Page 1 Google rankings in hours (easily)

Over the past week or so I’ve run a few test regarding syndication of video in blog postings and its effect on SERP (Search Engine Result Page) rankings. I’ve had fairly eye-opening results: The ability to easily achieve page 1 Google rankings.

Here’s an overview of one of my latest experiments:

Hypothesis: Google is giving preferential treatment to blog posts with video syndicated from a Google video sharing site (Google Video or YouTube).

Experiment: Post reasonably well crafted blog posts with relevant embedded video and monitor keywords and keyphrases to see if ranking could be achieved.

Prediction: Page 1 Google SERP listings in less than a day for targeted keyphrases.

Blog/Video/Post Details:

1. Blog to post on: http://www.on-a-mac.com
2. Post topic: an iPhone App (called Dynolicous) for which I had recently seen a video on YouTube
3. Keywords: Present in the post title (and title tag), page name, post content and post tags

Results: This is the third test I’ve personally run and I’ve had the same remarkable result.  When searching Google for targeted keywords and keyphrases:

• Page 2 or better Google rankings in less than  15 minutes
• Page 1 Google rankings in less than 4 hours
• A few page 1, result 1 Google rankings for more detailed searches which had direct competition (three word searches)
• Without any type of maintenance/attention, some rankings have slipped downward over time but still held page 1 and page 2 positions on Google.  Other rankings have held stable, even on page 1 of Google results (those page 1 rankings were for two or three word search phrases).

Timeline to Page 1 on Google (Test date: 19 August 2008):

• 9:41 am - Blog post with video published (How accurate is the iPhone Dynolicious? [video])
• 9:56 am - Google Page 2, result 1 (Search phrase: “iPhone dynolicous video”)
• 1:12 pm - Google Page 1, result 10 (Search phrase: “iPhone dynolicous video”)
• 1:24 pm - Google Page 1, result 4 (Search phrase: “iPhone dynolicous video”)
• 1:27 pm - Google Page 1, result 1 and 2 (Search phrase: “iPhone dynolicous video”)
• 1:28 pm - Google Page 1, result 4 (Search phrase: “iPhone dynolicous”)
• 1:28 pm - Google Page 1, result 10 (Search phrase: “dynolicous”)

Some of these screenshots (below) are from my iPhone as I left the office right after I posted the video.  I was unfortunately in that meeting for a few hours, so I’m not sure exactly when the results moved onto page 1.  When searching Google from the iPhone I was using the Safari web browser and the same Google site (not the Google Mobile Search site or the Google Search App for the iPhone).

The iPhone screenshots have the time from the phone on them.  For the other screenshots I’m relying on my Mac’s finder to get the “Date Modified” time.  The only thing I’ve done to these pictures is blurred my email account as I was logged into Google when a few of the screenshots were taken (being logged in to Google had no effect either way in case you were curious).

This technique has no effect whatsoever on MSN/Live or Yahoo.  I would anticipate that this effect will not last over time on Google either.  Until then, enjoy!