*Beware of google traffic stats* - BH method some website sellers are using

Hey,

I am not sure if this is the right section, but here is a warning to anyone who is buying a new website/ niche website from someone. Recently I have seen a couple sites of flippa selling that claim to be #1 on a term that has over xxxxx searches a month and a high CPC.

I saw a bunch pop up, saw they were actually #1, didn't use any BH methods to get there, and had almost no links. I looked into it further and found out that they had inflated the search term which really had maybe 100 or so searches a month.

Looking further back the term was being searched 100 times a month for the last x months, then the current month it was at 10k searches.

I am assuming they are using bot traffic to boost the google searches so their site looks way more valuable then it is.

Beware, take a look at google search history before grabbing a keyword/buying a site.

Every time I see the word "flippa" in a thread its about scams.. I just can't understand how that website is still operating and people still buying sites from there, personally I would avoid it like the plague

And how did you figure out they had inflated the number of searches and how did you verify that the term was really 100 per month? GAKT lags behind A LOT - they would have to be doing that for awhile for it to catch up..

HelloInsomnia said:

And how did you figure out they had inflated the number of searches and how did you verify that the term was really 100 per month? GAKT lags behind A LOT - they would have to be doing that for awhile for it to catch up..

Click to expand...

You could trust it if you wanted to, but just looking at how the traffic randomly jumped up for a term like: "what gift to buy a 5 year old for a birthday" (not actual term, but gives you the idea) from 100 a month for like 5 months before, then 10k a month now on http://www.google.com/trends/ it is hard not to question it.

Thanks OP, that's an interesting heads up. I'd just reinforce the question by HelloImsomnia about this

youtalkmedia said:

Looking further back the term was being searched 100 times a month for the last x months, then the current month it was at 10k searches.

Click to expand...

How did you check that? If indeed the search term was inflated during the site auction, you have found a new method by which stats are being inflated. But so far we haven't seen anything to indicate that you'd be able to fool Google's search numbers just like that.... But thanks for sharing the info, good to keep an eye on.

Edit: ok so you just replied, you're using trends for that?

I use google trends for all my keyword research. It gives you an estimation on the terms and if they will be a short-term investment to rank and get quick short term traffic, or a long term investment where they have a long track record of a lot of hits and are steadily growing, or maintaining their search count.

I tend to only rank terms that I know will be around for many years in the future that can provide a steady income.

I rather rank something with 100 searches a month that will be #1 for years with traffic, then something that gets 2000 searches for a month or two and slowly dies off.

i thinck
its google trends
thats all
exemple
world cup brazil now maybe 1000 bur next year will be 1000 kws with 1000k of saerch trust me

I wouldn't buy any Adsense sites based on keywords. I would make my own and test the traffic stats for X site, as now we look in the BHW section and find lots of methods for people to rank fast or to even push organic traffic to their sites without such ranks.

youtalkmedia said:

You could trust it if you wanted to, but just looking at how the traffic randomly jumped up for a term like: "what gift to buy a 5 year old for a birthday" (not actual term, but gives you the idea) from 100 a month for like 5 months before, then 10k a month now on http://www.google.com/trends/ it is hard not to question it.

Click to expand...

Okay I see - no doubt Trends shows you more up to date figures - but I am just wondering where the other numbers 100 and 10k come from or are they just estimates?

Holy crap - I don't think I have ever seen a thread with positive information on Flippa, why are so many sellers on there shady? It's really screwed up, and it makes it difficult for honest people to sell their websites. I see many sites on Flippa that aren't worth more than a couple hundred bucks, yet they are asking for thousands. I may be wrong, but I believe that Flippa is the biggest marketplace for buying and selling websites - I wish another site would come and take its place soon cause I don't want to sell my sites on Flippa.