I don't get why this one ranks so high

[JimFranco]

This is the website :nookandcrannymaid.com its on the number 1 spot for 3 pack on google and number 9 spot on organic for the term house cleaning Atlanta

I dont see but maybe 3 backlinks.

I could understand maybe for maps the citation factor but why Organic ?

 

[mborgelt]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

This is a curious case in that nothing really inventive or textbook exists on-site and when compared to the competition they don't really stand out ahead. However, a close look into the backlink profiles of the top 15 results will show that most of the other site's inbound anchors are either spammy or not keyword related. When you look at Nook and Cranny's backlink anchors they are clearly targeting this specific keyword, its permutations and their domain name. We have seen this sort of strategy quite a bit but if don excessively you are likely to shoot yourself in the foot. That's the major difference I found I am curious to read what the other TCs think.

 

[JimFranco]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

they don't really have any backlinks is the curious part for me.

Also the couple behind them are sort of the same high rank nothing to show for it.

I would imagine the big maid companies should rank higher just because these companies are so badly optimize with no real seo profile.

I really do not get it.

The term is pretty competitive for cleaning companies too. Its for Atlanta so I dont know .

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

We haven't had a "Why Ranks High" game for awhile now, so I just Tweeted this one out.

Thanks for posting Jim. I'll try to look later on and see if I can spot anything.

But often when someone ranks high without the usual ranking factors, it's because they are a very mature business, have been around a long time, and are popular in ways that Google can see, that can't be measured by links or citations.

 

[mborgelt]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

What tool are you using to find backlinks, Jim?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

Pretty stumped myself.

Their maps ranking makes sense. It syncs with their organic ranking. The people ranking ahead of them organically are not located in Atlanta and won't show up in the maps.

Now their organic ranking on the other hand, doesn't make a lot of sense. They are ranking organically very high above people that, frankly speaking, they shouldn't based on back link data from Majestic.

Also, their ranking is pretty well balanced. They rank well for "House Cleaning", "Maid Service", "Home Cleaning", & just "maid" which was impressive. That means it's not just a one query fluke. They genuinely rank well.

So, either they are hiding all of their backlinks (possible) or something strange is going on.

I don't think they're hiding their backlinks because that's an upper tier black hat'ish move. Their on-site SEO is below par so it makes me think if they don't know how to do upper tier on-page SEO, they won't know how to do upper-tier off-page SEO. Unless that's just what they want you think! Dun dun dun...but highly unlikely still. No schema on the page, no map, doesn't seem likely.

They could be getting some brand mentions in the area which wouldn't show up on Majestic obviously but you would think a few links would accompany those for us to track down, but no dice.

Maybe there's just one link that is really just boosting them to the top that we don't know about. But that also seems unlikely.

There's no redirect from another website that has a ton of authority, their website has been around since 2008 but they're outranking websites that have been around longer than they have. I saw one from 2003. So that can't be it.

I just genuinely have no idea.

I'm throwing in the towel for now.

Anyone else?

 

[JimFranco]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

What tool are you using to find backlinks, Jim?

I used ahref , moz and semrush

 

[JoyHawkins]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

They have some good backlinks.

Cleaning Services in Atlanta GA by Nook & Cranny Maid Services for example is both local & relevant to their industry

They've also got some crap ones with anchor text:

Cleaning Services Home, Atlanta, 12 people available right now
House Cleaning In Atlanta | A Business Article
LydaIrons | user details | folkd.com

They had a ton of good citations that were built well without consistencies as well.

https://www.whodoyou.com/biz/117401/nook-and-cranny-maid-service-atlanta-ga
Nook & Cranny Maid Service Business Review in Atlanta, GA - Metro Atlanta, Athens and Northeast Georgia BBB
Nook & Cranny Maid Service @ 98 Howell St NE - Atlanta, GA 30312 - Places to Go in Atlanta (niche site for Atlanta)

 

[JimFranco]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

thats like 4 links

 

[JimFranco]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

Do you all think maybe they are buying domains and 301 redirects to the site ?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

It's not just about links. Even name mentions surrounded by relevant content counts.

Like this, highly targeted: Cleaning Services in Atlanta GA by Nook & Cranny Maid Services

They also have a BBB and Chamber of Commerce listing, highly authoritative.

And at least one other site. See Nook mentioned at bottom of page and many times throughout the site. About Us - Personal Touch

Err... wait, maybe the site developer just stole a lot of copy from other sites.
That site is Florida area code. But sometimes it says call us with Nook's # in Atlanta. And that company is PersonalTouch but in one place it says "Sharp Sparkle represents Huntington Beach’s most referred house cleaning company."

Anyway, thought maybe that site carried some weight, but now I don't know. Maybe it's just a fake business or lead gen site. I have not idea.

 

[JimFranco]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

It's not just about links. Even name mentions surrounded by relevant content counts.

Like this, highly targeted: Cleaning Services in Atlanta GA by Nook & Cranny Maid Services

They also have a BBB and Chamber of Commerce listing, highly authoritative.

And at least one other site. See Nook mentioned at bottom of page and many times throughout the site. About Us - Personal Touch

Err... wait, maybe the site developer just stole a lot of copy from other sites.
That site is Florida area code. But sometimes it says call us with Nook's # in Atlanta. And that company is PersonalTouch but in one place it says "Sharp Sparkle represents Huntington Beach?s most referred house cleaning company."

Anyway, thought maybe that site carried some weight, but now I don't know. Maybe it's just a fake business or lead gen site. I have not idea.

Oh the Irony !

That content is stolen from my site ! The top part of the about us section and checklist.

time to report a dmca I guess.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

OMG. What a coincidence! Go get 'em!

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

Do you all think maybe they are buying domains and 301 redirects to the site ?

They could. But Majestic picks those up. Unless they blocked Majestic.

Again, given their on-page SEO quality, I think those strategies are a little advanced for them.

 

[Conor Treacy]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

Lots of stuff on this one, and lots of head scratching at the end of it.

The sitemap has invalid headers - who knows if Google's even reading it.
Nothing in the robots.txt blocking crawlers (doesn't mean they can't be doing this via .htaccess or a server firewall).

Limited links as mentioned by others;
skilledcleaners.com link is a nofollow also - so not much flowing there

I really only see TWO places linking to them;
topalternate.com
What are the Prices of condos and homes in Atlanta? | Atlanta home prices, Intown Atlanta Real Estate | Homes For Sale | Intown Atlanta Home Selling Resource (3 separate links)
But even then, the citation flow is in the 6-10 out of 100 - so minimal there.

Titles and Description tags are definitely not optimized, but that doesn't' appear to be making too much of a difference either.

They do have a site that's nearly 7 years old.

Nothing listed for categories in Google, no photos to speak of, but they do have a TON of reviews!

Facebook is limited to only 15 people liking the page and 3 reviews.

There's something shady going on!

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Re: I dont get why this one ranks so high

As I was reading this, a question came to mind.

Do you suppose, in the light of no other evidence, Google is using the domain age to decide which site is the originator of the content? And thereby docking younger sites for nicking content when it could really be the older site doing the stealing?