(Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes)
Do a Google search on Website In A Weekend.
I get “vampireweekend.com” as my top result.
An absolutely irrelevant search result! How stupid is that? How much did that cost anyway?
Here’s what it looks like:
Vampire Weekend home page
It’s been this way since May 2009.
It’s not much of a web site. There’s no “there” there.
Here’s the funny part: this pop group is riding an Indie wave (and probably some sort of pop culture vampire meme…), but whoever’s promoting them has non-Indie deep pockets. Supposedly, it’s quartet of 4 South African musicians who all went to Columbia together. Uh huh.
Deep pockets…
Here’s their Alexa ranking at the time (11/1/2009) when I wrote this post:
Vampire Weekend Alexa Rank
Holy Smokes! That’s a lot of incoming links for something with so little traffic! It feels incongruent to me. With that many incoming links, they should have a lot more traffic. And they should have interaction on their front page. More stickiness. I haven’t spent time on their Myspace page (all indie bands have a Myspace page, right?), but I bet it’s a lot stickier.
Here’s what they’re getting coming on from search:
Vampire Weekend Alexa Search
I’m sure they’re getting some traction off of Website In A Weekend.
It be cool if I got some traction off of Vampire Weekend…
Hrm. great plan! I’ll load this article up with keywords and “Vampire Weekend” links. Let’s see if I can suck down some of their SERPiness.
But what about the music?
So are these gents any good? I don’t have a clue. I did listen to about 2 minutes of the track on the home page. I wonder how coincidental that 2 minutes is to their bounce rate?
Indie rock is not really my listening preference at the moment; currently, more into deep house, psytrance, dubstep, ambient, chillout and breakbeats. If you can’t the difference between various genres of electronica, no worries. Just know that the difference between something like chillout and trance is like the difference between Roxy Music and Jefferson Starship. Both rock. Just different. Or Miles Davis 2d quintet with Louis Armstrong. Both Jazz. Just different. Or Mendelssohn versus Wagner. Both Romantic. Just different.
In any case, they might be good, they might not be. They have a lot of really good press though, with 600+ backlinks.
Isn’t it cool how well Website In A Weekend is doing with 4 backlinks? Yep: 4 backlinks, and we’re pretty much kicking it around here. Website In A Weekend is definitely in the game.
[Update November 6, 2009]
I just love it. Check out this screenshot from my stats page:
Getting some Vampire SERPiness. Fair is fair!
How cool is that?
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
i know it can be very frustating.i think google gives lot of weight how long the domain name have been live.
I now am going to have to figure out how to use the word “SERPiness” in a future post. Love it.
Susan´s last blog ..How The Economy Is Stopping Businesses From Being Like Ryan Seacrest
You came up first in the search for me just now, though maybe google remembers that I like this site or something silly.
@zeesu, I think you are right, I have a sight that is the number 1 result for a search of the words in the domain name, even though there are only 5 blog posts from a couple years ago there.
Sean´s last blog ..Why Printmaking? (A Study in Polarity)
Dave this is by far one of the funniest posts I have read of yours yet, it’s nice to see that sense of humor come out. I do have to ask though how exactly do you think you nailed such an odd keyword?
Extreme John´s last blog ..Halloween Costume Contest Pictures and Voting
Funny crazy post Dave, LOL!
These people have deep pocket to score such big hits of so many back links…vampires indeed!
elmot´s last blog ..Having Faith with Fate
There is a blog that I found on Google. It hasn’t had a post since 2007 however it’s page rank is still 4. Doesn’t make any sense to me. Something new for google to work on I guess.
El3ments´s last blog ..Interesting News Articles
What the heck of back link. I am interested to learn how come the backlink as that much.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Atahualpa 3.4.4 Configuration
Humor aside, this post does contain useful info on how to gauge a website’s stickiness on the web and how to discern between organic and paid traffic.
Walter´s last blog ..In San Francisco, Composting Is The Law
I’m getting a little behind in comments here…
@zeesu – Google’s longevity weighting will work for you as time goes by. It’s worked for me in the past. Of course, they may change everything in the future, but I don’t think it will matter too much as long as you have useful content.
@Susan – Looking forward to some SERPiness.
@Sean – SERPs always vary a little bit. Sometimes from hour to hour.
@Extreme – I used be in the Marines, and I framed houses in Texas — with framers from Florida — so… I try to keep it toned down here.
@Elmot – No doubt!
@El3 – Longevity! Fire and forget! Just hang in there, it will work for you soon.
@Dana – “Let me Google that for you…”
@Walter – I’m really just taking a guess on whether they paid or not. One thing is for sure, if they didn’t pay outright, somebody did some _major_ hustling. I didn’t look up to see if they were on a major label. Curious now.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Top 5 Biggest Lies About Blogging for Money
LOL, that is pretty crazy. I can’t believe they have so many backlinks. At least I can honestly say that I know I’m one of the 4 linking in
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..Where Are Your Readers’ Eyes Going?
@Blake – the “real” backlink number is far higher I’m sure, for both sites.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Top 5 Biggest Lies About Blogging for Money