The John Chow SEO Experiment

As the "Google" vs "John Chow" battle continues, I thought I would come up with a little SEO experiment of my own to see if I could wade into this battle and feature in a high organic listing in Google for the John Chow keyword.

After consistent Google crack downs on link trading and shady schemes, John Chow's site was one of many victims who copped a heavy slap from Google in the past 12 - 18 months and his site was eventually pushed way down the pecking order for his own name. Search "John Chow" and you'll see JC is 5th or 6th page in.

A similar example (probably even more dramatic) happened to a friend of Chow's. Ades Tynyshov, a blogger that previously featured an extremely high Google PageRank of 8 - was burnt badly, after he abused the PageRank and setup several batches of dodgy link trading schemes. Having such high PR gave this guy enormous power. At the time, everyone from advertisers to readers of his blog wanted in on the action that Tynyshov had, high PR is valuable. But after flaunting the power and even ripping off eager readers on promised backlinks - the big Google caught up with the small time blogger and have reduced his PR to a paltry 2 as it stands today.

But back to Chow, John Chow certainly doesn't need any help from Google. His blog attracts tonnes of users each and every day (John smartly promoted using other avenues; not just Google), so organic search results don't have a major baring on John Chow like others. Just like Mark over at 45n5.com always says, build your websites as if Google or the seach engines weren't there! Build relationships with fellow bloggers, build your RSS count and advertise where possible. Dont rely on organic search alone!

The keyword, 'John Chow' doesn't actually get a lot of search volume on Google which was surprising. Funnily enough, when you search 'John Chow' on Google you will see that good ol' Cow (John Cow dot Com) appear in the top spot. Yup, those freaky freaks over at JohnCow.com are holding top spot on the John Chow keyword search. Misunderstood genuis those guys I tell you!

Man, all these Chows and Cow's are making me dizzy. Both JC's too! Scary little religious connections there ..... OOooooooooh!

Anyway, I will see about getting this particular post optimized and target the John Chow keyword to see how far I can climb up the Google results. If my little SEO experiment gets off the ground and I am able to achieve a decent Google search listing (Top 5);