The Story of Gav the Sharpmaster

by Rob Stokes

There has been a whole lot of talk recently about the power of search engines (namely the mighty Google) to destroy the reputation of an individual through negative listings on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

One particular issue is the G*vin Sh**ples (GS) affair which arose on Jo’blog. They called him a wanker and now that post is on the first page of Google when you search for Gav’s full name. You can find the post here: joblog[dot]co[dot]za/2005/02/gavin_sharples_.html.

This URL is broken and purposefully not hyperlinked so this post does not provide any link juice to the page in question. You will also notice that I haven’t mentioned the chaps name for this same reason. This means that you can link to this page without it passing GS related link power to the Post o’ Nastiness.

To be honest I think the high Jo’blog ranking for the post is a credit to the free speech nature of the Internet that I love. But at the same time some poor chap… namely Gav the Sharpmaster… is suffering needlessly especially if the issue is in the past and indeed settled and over as it appears to be.

But with a little SEO magic we can beat it and when we do, the Gavster will be a happy man and Rich…! won’t need to take down the post thus maintaining his blogger integrity.

Here is a link to the google.co.za SERP  for the chaps name. Please bear in mind that I am in London so your experience may vary slightly if you are not.

From where I’m sitting the offending page comes in at position 4, what we need to do (at the very least) is to push the next 7 listings above that one so that it slips off the first page and into relative obscurity. Alternatively we can create content that climbs above the Jo’blog post. For example Rich…! could create a page about what a great guy the Gavarino is and we could boost that page.

Hmmm maybe its best we stick with trying to boost the lower listings.

So this is what we need to do:

Create “keyword rich” links to the web pages ranked 5th and down and if we create enough links from enough pages, Google will consider them more relevant for the search result and bump them higher. Keyword rich means that the Gavmeister's full name should ideally be contained in the text of the link or at least around it.

For example these two pages below which come in ranked 5 and 7. (Once again these links below are broken purposefully so you may have to cut and paste and insert www).

jacquesdevilliers.com/index.asp?pgid=53  (I laughed out loud at that photo!) or conferencespeakers.co.za/speakers/g**ins***ples.htm

OK so do it now, Yes that means you… link away… tell your friend to link. Go!

Choose a random result from 5 down on that SERP and link to it with the appropriate text preferably in the link itself or at least around it.

Google will (hopefully) see this behaviour as your page informing the user that the page behind the link is about GS and therefore is relevant for that search term. It’s all about perceived relevancy.

What we MUST NOT do.
 

• Point all links to the same page with the same anchor text – this might be picked up as an SEO tactic and cause the page we're trying to boost to be dropped. So we have to keep things pretty random so pick whatever page you want below rank 5 and be creative with your link text and placement as long as it contains the GS name somewhere in it

 

• Link to the offending Jo’blog page and definitely without any mention of the G-Sharp name in the link text.

• If you do link to this post please don’t use GS in the text instead use “best blog” or “great guy” or something else relevant :-)

So there we go, I think I’ve managed to get my point across in a round about way without letting loose any major trade secrets and without creating any GS related search energy to the dodgy post. If anyone is confused or has some other input please leave a comment or drop me a line. rob[at]quirk.co.za

Lets see if this works and don’t forget we need YOUR help to build those links!

2005/06/19 | permalink | comments (2) | trackbacks (0)

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