SEO Milestone: My Google Authority Listing
March 20th, 2008 by CourtPlenty of times on this site you’ve heard me talk about my love/hate relationship with Google. I may not like some of the things they do, but at the end of the day I need Google search traffic if I’m going to reach my business goals. In the last couple of weeks I discovered that GOOG has given me a stamp of approval: an authority listing for the search terms ‘courtney tuttle’ and ‘court tuttle’.
Is it a huge deal to have Google acknowledge that I’m the authority for information about ‘courtney tuttle’? Probably not - but it’s better than having them call somebody else the authority for my name! 
You’ll really see me ecstatic when I get an authority listing for my main keyword, which is obviously internet marketing. For now, I’m happy to know that my authority status in the eyes of Google is improving, because it ensures me that I’ll have an ongoing stream of new visitors flowing from the thousands of search listings I have there.
So how do you get an authority listing for a certain keyword? It’s not really something that you try to do; it’s more of an acknowledgment by Google that you’re doing a few things right.
If you look at the search listing you’ll see my homepage as the main result, and beneath it several other links that go to a few of the interior pages of my site. The fact that Google has given me this listing means a few things:
- I have a large number of natural backlinks to my homepage, and a relatively high proportion of them with the anchor text “Courtney Tuttle.”
- A large number of those backlinks are also from sites that Google’s algorithm respects as authoritative, meaning they also have a high number of natural and relevant links.
- I’ve received an adequate number of those authoritative links over an extended period of time, so Google is giving me credit for having some staying power in my niche.
You might be wondering how Google ‘chose’ the pages as sub-listings on the authority listing. They’re actually called ’site links’. It’s pretty simple - those are the highest PR pages in my site, with the most natural links pointing to them. Google is essentially saying “this is an authoritative site, and these are its most relevant pages.”
As a sidenote, you guys should know that when you get an authority listing of your own, you can decide which site links you want to show up under your main listing. Just go to Google webmaster tools and click the link that says ‘Block’ next to the site link you don’t want to appear.
All in all, the authority listing doesn’t mean all that much to the day to day business of the site. One small benefit is that any savvy searcher will see the authority listing and recognize its significance in SEO terms. Like I said before, this listing is more than anything a sign that I’m going in the right direction as far as link building and SEO are concerned.
Anybody else see an authority listing pop up recently for your name or your other keywords?
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March 20th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I’ve seen that style of listing before but I never knew what it was. It looks pretty cool - I want one
I just checked though and although I do rank number #1 for my name, its a bog standard listing.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Caroline there’s no doubt that you’ll have one before too long - don’t you worry about that. It took me a year to get mine.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I assume Google creates those automagically, correct? You kind of made is sound like a human was involved at Google.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I’m sure it’s like almost everything else at Google Scott - they have a mathematical equation that determines who gets it.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
how did you get that search result?
do you have a plugin installed that automatically shows it?
March 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
It actually says in the post.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Oh I see. When I google ‘living off dividends’ I don’t see that list, even though I rank number 1 for that search term.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Wow, awesome news Court. Every milestone counts. You really know your stuff. Good luck on being recognized as the internet marketing authority.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Congratulations on a significant milestone on the journey to your goal…
March 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Yay for Court! Becoming an authority site… you must be proud of your site! Seriously awesome, and you’re the best for teaching us all how to do the unthinkable.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
are you sure it’s not just a sort of add on to the ‘i feel lucky’ google feature?
ie. if google think they have the right site listed on top, they show these links.
i also got these links in the last month if you search on some of my domain names even after getting bitch slapped by google with all pr removed.
if you do a google search for johnchow.com you see these links & i think we all know how much google love him.
i’m not trying to put your milestone down in any way, just putting out another reason that these links might exist.
congrats anyway & would love to hear if it does result in any more traffic.
i am monitoring my traffic a bit more since i got these links but also have made lots of seo changes in the past month so its hard to say so far.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Actually if you search for JohnChow you won’t see his site, you will see John Cow’s site! Would you mind leaving for everyone the URLs of your sites?
March 20th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Yeah a google search for JohnChow does show JohnCow & i’m sure is doing bob some good out of this.
If you do a google search for johnchow.com, you will see these extra links though.
I didn’t want to promote my own sites in the comment, so just left my main site in the URI input field.
So if you do a google search for propertyireland.net you will also see these links.
this site had a pr of 5 four months ago & didn’t have these extra links, but since getting the slap of removing pr, I now have these links on this site.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
court, i should also have said that this is only one of my sites that i have noticed this on.
this site does rank from 1 to 10 on a number of other search terms in google, but even on the number 1 positions, the extra links don’t show, they only show if you search for the domain name directly.
that’s why i think it might be an extension of the ‘feel lucky’ feature.
i have a few other sites that show the exact same but prefer to keep them private.
the one common factor that these sites have is that they have all been online for atleast 10 months, but i think johncow.com is online a bit less? i could be wrong, but bob also has these links if you search for johncow.com
March 20th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
just a small bit of extra searching in the last few minutes…
from where i am sitting & on google.com results to my irish ip address, i see the following results:
johnchow: first link: technorati.com
john chow: first link:
johncow.com
johnchow.com: first link:
johnchow.com
with extra site links
i know google.com returns different links depending on where they think your ip address is but this is what they are showing for me on 2 different irish ip addresses.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Ok what you’re talking about here is different. We’re not talking about these showing up when the domain is searched for.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
*sigh*
No site links for me yet. Not even for the site name itself. I don’t have even first page rankings for any of my main keywords yet. I only started understanding this concept recently, though, even though the site is over 2 years old.
Congrats on getting site links, and thanks for all the good info.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
D’oh! That looks more awkward than I realized. I have a tendency to omit important things.
I meant to say that I rank #1 for my site’s name, but don’t have site links.
The part about keywords is loosely related, but I meant that I didn’t have any keywords until about a month ago, so it stands to reason that it will take some time to rank well for those.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
A friend just sent me to your website to explain to me what it meant to be an authority. I guess I’ve recently joined the camp, too. So congrats! And thanks for explaining it.
Good to “meet” you.
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
This is fantastic… soon enough you’ll have the authority listing for “internet marketing.”
I think this is something fantastic to strive for not only for a regular site or blog, but especially a keyword sniping blog. It really gives you an opportunity to show your best stuff that can get you even more money.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Heh, second try luck, this time I might comment in the right place;)
Hm.. the only problem with your link in google is that they both point to a tag list… I’d avoid reading it, unless their was readable text under the header.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Does any one have a secondary search box on google for their keywords? Try searching for “iowa dnr”in google and I have a second text box and button that says “Search iowadnr.com” beneath the first listing.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I also see this if I search for “microsoft” or “wikipedia”. When did this start?
March 28th, 2008 at 2:56 am
That is not called authority listing. It is called sitelinks display by Google and it is done automatically when your site is well established in that niche.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:24 pm
This really can’t mean too much as I just checked mine and it seems I am an “authority” now for my name “DayJobNuker”. Now all I need is more traffic from Google please!