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Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

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Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#51

Post by nsgi »

jrs235 wrote: post #34
elorant wrote: post #33

Since we're in the SEO land let me ask a relevant question. Say I have an e-commerce site. If I buy an expired domain from some other e-commerce site which was in the same market as mine can I have any benefit whatsoever?

I thought Google looked to see if domain entries have changed and if so took that into account and counted against the prior ranking score.

Wouldn't that mean a website that has been transferred to a new owner would have to start from scratch? Unless Google has a way of distinguishing an old site from an old domain.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#52

Post by elorant »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #36
elorant wrote: post #33

Since we're in the SEO land let me ask a relevant question. Say I have an e-commerce site. If I buy an expired domain from some other e-commerce site which was in the same market as mine can I have any benefit whatsoever?

Yes. This is now a common white hat tactic. That instead of paying someone to try and build links for you (blindly email a bunch of sites and ask for links). You purchase a site and then direct all of that traffic to a subdomain of your site / 301 the entire domain over / 301 specific URLs over to the new resources (which one of these that makes sense is case specific).

Nice. So how much should I pay for an expired domain in case it's already taken? Up to say a couple hundred bucks or more?

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#53

Post by michaelbuckbee »

elorant wrote: post #52
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is now a common white hat tactic. That instead of paying someone to try and build links for you (blindly email a bunch of sites and ask for links). You purchase a site and then direct all of that traffic to a subdomain of your site / 301 the entire domain over / 301 specific URLs over to the new resources (which one of these that makes sense is case specific).

Nice. So how much should I pay for an expired domain in case it's already taken? Up to say a couple hundred bucks or more?

Like everything -> it depends.

This is part of why people buy sites on Flippa or Borderline.biz or whatever. There's a lot of factors that go into it: is it still getting traffic? Is it reputable? Is it listed as a malware site? How closely related to your own site it is, etc.

If you're starting out on a new project and would like to get almost _any_ organic SEO traffic in the first year of your existence, you should probably buy a domain (domain age is that strong of a ranking factor).

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#54

Post by jakub_g »

Just to counter all the advice in this thread:

my personal website was whole 2 pages of static content (landing page with not much content + 1 blog article) until very recently, and hosted under .github.io domain (bought a custom domain only recently), and it very quickly became top-3 google search under my name.

However I think the problem here might be due to using .mk domain and Google thinking that it's not very international. Note that when you search on https://www.google.mk/?hl=mk then it shows up on the first page.

Getting .com/.net/.io and putting just a bit more unique content is probably a good way to get started. Put a 301 redirect from old domain to the new one. Put a link on LinkedIn etc. if not done yet. Then just be patient.

BTW Hello from Nice - 230 fellow here.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#55

Post by r3bl »

kostarelo wrote: post #41
Mz wrote: post #39

Your site is basically empty. Current content: Welcome. Hi, I'm Viktor. More to come, in the meantime you can contact me via twitter, linkedin, or via email at at . More links and a pgp key at Keybase. Made with ️ in Nice. Should say something more like: Welcome. Hi, I'm Viktor Vojnovski. I do (stuff you do, reasons why people would look for you online). You can also find me on twitter @vojnovski. Here is my linkedin…

Fyi, it's "Republic of Macedonia".

If you wanna be correct and not upset the Greeks, it's "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#56

Post by UweSchmidt »

tonymet wrote: post #48

just buy paid adwords for your name. the cpc will be rock-bottom (no one else is buying) and you won't pay very often. Prob $5/mo tops

Can you elaborate? Does google reward you if you pay up? It cannot possibly be about the ad that is generated somewhere?

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#58

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

cdibona wrote: post #19

To some degree, this is a Sisyphean task: Google doesn't have one solitary index or signal anymore, it's extremely personalized. So even if you are number one for you, it's extremely likely that you won't be for much of the rest of the world. And this assumes you have a unique-ish name/site/project.

You could at least get a better idea by searching with the !g bang through DDG. It won't solve the problem of other people's personal filters, but at least you'll get an objective result not based on your own.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#59

Post by slrz »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #36
elorant wrote: post #33

Since we're in the SEO land let me ask a relevant question. Say I have an e-commerce site. If I buy an expired domain from some other e-commerce site which was in the same market as mine can I have any benefit whatsoever?

Yes. This is now a common white hat tactic. That instead of paying someone to try and build links for you (blindly email a bunch of sites and ask for links). You purchase a site and then direct all of that traffic to a subdomain of your site / 301 the entire domain over / 301 specific URLs over to the new resources (which one of these that makes sense is case specific).

This is considered "white hat" behaviour? Both approaches look like straight out of internet scum 101.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#60

Post by esnard »

Bromskloss wrote: post #38
amelius wrote: post #16

Change your name into something more unique. For example, a975c295ddeab5b1a5323df92f61c4cc9fc88207

Wait a minute… https://static.iseeme.com/photo-upload-templates/BKC400/dedi...

sha1("date\n") == "a975c295ddeab5b1a5323df92f61c4cc9fc88207"
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