which is displayed above the first search result. While this move from DuckDuckGo may seem like a step backward to some, Jack Herrick, the founder of wikiHow, explained to WebProNews why it is not. According to him, wikiHow and eHow are two very different services.
He tells WPN that wikiHow’s content is user-generated and is very much like Wikipedia’s content model. eHow, on the other hand, is based on a paid model in which freelance writers are paid to write articles.
“When you get… maybe a dozen or two dozen people who have edited an article, each person passionate about the topic [and] contributing their knowledge, you end up with a very, very different product than if you pay a freelancer a few dollars to write an article,” he said.
Interestingly enough, Herrick actually ran eHow before it sold to Demand Media in 2006. Although the model is slightly different now, he said that eHow still has the paid model that it had while he was there. He also pointed out that he was faced with the situation of either producing a lot of very low quality articles or producing very few high quality articles. Because he wasn’t pleased with either of those options, he based wikiHow on an entirely different model.
“My goal for wikiHow, and what I’ve been trying to do for several years now, is build a how-to manual with every single topic and have every topic be the best possible page it can be – the single highest quality resource on the Internet for that how-to topic,” he added.
Herrick also spoke about the AOL/Huffington Post deal and the hype that it has been receiving in regards to paid content vs. free content. Although he doesn’t believe that one is necessarily better than the other, he does say that free content is often of higher quality than paid content is.
“Sites like ours go the extra mile… you start with that $15 level and start adding volunteer contributions on top of it… adding a video, adding step-by-step images, adding tips that they’ve learned over years of doing this. It really can bring the quality level a notch higher, and I think that’s where wiki content can do something that other sites just can’t do,” he said.
Going forward, the mission for wikiHow is the same: to create the highest quality content for any topic on the Web in multiple languages. Currently, the site has just under 100,000 articles and has over 30 million unique visitors.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Feb 22nd, 2011.
