Over the last week, I have had a couple of posts about stuff that Josh Spaulding is working on as part of his Internet Marketing endeavors.   Yesterday, I promoted his excellent Ultimate Link Building Report (complete with discount) and a few days ago I announced that I was doing some coaching inside of his Coaching With Josh Forum.

OK — so this is my last Spaulding post for a while, I promise.  LOL.

I always try to only recommend stuff that I actually use, and I recommended The Ultimate Link Building Report because I actually use the techniques in there.  In fact, I was actually checking the SERPs for “coaching with josh” (no quotes) yesterday evening, and I saw a curious thing.

Smoked By The Big Guns

The day before, I was holding the #2 spot for “coaching with josh” with a double link just behind the actual CWJ listing (also double).  But some time yesterday, I was displaced by a post in the Warrior forum about Josh's coaching program.  Just like that, I was in the forth spot behind Warrior and a news article from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about New England Coach Josh McDaniels.  Ugh.  You can see the result below.

Two things completely non-scientific thing that I take away from this:

1.  Google's SERP algorithm not only takes into account the strength of the backlinks to the page, but also the authority of the root domain.   The Warrior forum (and the Trib) have strong domains with lots of backlinks and domain age, etc.  All other things being equal, this helps them outrank my page

2.  Participation in forums can generate good organic SERP traffic in addition to forum member click-thrus and groovy dofollow backlinks.  Now, people looking for Coaching with Josh may see the thread at Warrior and click thru to it, clicking again on a link there.

So, there are two good reasons to participate in forums.  Just be sure you have a great signature with a call to action that will create click traffic.

I'll Be Back.

As for the ranking, don't worry.  I'll be back in the number two slot soon.  I may even outrank Josh before it's all over.  🙂

Have a great day.

Mark