Relative power of Zoomin v Finda v SearchMasters

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May 26, 2008

We have recently SEO'ed Riverglade Bed and Breakfast in Hamilton for the phrase including "Hamilton Bed and Breakfast", and written a blog post about them, as well as listing them on Zoomin for Hamilton Bed and Breakfast, and Finda for Hamilton Bed and Breakfast. All the listings were around 8 May 2008. It is rather interesting to see where each of the respective pages rank.

We are linking to both the Finda and Zoomin pages from the SearchMasters blog post, but the SearchMasters post does not have any specific links back to it with the given search phrase.

Google.co.nz - and each pages rank and title

Zoomin - 8th (26/5), 9th (27/5), 12th (11/7) - "Information on Hamilton Bed And Breakfast - Riverglade Bed And ..."
Finda - 52nd (26/5), 10th (27/5), 4th (11/7) - "Riverglade Bed and Breakfast - Hamilton Bed and Breakfast, Bed ..."
SearchMasters - 26th (26/5), 27th (27/5), 59th (11/7)- "Hamilton Bed and Breakfast - Riverglade - SEO Case Study"
Riverglade - 57th (26/5), 40th (27/5), 11th Yippee (11/7)- "Hamilton Bed and Breakfast | Hamilton B&B New Zealand - Riverglade"

Wow - even with the less than optimal title, the Zoomin page is far higher than any of the others. The SearchMasters page ranks well, but that is also using a SearchMasters home page link to the article that will not last for long. But then, the SM page does not have the benefit of external inbound links like the others have from the SM article page.

I was initially surprised at how low the Finda page was ranking. But now its listed on the first page with Zoomin, it is around about where I considered it should rank. Must have just been time. We have included the search phrases on each of the pages, so its not that the onpage SEO was particularly deficient. And yes, we have the search phrase more to the right on the Finda page, and that would certainly be having an effect.

The Riverglade site is receiving links from each of the sites, yet it still is ranking the lowest. This is easy to explain - the domain is not powerful, nor as old. The site does not have the same domain authority and trust rank as the other sites. But over time, and with additional links, it will certainly rank higher than the other sites.

The high listings for the non Riverglade sites is also to do with the "new news" effect. It will be interesting to see if the non Riverglade sites keep their rankings, I expect their rankings to drop.

To draw any real conclusions about the relative strengths of the websites/listings on the websites, more experiments would be needed. But it is certainly interesting to see Zoomin so high. Age of website, total number of inbound links, age of those links all helping to total to Domain Authority and Trust Rank - it is certainly an important part of SEO!

And to follow on the theme of Online Yellow Pages, sad to say that there are no Yellow.co.nz pages listed in the top 200 for Hamilton Bed and Breakfast! But then again, I am not linking to any of their pages like I am with Finda and Zoomin. However, Google can't even find a dedicated page for the phrase on Yellow.

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3 Comments

Gary Jensen - New Zealand Search - Jul 9, 2008

Surely you were going to include at least a free listing on NZS.com along with this to see how they compare? :)

Michael Brandon - Jul 11, 2008

Okay Gary - straight from the hip.

Hamilton Bed and Breakfast

The NZS page for Hamilton Bed and Breakfast

The page does not have that phrase anywhere on the page. The meta description is the same as many other pages, and is therefore not specific for that page.

Your NZS page is a lowly 148th on Google.com (then I searched again, and it did not exist at all in the top 1000) - the finda listing is 9th, and tourism.net.nz is 3rd. Yes, the tourism.net.nz website is one of yours. It shows what is possible when the SEO is that much better. An improvement similar to that of the tourism listing may just be possible if the onpage seo was done better. But then again, the tourism site has better linking given the Yellow/White etc affiliation.

SEO search phrases

Lets pick a page on the nzs website that relates to say SEO
The new zealand web promotion is the best page on nzs for both search engine optimisation and seo, but not well optimised for either phrases. Yes, it is second on Google.com for the phrase "new zealand web promotion". But when I use the Google search phrase tool, I find that there is next to no traffic for the phrase - as compared to say just the phrase "search engine optimisation", or even "search engine optimization new zealand"

Interesting, its the z spelling used with the phrase "New Zealand" - obviously foreigners doing the search.

The page has got good Google page rank of PR3. But this is only available to first first pagination of listings and sponsored listings. The second page has a Google PR0 .

New Zealand Car Rentals

Your New Zealand car rentals page ranks rather well, and happens to be an appropriate search phrase. Searches from New Zealand on Google.com serp 53. Rather good for a competitive phrase.

But the Christchurch page has a generic meta description on it, and does not include the search phrase "christchurch car rentals" on the page. In fact, its your New Zealand Car Rentals page that ranks for the phrase= 81st on Google.com from New Zealand.

Similar story with the Auckland Car Rentals page - the only mention of the phrase is in a listing. And the New Zealand Car Rentals page ranks for the phrase - of all things 82nd.

So yes, you have pages ranking for phrases, but the pages are not well Search Engine Optimised, and so are not ranking as well as they could be

Did you REALLY want public comment on your nzs website???

- Jul 11, 2008

All feedback is good feedback, thanks Micahel :)