Can anyone explain these crazy SERPS?

[lethal0r]

do a UK based search for 'short term loans' on google.

there are 7 sites on page 1 without any page or domain authority, several of them registered to a 'jeremy hughes', who I am guessing does not really exist.

this is a very competitive term and they just shouldn't be making it onto page 1.

im thinking this must be some clever 301 redirecting, as I cant see any backlinks to any of these sites in opensiteexplorer.

any ideas how these sites are pulling this off?

[SEOAndy]

All I can say is welcome to the world of Short Term / Payday / Logbook Loans.

It's been a messed up SERP for a while and Google doesn't seem to be doing anything to stop it. Seen plenty of hacked sites up there for terms relating to these niches.

[Martin_Harris]

Looks like he's using multiple keyword relevant URL's to pass link juice to Purplepayday.com.

I'd assume the domains that are ranking highly are relatively new, as normally 301 redirects disappear from the SERPS after a short while.

As to why they are currently ranking highly? i'd just put that down to keyword relevant URL's followed by .co.uk addresses.

If he is doing this for more than 7 sites, i'd guess it won't be long until Google red flags the site.

[lethal0r]

ive just spent a good while checking up on this and they are all new sites, with a TON of really spammy backlinks. the guy owns several sites targetting different searches related around loans. he's on page 1 or 2 for most of them using this tactic.

i remember discussing the same thing back in june for the search 'payday loans'.

seems you can get right to the top of most SERPS using loads of crap backlinks for a few weeks / months until google spots something is up. this must bring in a fortune for whoevers doing it!

[dmccarthy]

he is cloaking - with 307 redirect for normal web browsing and displaying optimized content for search engine bots. seems totally setup for post xmas market.