Case Study: Authority Status in Google Boost Your Ranking and Search Engine Traffic
So recently, I have seen a tremendous increase in my search engine traffic. Specifically to some of my posts. I was always wondering what was going on. Until today, Amanda Roberts found that Balkhis has obtained an “authority status” in google. In other words balkhis have site links in google.
What is Authority Status?
Authority Status is just a term given by webmasters to those sites which have obtained site-links in google. Sites get this status because they have received a significant amount of natural backlinks, total number of daily searches, and link backs from high quality websites (that often have higher Pagerank), over a long period of time. If you notice that Balkhis is about to be one year old in 4 days, so it does take time to prove to google that you are a credible source and an authority figure for the designated keyword.
Authority listings appear as the first for the keyword. It also have other important links to your website which makes navigation easy for users.
What are the requirements to be an authority status?
This is a highly debated question in the webmaster world. Google have never shared their algorithm or methods they use to avoid manipulation. I have found a few things common in all websites that have received sitelinks or authority status.
- Site ranks first for the keyword(s) that generate the Sitelinks listing
- Structured navigation making it easily spiderable.
- High natural search traffic
- High click through rates from the search results page
- Natural/Useful outbound links
- Inbound links from high quality sites
- Site age is several years or older
Now these methods might not be the exact ones that google use, but these are few things that are common in most sites that achieve this status.
What can you do to improve your chances?
- Improve your on page SEO by refining your Web Semantics. Make sure you use good titles for your post, and useful meta description. Don’t try to spam your description or title with keywords. Put the keywords in it, but put them moderately. Use Search Engine Friendly URLS for wordpress because they are easy to follow and makes your site more spiderable.
- Structure your site – Make sure that users can get around the site well. A good way of that would be having a path. I discussed how this plugin helped me increase my search engine traffic by 258% in a month. You can see this plugin in use below my post titles on post page and it shows you which category this post is from and so on. It is caleld Breadcrumb NAVXT. Downlaod it and use it. I think this would help your ranking. Keep your navigation simple. Don’t crowd too many links on the homepage.
- Brand the site – I am always for brandable domains rather than keywords stuffed domain. The reason for that is keyword stuffed domains have a real hard time ranking for the top. You must be freaking good and established well before everyone else in the industry to achieve this status. I used Balkhis because I am the only one. Maybe there are a few others, but I am the one who is dominant apparently. So it was easier for me to rank for this keyword and therefore get sitelinks. It is important for a business to do this because it increase your credibility. So try to start business on brandable names rather than keywords.
- Write useful content – I can’t emphasize this point anymore. If you don’t write good content, you won’t get natural backlinks. You won’t get links from high quality websites either, so your chances are doomed. Improve your content quality and you are good.
What does this mean for the future?
Reputation is everything in an online business. Authority status in google increase your credibility. Now my new users who find me through some community, and they search my name. They would most likely join me on my blog and subscribe. Same with any other person who wants to check my credibility in the industry. The next thing it means that another person who wants to rank high for Balkhis would have a really hard time doing so now.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
Congrats, on this tremendous accomplishment. It is well deserved. Hopefully by this time next year I will achieve that same authority status
Probably sooner Donny. I like the work that you are doing on your blog
Congratz, Google have finally recognized your hardwork and the effort you put into this blog.
Congratulations, that is indeed very nice achievement for your blog and your hard work put in it.
It is noticeable that your blog is still young to receive this authority as it is only one year old, and that could not be considered as old site. That is one more very positive results in this achievement.
Congratulations on getting site links. This just shows that your site is considered an important site by Google. All of this hard work has paid off.
Congrats! I want to be like you when I grow up. Keep it up and keep sharing those wonderful tips with us.
hugs
Congrats! I wonder if there’s any way to choose what links you want displayed there because I want to change around some links for my website.
Yeah, I think they post the links that are most visisted from SE, and the ones that are most linked. I think a lot of my other posts deserve to be there, but its upto to google.
Wow.. I want to have an authority status too
Hopefully Google find me worthy one day!
Congratulations. With so many nice things happening to you, you are really an inspiration. Thank you.
Congrats Syed for this rare achievement. That’s quite an encouragement for me to try to get such recognition too. One day.
Peter Lee
Thats really awesome. Congratulations. Status!
That is so awesome to have achieved authority status; Congrats! You deserve it.
What if you have a lot of the same type of content on different pages? Each page is different because it sells something else on it, but a lot of stuff is just repeated.
No good. No one likes repetition. If it is paraphrased then ok, but word for word is not a good way to go.
Consider watching an old free Stompernet video about duplicate content. There are some great tips there how to avoid penalties from Google for ecommerce sites (they have a lot of similar content on each and every page, so it may be similar to your situation).
Thanks for the tips. I’ve missed that Breadcrumb NAVXT is so helpful in terms of search traffic.
I know that it is not so easy to get the authority status in Google.It takes much efforts,hard work,specific knowledge.You did it!You took the place you deserved!!!
This sounds tough to me.. Is it? Fighting.. Or rather beating google doesn’t sound like a good game. But its definitely something we all gotta do!
Ben
I read in lifeiscolourful the same news ,that blog also got the authority status,but your content is more original,and your stuff is not repeated anywhere else,I think that is authority itself.
Wow this is an amazing accomplishment. I wish I had a site like this. I envy you
“Site ranks first for the keyword(s) that generate the Sitelinks listing” — that’s not true. I mean it’s only partly true. Look at GameSpot. It has “New Releases”, “PS3″, “Cheats” and other general keywords it doesn’t rank first for.
But. Site links improve rankings greatly for the given keywords, and you can play with your site links through Webmaster Center, so you can improve, what you already have (you can delete the links you don’t like and hope you’ll get better ones
).
Congrats…
We all want to get there someday….
What’s the #1 thing you did to achieve authority status?
Congrats – I have had the site links for quite some time and they are nice to see. It is a great to give searchers quicker navigation to what they are looking for.
Thanks for the tips. I’ve missed that Breadcrumb NAVXT is so helpful in terms of search traffic.
That is so awesome to have achieved authority status; Congrats! You deserve it.
Way to go Balkhis! One of my friends has also reached Google Status of Authority, I think its quite a special thing to achieve. I think liked this Breadcrumb plugin that you have mentioned!
I have seen other power websites use a similar structure to what the Breadcrumb appears to do, so it really must be a good thing to have.
Till then,
Jean
I wonder what Google Status of Authority gave to your site in the course of this short time.Is it evidently seen or felt?
with over 100k backlinks, i’d be suprised if you didn’t!
So what were the keywords you got the sitelinks under?
Was it your name, or something worth ranking for?
I would imagine that sitelinks would bring significant traffic if they appeared under high volume search terms?
Congratulation brother.. I hope my blog get authority no more than 2 year..
Congratulations. You deserved it. I came to know about authority status for the first time
I didn’t know something like “authority status” existed till I stopped by. It really makes your site stand out from the crowd with the links shown for your site.
Congratulations on the site links. Sitelinks make your site stand out in the search results and make users more likely to visit your site. You need to be an authoritative site with a great structure in order to get them.
Congratulations on acheiving this well deserved status. Keep up the good work.
This is very nice to hear. Congratulations!!!
Some time great to give searchers to navigation to what they are looking for, and its great to achieve authority status in google
[...] got an authority status for Balkhis at the end of January. He checks his name and sites that are ranking for his keywords atleast [...]
Very Jealous but great work and thanks for the insights of ways to increase your chances. I knew about improving your structure but never thought about the challenges of a domain stuffed with keywords. That makes a lot of sense.
That’s great news, mate! Be sure to log in to Webmaster Tools to control the pages that show up under your site’s listing.
-Joe
Nice post…very interesting!
Sitelinks are a great goal to shoot for, but for most sites you will only get them for your actual sitename. To get sitelinks for other keywords you need to rank well for a while. There are likely other factors too. For a good keyword this can improve both search engine traffic and conversion rates. If people can find what they want sooner, there is a better chance they will convert.
the information is very nice, thank you so much
The site is worth getting all the titles,I have been here since the beginning of this year and evidently see it.
I’m working for getting an authority status for my site too.
[...] site and that will help you to be an authority in Google eyes (You can read more about how to get authority status on Google). You don’t necessary have to choose a niche you know about. You can choose a niche that [...]
google has news sites,CNN or BBC,as authority sites.Would even a minor link such as a news widget help in traffic generation?Thank you
No doubt great work must be done.Htank you for your labour and efforts.