Google X Cloned | Main | Removing a 302 Hijacked Page from the Google Index

March 18, 2005

If a Phrase Ranks on Google, But No One Searches for It...

Phil Craven was in one of those moods today, and posted a thread named If a tree falls in the forest.... He got all philosophical and it kind of made me teary eyed (just kidding). The reason I point this thread out, is not to talk about irrelevant philosophical debates but to talk about Robert Charlton's clever reply. He replied to Phil saying;

Phil - I thought you were going to ask whether, if a phrase ranks on Google, but no one searches for it, does it really rank?

I never heard it phrased like that. Of course, the point Robert is making was the same point I was making in my Big Blue Pineapple Chair entry. I can rank #1 for Big Blue Pineapple Chair, which I don't rank number 1 for in Google, but I do in Yahoo! now.

So if a phrase ranks on Google, but no one searches for it, does it really rank?



Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!

posted rustybrick in Search Theory at March 18, 2005 8:25 AM Comments (4)

Sphinn sphinn-favicon.png • Tweet This! Twitter-16x16.png • Digg digg-favicon.jpg • Delicious delicious-favicon.png • StumbleUpon delicious-favicon.png • Google Co-op google-favicon-16.png Cartoon Barry Says Socialize

Comments

If no-one searching for it, there's no value in it. If there's no value in it, who cares?

If you're a business you're not improving branding or generating any business. If you're providing content, no-ones reading it based on that term.

Who cares if you rank 1st or 1000th for it :)

 

Posted by Adrian at March 18, 2005 09:40

Well yea! But who cares if a tree falls in the woods, if there is no one there for it to bother?

 

Posted by Barry Schwartz at March 18, 2005 09:51

BTW, I see s.e.r.t. #1 and #2 on Google for the Big Blue Pineapple Chair... BTW, good point - there are alot of people around that are not very familiar with SEM, but trying to promote their sites themselves missing it (the point).

 

Posted by Max at March 18, 2005 12:16

There's a flaw in the question. Since rankings are produced on-the-fly, in response to a search query, no rankings intrinsically exist. So the question cannot be "if a phrase ranks on Google, but nobody searches for it" because there are no rankings unless there are searches.

 

Posted by Phil Craven at March 24, 2005 02:18

Post a comment (Note: Can Take 120 Seconds For Your Comment To Show Up)

Do you want us to save your personal Information?

Premium Sponsors + advertise

To subscribe to the Search Engine Roundtable, click here