DaveN’s search test & MattCutts.co.uk
Posted by: Marketing Guy Date posted: December 4th, 2006 Published in: Blogging, Google, MSN, Search Engine Optimisation, SpeculationLast week DaveN squared a little test with Matt to see how MSN handled 301 redirects. It seems Google is having a little issue with it as well…
And…
www.mattcutts.co.uk does 301 redirect to www.mattcutts.com - so why are Google picking it up? Interestingly, there are no references to “UK” on the page, so the ranking probably comes from link text (Matt does rank quite well for “SEO blog”).
Off topic, but this is a good example why link weight alone isn’t a great deciding factor for rankings - Mr Cutts isn’t a UK SEO! 
This result has just popped in - I suspect that it will be gone in a day or so, which suggests Google deal with 301 redirects after-the-fact - listing the content first, then implementing a 301 filter of sorts to remove superfluous content.
However it could be (and most likely is) that the short term flood of IBLs to mattcutts.co.uk is causing a weird result - in most cases the redirecting page wouldn’t probably appear in obvious results (ie, not in the top 10 or so) - this is just an unusual situation where loads of people have linked to an unused domain that was already 301 redirecting, but not previously used.
The question is - why are Google even listing a page that delivers a 301 response (and I assume has done so since Google first found it)? Surely results such as this should be filtered internally before going live…
MG
Comments
I saw this proposed by Dave - not surprised the experiment has “worked”, although I am surprised G has picked it up.
As a side note, thanks for prompting me to check that search string - G currently have me outranking IrishWonder and Dave for “uk seo blog” - and I’m catching you
Hehe there’s bugger all traffic to be had!
Just some ego-optimisation. 
Actually main reason I was check the term was the gobshites at ukseoblog.com were ripping off content from here (and from WPN, SEObook, TW, Jonon, etc etc) - to Google’s credit they blitzed them within a few days of them hitting the SERPs (were no 1 for “uk seo blog” for a short time).
Just a splog crediting all posts to their web store (selling CMSs I think).
Pfft newbie SEOs.
>> there’s bugger all traffic to be had!
From the lack of frenzied activity in my log files, I’d gathered that… It’s the first time I’ve ever (knowingly) outranked Dave for anything, let alone an SEO type term even if it is worth the pixels used to print it.
I’ve only got it for the very specific confluence of circumstances of happening to have ALL the components in my URL, and a bit of anchor text that’s close enough.
It is interesting for the insight it gives into G’s current pendulum swing back to keyword rich URLs though.
Do a compare-and-contrast woth the MSN results too : you, me and Dave are all relegated to page 2 :0
Bah I’m banning MSN from the site!
I’m 3 on Yahoo - what’s interesting on that one is that SEOmoz have 2 listings in the top 10. Fused Nation is a synonym for United Kingdom though, which may have an additional little bonus for G rankings. 
Been an interesting test with Matt’s site though - Yahoo don’t have anything picked up, MSN have a handfull of URLs - http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=site%3Awww.mattcutts.co.uk&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE
MG
Minor re-shuffle - I’m up to no.1 on Google and you’re up to no.5.
And Mr Cutts is still flirting with his .co.uk domain.
Update: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.mattcutts.co.uk
Mattcutts.co.uk is gone from Google SERPs - took 7 days to filter out.
MG