Something is very weird here. The keyphrase, “Keyword Elite” makes #1 in Google Hot Trends. For those who don’t know, Keyword Elite is a top selling product found in a very popular affiliate network marketplace called ClickBank. This program aims at helping publishers identify and target profitable keywords in Google and many other popular search engines. Keyword Elite is quite known and used among popular Internet Marketers and has a proven track record for successfully being able to do what it is advertised to do.
Strangely enough, Keyword Elite has made Google Hot Trends and is currently ranked #1. I find this to be very odd and would suspect that there is quite a bit of black hat pull happening to thrust this keyword into Google’s #1 spot in Hot Trends.
Upon further investigation of the various sites that are appearing up I see that many of these sites display a fake online video. When you click on the video you’ll receive some pop ups and be directed to a page that explains that your computer is not performing up to speed. That same page will make you beleive that your computer is being scanned for a performance check and suggest that you purchase a product in order to correct your poorly performing computer.
The many blog posts that appear as references on Google Hot Trends are obvious stunts and spam pages that are keyword packed using the words Keyword Elite. Whether that was part of the strategy to thrust the term into the top ranks of Google Trends, that remains to be seen.
While I think the affiliate based program Keyword Elite does indeed provide publishers with amazing tools, I can’t help but question how the keyword phrase made it to the Google Hot Trends #1 slot.
Was keyword stuffing used to successfully thrust the keyword phrase “Keyword Elite” to the top of the Google Hot Trends report? You be the judge…
Edit: Keyword Elite now made #1 in Google Hot Trends, it was #2 an hour ago:
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Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:14:01 Comment #16587
Hahahaha……I don’t know man, you never know how these things make it to the top.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:17:13 Comment #16588
Seems kinda fishy to me. Even though Keyword Elite is a popular program among Internet Marketers, there is no way that something of such a small concentrated volume could bypass the hype of celebrity gossip and worldwide news. I think something was tweaked or there was a loophole of some kind exploited.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:36:06 Comment #16589
Great, now it’s going to be even more expensive to subscribe.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:39:10 Comment #16590
Well then… I guess you need to buy it before the prices go up.
Or, before Google Bans them.
Joking…
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:41:30 Comment #16591
Yeah I was very surprised to see it there. I was asking myself what was happening and why. I found your blog through the blog posts results on trends and now that I think of it you may be right on the Blackhat thing.
Some thing else I noticed – there were no related searches – no “keyword elite review” or “Brad Callen” so you could tell that something spurred a surge in search trends for that keyword. Very weird.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:49:12 Comment #16593
wow… you’re not joking… I thought you were kidding because I been inspecting that page and the references on it for a few minutes now and then I refreshed the page and you’re right… now I am there:
The part about the related reviews, I agree man… it’s one thing to have the spammy looking blog posts.. but where is the BEEF. Where is the news, related information and such. Nice call on that.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:43:36 Comment #16592
I would consider 2 factors that may be at play here.
1.) Hot Trends is not what most people think it is. It is NOT the hottest queries at the current time. It IS the most changed queries. There is a big difference.
2.) It is a slow day on the web. Any Saturday that is in a Holiday weekend yields some strange traffic flows.
With that said, it is possible that one site or group of people can query something and cause a trigger to make it show up in Hot Trends, but this is not necessarily Foul Play.
IMHO
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 18:51:11 Comment #16594
Thanks for your feedback on that David… Indeed it is a very SLOW day today especially on Twitter. It’s like an old western ghost town. Your comment and reference does make perfect sense. Nice work and thanks for the contribution.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 19:05:15 Comment #16595
Yeah it does make sense. Hmmm its #1 now so more people just got interested about keyword research on a saturday than any other thing in the world?
Maybe Brad sent out an email…
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 19:10:32 Comment #16596
I just updated the post, thanks for the heads up. I am not sure where the traffic is coming from, Either Stumble, Sphinn or Google Hot Trends, but I had in excess of over 225 people visit this page in like less than a few minutes and traffic is still pouring in.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 20:44:13 Comment #16599
It’s #1 now!!.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 21:38:49 Comment #16600
I’d guess it was some kind of manipulation. My site ranks on the first page in Google for the terms keyword elite & keyword elite review and I didn’t see any more traffic than normal.
Good on you, for spotting it and whipping out a post with affiliate links, since Google puts latest blog posts right on that “hot searches” page, that is a very effective marketing tactic.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 22:03:40 Comment #16601
Oh for sure… I was very quick to whip out a post about it. One of the fastest posts I did. And yeah, it would be silly of me not to put the AFF links in. But honestly, I had a ton of traffic to this post and still kinda do, but no conversions on it, which I truly expected anyway.
Keyword Elite is very expensive and its a program not for the meek. But, indeed, big bucks invested into that program will get you big results for sure.
Date/Time: 7-6-2008 00:34:05 Comment #16610
Ok here we go with the manipulation thing again and I’ve done some thinking and figured this could be either:
1. Brad Callen sent out an email (mentioned it before but then Jon would have gotten a boost in traffic and he reported that he didn’t)
2. Keyword program – maybe they’re doing 1000’s of automated searches for the keyword which would explain why the number 1 result doesn’t get any clicks – because no “human” is doing the searching. (this is manipulative)
Possible reasons for this – well I dunno – maybe they just want to ‘doctor’ the info that comes up on keyword research tools like wordtracker and other tools that show numbers or even those that show search volume…
Either way something sinister is going on.
Date/Time: 7-5-2008 23:36:32 Comment #16609
Definitely some strange manipulation going on.
I do own Keyword Elite myself – It’s a good program – but I must admit – I don’t use it that much. Sometimes I think people get too into the small details and miss the important things. I think there can definitely be an overanalyzation thing that goes on.
Date/Time: 7-6-2008 00:43:18 Comment #16611
This article Google using Search Logs for Quailty, may shed some light as to why someone might “bot” a keyword.
Date/Time: 7-6-2008 04:06:56 Comment #16617
If you remember, a few weeks ago there was a post at SEOmoz blog with fake Google results screenshots which appeared on the main page of Digg and Google Trends were occupied for about half a day with terms ‘rambo 4′, ‘what happened in Vegas’ and some others (which were mentioned in the post). I even created a site for one of those terms expecting for tons of traffic
Perhaps the situation with Keyword Elite is the same, because Related Searches are not related at all.
Date/Time: 9-5-2008 01:51:16 Comment #21207
I do agree with David’s assessment there — something cooking. Anyways, you did well here with a quick post to capitalize on the buzz – good for you.
Check out Stephen Lee’s last blog post..Could your Blog Benefit from a Redesign ?