That worked because you're mentioning the "$1" from the article's title. Google is not interpreting "under a dollar" as "cheap". As proof, I searched for "best microcontrollers under £1", "best microcontrollers under 50 cents", and "best microcontrollers under $2". Jay Carlson's article wasn't found in any of those cases.
A more commonsense search of "best cheap microcontrollers" doesn't find the article even in the top 100 results.
> "The Amazing $1 Microcontroller" is a very poor description of the content and noone is going to google that.
I thought the title intriguing and pithy. You don't want a web where every title is SEO-optimzed, do you?
I find the title intriguing too... but on HN and with 100 upvotes already. It's pretty terrible in a search context. If I am looking for a comparison, I'm not clicking on something called "the amazing microcontroller".
As someone who runs a similar blog and is first page for hundreds of search terms, Google is fantastic at discovering niche content. You can't even being to fathom how good it is.
The article is already the 4th google result if you look for "best micro controllers under a dollar".
If anything, the title should be improved by the author. "The Amazing $1 Microcontroller" is a very poor description of the content and noone is going to google that.