Yesterday, +Dan Petrovic made a post, asking how, in the wake of Panda and the Page-Layout algo change, it was still possible for a certain web page to rank near the top for a query (http://goo.gl/dDSgs). I commented, telling him that it was most likely due to the fact that both search-volume and result-relevancy for the term in question, were practically nonexistent. This fact has since been confirmed by +Matt Cutts in a Webmaster Central Hangout attended by Dan earlier today. This sort of thing is, as Matt Cutts apparently called it "An Evil Unicorn"

However, as kind of a follow-up question about how a page can still rank, here's one I ran across earlier, ranking second for the term Rabbie Burns: http://goo.gl/kPf0B

A casual search with the AdWords tool reveals a healthy-ish search volume of 22,500 for the term, while an allintitle: search shows 17,000+ documents of direct relevance... hardly insignificant. What gets me is the simple fact that not only is there nothing of immediate relevance on the page, but a profusion of AdSense units have been unceremoniously plastered at the start of the document, way ahead of anything even resembling content.

Going through the rest of the site reveals a slew of similar, thin Made for AdSense pages without anything to actually recommend them to users.

In short, the entire site is an unmitigated lump of crap, the sole purpose of which is to make money through AdSense, yet it still ranks just fine, despite Google's recent and much-discussed Do-as-I-say-Don't-Do-As-I-Do Page-layout algorithm update.

Suggestions...? Anyone...?