Page 74 - SEO Mad Scientist 2020 Report
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"jonfinq" to see the top-ranking profile. We then varied the last few letters of the made-up term to
repeat this test multiple times using the same profile to link out to.
TEST VARIATION #5
Page 1 - Just Contextual Reference
Page 2 - Contextual Reference Inner linking to Page 1
Page 3 - Contextual Reference Outbound Linking to External Page. ("relevant" profile)
These are the results of the very first test variation we ran...
#5 RESULTS
Position #1 - Page 1
Position #2 - Page 3
Position #3 - Page 2 (Not Indexed)
After the first variation test was indexed, every subsequent test returned different results, but
they were all the same trend. Almost as if the first test could have triggered the subsequent
results to turn out different.
On July 3, 2020 we shared additional results.
As we mentioned, test #5 was essentially the same as test #1 except we used the same "relevant"
outbound link for our page 3 test page. After running and indexing the first test, we got the same
exact result as test #1 with the page only. The reference term was ranking number one. However,
here are the results of each test we ran after.
Position #1 – Page 3
Position #2 – Page 2 / Page 1 (Not Indexed or Not Showing for Term)
Position #3 – Page 1 / Page 2 (Not Indexed or Not Showing for Term)
Initially, we believed this was due to some kind of entity association. Once Google recognized the
first backlink and picked up the subsequent backlinks, they realized the reference was an "entity"
and so the "entity" reference page was now more relevant than Page #1, which just had the
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