Optimizing Humans to Increase Page Ranking.
Bottom Line Up Front: How to increase Google page rank with people? Rapport, Rapport, Rapport!
Google’s RankBrain algorithm has around 270+ points that factor into finding relevant content for users, resulting in a page ranking. A little over 200 points are known to the public and the rest are kept secret. This article pulls a fantastic trick right out of Google’s Blackbox.
A few years ago, I came across a legal manipulation to increase a LinkedIn profile with high success. As a Data Scientist and Search Engine Optimization Expert (SEO), I highly suspected that Google’s RankBrain worked the same way yet could find no written evidence. The situation arose where a local small business needed growth. A two pronged study was conducted:
1. How does Metcalfe’s Law effect Google page rank based on Google Reviews?
2. How receptive are humans to take full advantage of Google Reviews? Keep in mind that Google ranking often updates, this is just a snapshot in time, but evidence of this powerful tactic is undeniable.
All gyms competing for the same keyword phrases such as: “Jiu Jitsu, Spokane”, “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Spokane”, “BJJ Spokane”. Even the hyphen between the “Jiu” and “Jitsu” is contentious. Plus, continually maintaining that rank for common misspellings associated with the keywords.
The list of instructions given to witting recipients:
1. Get a Free Gmail account (needed to leave a Google review).
2. Find the company in a Google Search and give it a 5 Star review; Commenting at least 8 words (containing at least one competitive keyword).
3. Task some people to misspell the target keywords.
4. Hit the Like button on every 5 Star review, including your own.
The outcome of the experiment was so successful that it forced the new gym’s website with ‘0’ Domain Authority to rank 3rd of 9 local gyms in 6 months for “Jiu Jitsu, Spokane”. Moreover, ranking 2nd for “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Spokane” and “BJJ, Spokane” Plus, continually maintaining that rank for common misspellings associated with the keywords.
Infiniti is outranking them for “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Spokane” and “Bjj Spokane”. Note that Spokane Valley Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has 47 reviews.
The ranking process seems to happen like this: “crawlers” (Google’s bots) go down the list of Google review comments and tally the reviews with keyword phrases. The reviews are aggregated from 5 to 1 Stars, exponentiated to the number of Likes, and averaged. For example, if a 5 Star review has 5 people liking the review, then the review is worth 5 times more. However, if the review has at least eight words or more added context such as an original picture or video, it is weighted higher. Additionally, by liking older reviews, they become “relevant” again and play into ranking. Essentially, hitting the Like button on your own review makes it twice as powerful. Part of the Blackbox equation appears to be like this:
( aStarCoef + b )^(0.01)likes
Where is the number of reviews multiplied by the value of a Star’s coefficient; Added with , the sum of paired comments > = 8words, then exponentiated to .01 (to scale the number) multiplied by the sum of Likes.
Below is a screenshot example of the Infiniti’s comment section. Take note of the number of Likes and the misspelling of “Jiujitsu” in the last comment.
Upon complete analysis of Infiniti’s comment data, of the 27 original comments, Google only considered 24 relevant due to timestamp. All the factored reviews are 5 Stars with at least eight-word comments and all the Likes tallied. The human processed equation for Infiniti was:
( 24+ 24 ) ^.078 = 1.35
The equation for the Headquarters gym with 57 reviews was:
( 38 + 38 )^.095 = 1.5
The equation of Spokane Valley Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with their 47 reviews yielded:
(40 + 38 )^.034 = 1.15
After this low-budget Spokane news was spread via word-of-mouth, the comments were posted, and it was glaringly obvious that something was happening. The page ranking skyrocketed and user behavior (in terms of Google reviews) changed; Reenforcing the adage “Technology trains the user”. The Like button is conveniently coded in the universal symbol of the “thumb up” icon. It quickly becomes second nature to hit Like on another 5 Star review, as you are halfway down the page of comments liking all the 5 Star reviews; Almost as if we have already been trained to it. Furthermore, growing organically, not too many reviews at once. Needed are about two a week, setting a normal pace, not viewed as “spammy” or bots. Careful not to tell the gym owners about my experiment, least they may get carried away and risk de-ranking.
However, this experiment would have never been able to play out if the people involved didn’t deeply admire these business owners. Without rapport, all bets are off.
Links to these two incredible gyms are below: