Looking at Google Trends today, I noticed that the phrase “how to write a resume” made the list. I couldn’t help but wonder if Demand Media’s eHow was dominating the search results for the query, given the site’s general how-to nature and history of ranking well in Google.
Demand Media recently revealed that its search referrals had dropped by 20% folloiwng the Panda update, but it has still been ranking in numerous areas. I have no idea if eHow was ranking for this particular query pre-Panda, but it’s hard for me to imagine that even if it wasn’t the top Google result it wasn’t somewhere on the first page. Just a hunch.
Even knowing about eHow’s Panda hit, I was surprised to find when visiting the SERP for the query that eHow was nowhere to be found on the first page. What I found was actually how-to-write-a-resume.org ranking at the top. I let some time pass (a couple hours or so) to tend to some other content before writing this, and page one has already changed, and now has a Mahalo article at the top. This is interesting in itself for a couple reasons. For one, I have to wonder why Mahalo suddenly jumped up there, while when I looked at the query before, it was ranking on page two or three. Secondly, Mahalo was another one of the big Panda victims.
At the time of this writing, I’m not seeing an eHow result until lower page 5, and it even has the exac title, “How to Write a Resume”.
If you search that on eHow’s site, you’ll find that they have numerous articles on the topic. I will say that Mahalo’s content in this particular case does seem to be somewhat “deeper”. Is it the best result for the query? Hard to say.
Just a post-Panda observation.