Ever since I became interested in these things, I've always ranked first for my own name. First it was my tutorial page at university, then when I came to work at 9xb my profile page took the top spot. A few months ago however, that all changed...
Someone who shares my name registered it as their domain and it shot to number one straight away. It's remained there ever since, despite not containing any content whatsoever. My company profile on the other hand has loads of content about zoe piper, and I also write quite a lot of blog posts, all with my name on them and links back to my profile, not to mention my other web activity. The domain name in question has over a hundred links from the same blog - surely some of these links will be disregarded?
I know this is a bit of a personal crusade but I feel cheated. I've spent quite a long time building my own content on the internet, but am outranked - seemingly by default - by a simple domain name with nothing on it (I can't emphasise that enough!). And this isn't exactly a competitive market.
For all Google's guidelines about content and links, it seems buying the right domain is still a huge factor in your rankings. Luckily I already have a website so it's just a matter of principle, but for business owners it could be make-or-break.
