You might have heard about it this June, but I thought it bore repeating. The secret is out on much of what Google uses to rank your website on their search engine. To read the actual patent information released to the public, see Google’s patent for their search engine ranking technique from 2005 on evaluating historical documents and the latest patent release from 2007 which includes the new TrustRank.
Links
Links have always played an important role in determining citation value. Incoming links help judge the value of a document. The more citations, or links, the more important and valuable it must be. But Google adds some criteria to those citations.
In the past, the number of incoming links scored high, but a judgment on quality of the incoming link source was added to the mix. If the linking page and site had a high page rank value itself, then clearly, it knew a good thing when it linked to it. Still, this link quality aspect became harder to define as so many sites were joining the web and the quality became diluted.
Historical factors now play an important roll in addition to the number and quality of the incoming links. It seems Google’s method includes counting the moment a new site is discovered and applying an “aging process” to the site. Google monitors the link as it changes over time, the speed at which the site adds incoming links, and the life span of the link. It isn’t about having thousands of sites that link to yours, but about building those thousands of links over time.
The “aging process” that monitors the history of the links and site helps to combat spam sites. Spam sites tend to come and go very quickly, building links fast through their spamming techniques, then closing down and moving on. Thus, the older the site and the links coming into it, the more “points” the site may get. The shorter the life of the site domain, no matter how many millions of links are coming in, the less Google is interested.
Google monitors the historical value and the slow building of value of incoming links, and they also monitor the changes in the link anchor text over time and throughout the site.
Consistent link anchor text scores low. This is considered “Anchor Spam”. What this means is that if you use the same text in a link, such as <a href="link.php">perfume sales</a> consistently through your site, then it won’t score very high. If you vary the link anchor text, especially over time not just within the same page, your odds will increase as Google monitors the changes in links over time. Generally, it is recommended to change the keywords in your anchor text around the top 5-10 keywords, to maintain consistency with keyword rankings and link rankings.
So the perfume sales might include link text such as:
- cologne market
- perfume market
- cologne sales
- fragrance sales
- sales of fragrance
This changes the whole landscape. The idea of link exchanges and link spam as a method to attract Google’s search engine bots just doesn’t work. Age before linkage.
The WordPress Links Manager allows you to set your blogroll links to change randomly with each page view. If you have a huge list of links in your blogroll, consider setting this to random so the links will change, appearing less like link exchange spam. Check out the other options in Links Manager for only showing updated links and other features.
Google also states very clearly that exchanging and buying links won’t work. They know the tricks and techniques. Also, getting links from documents that have no content, just links, also won’t work. Links without content won’t score high.
Now, does this mean that if you link to a page and they link back to you, your scores will go down and it might be considered link spam? No. The other criteria goes into effect to help offset this normal linking techniques. But it does impact the concept of the Blogrolls, which are sometimes considered link exchange lists. So choose your link exchanges wisely and avoid hundreds of links from your site to others, or being on a list of hundreds of links.
Domain Age
One of the other criteria is the age of the domain. Again, driven by spam sites which pop up and die off quickly, the age of the domain is usually a clue they tend to be in for the long haul.
This causes some problems. If you change your domain name, then are you back at the bottom of the barrel? Well, maybe not. If the rest of the criteria stays the same and your content maintains consistency, as does your traffic and incoming links, then this might just be a temporary drop and the rise will happen again soon.
Many hosts offer special rates for long term hosting and domain registration. Consider registering your domain for at least two years, five is better. This means you need to make sure that the domain name you choose is one you can live with for two to five years. You can change hosts, but the domain registration needs to stay the same, and stay in your name over the long haul to score points with Google.
Click Through Rates
The click through rate (CTR) of your site may play an important roll in adding up good points on your Google Search Engine score card. The CTR is the rate that people click “through” to your site. Referrer statistics are the numbers and methods visitors use to visit your site. This information tells the site administrator, and Google, from where did you arrive from to land on this site. Did you click through from a search engine (which one), directly, from another site (which site), or, as revealed in the patent, from the cache, temporary files, bookmarks, or favorites of your Internet browser.
The click through rate is also based on the CTR of the advertising on your site. The more ads which are clicked, the higher your score.
The CTR is also monitored for fresh or stale content - in other words, are they visiting new content on your site or old posts or articles? Trends and seasons are also taken into account as certain subject matter gains precedence with the time of the year and the current fad.
Trends, Fads, and Seasons
Built into the Google page ranking technique is the ability to track current and historical trends, fads and seasons. If your site deals with beach wear, the odds are that it will have more traffic during the beach wear season of summer than it will into the fall and winter. This seasonal traffic is taken into account and you may not lose rank when the traffic dies down seasonally.
It also tracks whatever is hot in trends and fads. Right now, everything to do with Hurricane Katrina is hot, hot, hot, but a couple years ago, everything and anything to do with protecting you and your home from biological terrorism was top of the list. Paris Hilton was top of the charts for a long time, doing battle with Britney Spears, but now, both of them are old news.
This is an interesting aspect of page ranking. If your site continues to push keywords long past the fad’s life span, then this could be seen as keyword spamming. Yet, using trends and fads keywords as they come and go could attract attention. Luckily, the rest of the criteria in the page ranking evaluation can help to clear out abusers of keywords related to the current fad or current event.
Posting Frequency
How often you update your pages and add content is monitored over time. It isn’t just how much but when. If you update or add hundreds of articles within a very short time, this is suspicious, but if you rarely update your site or add content over time, then your ranking will probably drop. Finding a happy medium is still a hit and miss angle, but the information seems to point to consistency not just random spurts of energy.
If you consistently add content once a week, and it stays steady, then it is seen as stable. If you add content consistently every day, and then it drops to nothing, then this change indicates an instability. If you do hit and miss content updating and additions over time, and then suddenly post a ton of activity, this can also be seen as instability and suspicious. Steady and consistent, no matter how frequently, adds weight to the score.
Many researchers say that frequent new or updated content carries more weight than infrequent changes to the site. I could find nothing in the patent that lent proof to that theory, but showing consistent activity does work.
A “stale” page is one that is old and rarely attracts interest. A “fresh” page is one that is new, and will be watched to see what kind of interest it may attract. By updating a stale page on your site, you may attract new interest by rewriting or structuring the information and keywords to attract more attention, breathing life back into the page. Google monitors this “refreshing” of pages to show activity and an increase in interest, scoring high.
Not all “old” pages on your site need updating. If it is still attracting decent traffic, then leave it alone. It is working for you.
The patent also reveals that stable pages that are working which suddenly attract a “spike” in the number of incoming links or click throughs may be an indication of a change of site ownership or spamming. Google evaluates not only the content but the historical changes in the content of the page and the site and if the changes are dramatic and sudden, then the site will rank lower. Stability over time scores higher.
Keywords Still Play a Roll
Keywords and keyword density still play an important roll in evaluating the content and content history. Putting keywords in titles, links, headings, tags, and throughout the page is still critical to the success of your site’s page ranking and keyword ranking results.
Changes to keywords, by arrangement, closeness, and inside of links, titles and headings are also monitored, much like link anchor text. Consider reviewing and updating your keywords and checking their density and use throughout your site on a regular basis, if search engine page ranking is important to you.
In upcoming posts, we’ll discuss how to maximize your keyword density in your blog posts.
Rank by Traffic, User Behavior, and You
Like other comparative search engines, Google’s patent also tells of how page rankings are compared across the board and monitored over time. The traffic is recorded and monitored. How much traffic each page gets as well as the overall site.
User behavior is checked. Google keeps track of how long visitors stay on your site and from what pages they exit your site. You also get points for bookmarking or adding to favorites.
Keyword search results are constantly monitored. What keywords brought the visitor to your site and what keywords they used to search once on your site.
But “you” also play a roll in determining the page ranking with Google. The domain registration information is checked and compared to the information on the site to make sure the two match. The address of the domain owner may help localize search results to that specific geographic area.
How you have your site hosted also is among the other administrative items checked off. Shared IP host addresses run a risk since they are shared. If someone else is using that server for spamming or other evils, you could also be punished. Dedicated hosting is very expensive, so make sure you choose a reputable host who is publicly and actively stopping spamming sites if you choose shared hosting.
The validity of the site’s code and structure plays a small part, but is still part of the criteria. Make sure your site’s code is validated, checked for errors, and friendly to search engines. Any errors in your page structure or code can easily thwart a search engine’s process through your site. Table designed sites rank low while CSS based designs are much more search engine friendly.
Spelling is still important. Not that Google’s patented page ranking process includes a spell checker - words that are not recognized get dumped. If misspelled keywords are among your missed spellings, then your site will be hurt in the rankings.
More Information Google’s New Patent
For more information on Google’s new patent information and how this information will impact your site and how you can use it to improve your site, here are some helpful articles.
- What the Google Patent Means to Webmasters
- Google Patent Dissected as SES
- Google’s Patent: Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data
- WebProNews - The Google Patent and SEO
- What The Google Patent Means For SEO
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
67 Comments
Generally, it seems that the changes will bode well for non-spammers. Also, in terms of a domain’s longevity, simply purchasing/registering for a longer period is not going to guarantee higher rankings.
Overall, it seems promising, and its seeming like when one does a search, one is likely to actually get the sites one wants to see. Its been a bit of pot luck in the past.
Very good description on google patent. then how about those criteria against our wordpress.com domain name? and our blogs?
Against the wordpress.com domain name? I don’t see it impacting it at all.
Now, the information that is MOST critical to know, that we still don’t know, is how much importance and points are given to each element. Is domain age 1% of your total score or 20%? Is link text changing only worth 5 out of 100 points or 25 out of 100 points. We just don’t know.
We only know that these are the things that influence page rank. By knowing, we can learn how to do it “right”, and realize that all the energy put into spamming and conning search engines is just a waste of time.
In regards to domain age, does it use actual internic registration records, or just the earliest sign of the domain being accessed by a search engine? If somebody picks up a domain with clubdrop.com or snapnames.com after it expires, will they still get the domain’s pagerank?
For specifics, read the patent. As I understand it, if the owner of a domain changes, then Google has a way of detecting the change and scores accordingly. Page Rank is not maintained.
According to what I’ve been able to determine, it looks at the records as well as the age, and compares historical information it has on file. The point seems to be that spammers rarely keep a domain for long and some domain name buyers are just waiting for the windfall from the sale of a site name, so Google considers those in its score keeping. Which makes it more interesting when people claim page rank as influence to determine the price for selling a domain and site. The change of ownership impacts the page rank after the sale.
Again, what I do not know is how many points are awarded to which aspect. The whole issue of domain name could be a tiny fraction of the whole consideration or it could play a very big roll.
may I translate this post to spanish and post it?? I mean, is it protected with copyright or something like??…
great post..
You cannot translate and post this article as it is protected by copyright. You can ask nicely, though.
For you, Jesus, as long as it stays on your wordpress.com site with full links to this article and site and credit to “me”, including a little bio, I give permission, but it isn’t given lightly.
With the ease of translation of web pages, the need to translate is becoming less and less. A friend of mine is working on a translation program for viewing all web pages in almost any languages, and I look forward to one click translations of all web pages.
Lorelle, I enjoyed your article very much. I usually rank very highly in Google, and have done so for a long time. However, I just added a new page, and am not doing so well there. Does it take a couple of weeks for a new page to move up to where the others are located in the ranking?
In terms of translation to Spanish, the accuracy of translation programs is really bad. It helps me as a Spanish speaker, to speed up the translation by 20 to 40%, but if you do not have a Spanish speaker review the translation, then you can end up with some horrors. My favorite translation horror is a sign in Yosemite: In English it warns of the danger of the waterfall, and suggests that a person throw a leaf and see how fast the current takes it. In Spanish, the same sign reads, “Through yourself into the water, as a leaf.” But of course, that sign was there before most of us had even heard of the Web.
Thanks again, Lorelle.
Gregorio
My favorite translation was also in Spanish. The news story was about freezing funds of a terrorist organization and it translated via the web as “froze his bottom”.
It isn’t perfect, but it’s improving with time and use.
As for waiting for a new page to rise in Google, remember, part of your “score” is how many qualified links there are to a specific post and your site in general. Have you checked to see how many links you have to the post?
Page rank can be given to specific posts and sites, so it’s a confusing issue. I have some posts that put me at the top of the field, which the site might actually be lower in the ranking. It isn’t an easy thing to figure out.
Hi Guys,
This has been a most interesting article, opens you eyes to some new issues and clears up others. However the issue i have currently has not really been addressed, so i would love some advice and feedback, so here goes…
I am a web designer, and have just aquired a new client. The client has had the domain for some time now and the domain is parked.
The site has been ranked by google as a 6!! this makes me smile ofcourse, however as the site is not hosted, I shall be hosting it for the client.
What I want to know is when I move the site from being parked with 123-reg to the new host will the site lose its google ranking of 6?
please help….. Rahim
Hello,
I am also interested in this issue…. does google look at the ip of the host as its address or just the actual name… thus are pages on a site attached to the domain name or the host address of those pages….
answers on a post card pls….
From what I’ve been able to determine, a change in domain status, and that means just about any part of the domain, is an indicator to Google that something has “changed”. They still hold the cards in what they determine worthy of point loss as a penalty for the change, whatever the change is.
Now, reality is, even if there is a change in your domain, from a switch in IP to domain name change and everything else, time heals all wounds.
Page rank is NOT the end all and be all, and it does return. Focusing on page rank is like focusing on the stock market and making decisions on a minute by minute basis. In the end, you might win but you will do better to look at the longer term shifts and balances rather than the play-by-play.
Last fall, I made a huge change in my main site’s name to a totally different one. I also took the opportunity to switch to a new IP since I hated the new owners’ business practices and customer lack-of-support. I also switched from static HTML design to PHP/WordPress driven design. I had a very high page ranking but decided the changes I made were long overdue and worth the risk.
Not only did my page rankings dip for two months after, but they soared even higher than before after the change. I almost doubled my page rank and popularity. Sure, a lot of that is due to WordPress’ built-in SEO functions and tagging, but the point is that with all those changes, my page rank improved in the long run.
If your site deserves to be in the high page ranks, no matter what changes you do to the domain issue (unless determined to be fraud), you will recover. Make sure content matters, keywords, links, and the rest of the criteria is high, and your page rank dip will be temporary, I’m sure.
Question. How to go from a Page Rank of 4 to 6 after going from 0 to 4 in your first PR? Keep up the momentum. I have no traffic and no one cares about my sites but me but I care.
Thank you for the article. There is some information i would never thought of. How did you get from 0 to 4 if you do not have visitors? And why would you care if no one else does?
If you don’t have visitors, then you either have a website that doesn’t interest anyone, or you have done nothing to get your site into the search engines so no one has found it.
And it all boils down to this: If you don’t care, who will?
You have to care about what you right and feel it is worthy of being noticed by others and read. The key is to write content that others will want to read and link to. Worthy content is worth finding.
Google also uses DMOZ.org as a weight factor. Dmoz is a human edited directory. If you can get your domain in there (and it may take months or years, if you can get in it at all), you have a great shot of getting listed much higher. Beware the obnoxious and extremely rude behavior of the editors. How Google let’s them get away with that is beyond everyone.
For those who scroll down this far, check out Google Ranking Factors, a horribly designed web page but it seems to have some specific information gathered from around the web about how Google ranks and scores web pages. They have a disclaimer that says that this material may or may not be totally accurate, but it does offer some interesting information.
I am wanting to change wordpress into a website but not necessarily a blog site. I love the ease of use or appearance. I want to turn wordpress into my website but make it look like one and not look like a blog page. How would I do this?
Can someone help me? Im looking for something easy to edit and modify such as this, but make it my personal website and not a BLOGpage.
Well, this post isn’t the ideal place to answer this. Please see Why I Choose WordPress as My CMS, A Blogging Tool is Not Much More than a Content Management System in Disguise, A Blog By Any Other Name is Still a Website, and What I Needed to Learn About WordPress, but the only difference between a website and a blog is what you do with it and how you make it work for you. A website is a blog and a blog is website. A CMS can be both. I think you want to use WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System).
Well… It’s nice article to know how google rank sites…
Google’s methods have, for the most part, been known for quite some time now. They themselves have a page on search engine optimization, and the field is bustling. It’s nice to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, but these things are pretty much commonly known in SEO.
Just got to read this blog entry,, talk about good content :D. Don’t know why but many people tend to just make you feel SEOing is harder than suiciding
Great great article thanks… but wondering what the source is? how will i know if everything you say is true?
Read the patents yourself.
Very eye-opening. Maybe now I can finally make some things happen at a little more rapid pace. Thank you for your insight.
Many thanks for spelling it all out in plain English. Like others, I’ve read similair articles/blogs before, but not found something quite so digestable. I use my blog for both personal and business reasons right now, though I must admit the Personal and Kazakhstan tagged entries have dipped down a bit recently. Still not seen my PR rise above 0 yet - how long after starting a blog would you expect some sort of score? I’m linked to in a few places, but more in MSN than Google…
If you don’t have enough links in Google, how can you expect your page rank in Google to rise? Check to see how many pages of your blog are listed with Google. If not enough, you will need to fix that first.
Your page rank is dependent upon who is searching for what when. If you are doing everything right, have been around for 3-12 months, have pings to the search engines or have submitted your site to search engines, have keyword rich original content, then your page rank is also dependent upon those searching for your content.
A lot of people who just start out are totally focused with the popularity contest of page rank. Focus on delivering the best content you can, on generating the business and readership your audience demands, and page rank will take of itself.
As for how long, it all depends. For some sites, it takes a month. For others, years. You are competing with millions of websites and blogs. How is your competition doing?
It’s a complex issue. I’ve given up tracking every little twinge in the page rank scores. Focus on your audience’s needs. Getting them and keeping them. That’s most important.
Very informative content. I have been following alot of this advice with no results. Does anybody know when the next page rank update will be?
You will have to ask Google and Page Rank fluctuates daily, as far as I know. I’ve never heard of an official page rank update date. Have patience. It takes a while for “everything” to work. Concentrate on content not page rank and it will happen by itself.
The chase for page rank is old school thinking. The chase for steady, return customers and readers, which slowly builds a solid audience, is the modern thinking.
Wow, very insightful Google info. I learned alot from your post. thanks!
Gail
Great Article
Hello, Can somebody tell me about approx date of next page rank update ?
Hello Lorelle,
Thanks a lot for visiting my blog and your comment.
I have a few questions that I’d like to ask you..
1. What are the facts about penalizing for outgoing link??
Suppose: I have a lot of friends who are running non-english blog. (eg: burmese) If I link to one of their post, my blog may get penalized since Google might not know the language (eg: Burmese ) and might think that I’m linking to a post that doesn’t has proper content.
Is it possible to happen like that??
2. What is the ranking system for non-english??
3. What would Google do if SEO guy do some contents mixed with links for promoting a particular site or blog?? a link list without content may get penalized. right? so, what if SEO guy put some contents (maybe. random paragraph or something) and link together?
Thanks.
I will be releasing information on the new Google Blog PageRank system. That will answer a lot of your questions.
As for languages, Google is international and understands language issues. There are a lot of bloggers who link to non-their-language stuff.
As for those who want to game Google using whatever slick methods they want to come up with, the folks at Google are often a step or two ahead, and occasionally a step behind, but they are constantly analyzing all of the gaming techniques. By the time you’ve heard of them, they’ve already figured them out.
Honestly, write with strong keywords if you want to get found. If you don’t, just blog. If you play any games, like scraping content or not using any original content, you will get penalized. If you feel uncomfortable doing it, it’s probably the wrong thing to do. So don’t do it. Blog best by being you and letting the world get to know you, the blogger.
Thanks for your answer and your wish for my blog. I didn’t see both my comment and your comment since i was looking at the end of long trackback links..
Thanks again for your answer. I will be waiting your new post for Google Blog PageRank system.
Thanks for posting this, there’s a lot of useful information in this post, i’m going to spend some time in the next few days reading through the rest of your articles.
WOW - that was a nice read - A lot has changed I must add.
I’m about to release a new ebook on How I achieved a PR6 in under 30 days with a new domain. I actually stumbled on the whole idea and technique by mistake.
google pr base on popularity backlink i think… but is that true at all
Cyrus:
If you really read through the new PageRank patent, you will find that things have not changed much. In fact, these things have improved. There is now TrustRank and content matching, and link lists are now downgraded if there isn’t the text to explain the links, but for the most part, this still holds true but is emphasized more.
More than every it is about content not just about who is linking to you and if your post title is forwards or backwards in relationship to your blog title. It’s about what you write and how you write.
As for “another” writing on “how I broke the PageRank game to success”, it’s been done so many times and proven wrong…it’s really easy to get PageRank success. Very. But many think they have the secret formula.
Good luck with yours.
hey how do you add these things in your side bar. Wordperss.com dont allow you to ise such things i try my best to find but fail
please tell me how you do it
This is a WordPress.com blog and other than the paid option for styling the overall look of the WordPress Theme, I have done nothing special here that you can’t learn how to do in WordPress.com Blog Bling: Blogroll and Sidebar Bling.
This is one of the more accurate articles on Google ranking I have read. From my experience it comes down to two basic factors 1) quality inbound links and quality on-page content to match those links. Everything else is secondary.
Its a shame i didn’t find this excellent articl 6 months when i started my website. But better late than never! A quick question for the article writer if possible: Its a startegy i thought that has been done and may work for me. What do you think about the usuage of Blogs? Its becoming increasingly popular too. What if i make a blog for my site and link back to it? Bear in mind i am not tech Savvy! Far from it actually!
One link from anywhere to anywhere doesn’t do anything. Many links from somewhere to a spot does something.
Yes, any link from one source to another helps. Having a blog that links to your website helps, but the reason you have the blog must be more important than the link juice. That game has been played and it’s very old.
Make the blog matter and the link matter and don’t play any games. That’s the best way this whole thing works.
Great article, Thanks !
i want to known more about the search of things from the internet, apart using google search, is there any web for searching out thing from the net, i wish to know as many as possible for me to know.
And which one is best searching web in the internet.
very good read.. =)
Hi Lorelle,
Great article. Honestly, I wish i could write like you. We have so much to say, about database programming, but like our programs we tend to make it shorter and more compact, loosing in the process the narrative style.
thats all very nice information, thank you for that!!!
I saw that first comments dated Sept 2005, do you have an updated version of this awesome article?
Or these rules are still effective?
(sorry if my question is stupid, but I’m new to all this)
The information is not only still valid, it is “more” valid than ever before. Who you link to, and who links to you, carry tremendous weight. How old your site/domain is, the owners and any changes in ownership, and similar things are very important.
If anything, keywords and search terms usage in content is especially important.
This is also why using keywords in your comment form is considered bad form and bad manners, and makes an enemy of many bloggers. Don’t do it. Why risk your good reputation by playing old and silly games. It’s the blogger’s keywords that matter, not yours.
Using keywords and search terms instead of a name or blog title in comments can quickly get your comment deleted, or worse, marked as spam.
Thank for the information i sure will be using it on my Africa safari blog. It hasn’t been indexed yet but i know it’s just a matter of time.
Here is another great article about ranking factors.
I have seen many blogs and read many articles on Google Page rank. Yes you all talk about keywords, outbound-inbound links but if you are as new as I am to blogging, no one talks about a kind of step by step guide for newbies for doing that. wihc are the haigh ranking blogs, which are high ranking keywords what if you are a blogger member. May be you could have done it better. I liked your blog’s presentation and your writing style but the content you talk about has been explained many times by many, something different would be a welcome.
@manisha:
If you notice the date of the article, it was written before “everyone” was talking about Google PageRank. Glad you finally got around to mine.
Knowing which keywords are “high ranking” only applies to your blog topic. You use the words people use to search for that subject. A top keyword or search phrase like “Paris Hilton” won’t get you traffic if you blog about knitting. Well, let’s say that those hunting for Paris Hilton won’t like finding your knitting blog in their search results, unless you’ve come up with a pattern to knit a Paris Hilton doll.
Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization Guide is a step by step article that might help you. One article should not answer ALL your questions, but thank you for being an inquiring mind.
2 years old but still informational.
Thanks for a great article. As a blogger the ever elusive google is always changing the rules.Your well researched piece reveals known and unknown tactics employed by big brother google. Thanks for a fantastic post!
Nice, didn’t know about anchor spam. Glad I read this it may help me out.
Good article overall. It always amazes me how fast we are to label others as spammers. Let’s be honest, all SEO are SE spammers period. Wonder how “it is recommended to change the keywords in your anchor text around the top 5-10 keywords” is less spammy than other ways to manipulate (spam) Google
[…] engines now have patented algorithms to guess at what I’m really searching for better than I know myself. The sites at the top of […]
Nice information about Keywords. This article is really very helpful for SEO learners.
Your article contribute a lot of information for SEO Community
I’m new to WordPress and blogging, but I love your blog! Wow, I could spend forever here reading all your goodies! Thanks so much for developing such an interesting and useful site. I can see that there is a lot to learn about blogging and how to make one’s blog more visible.
Keep up the good work and thanks again!
Thanks, this is a very good article
A very neat and detailed post.It is 2008 but still this post is finding in top position in google search,so theres no need to say any word about the post.But still i went in to the post to find the post any interesting.Though i found the same ways but the way of presentation has attracted me to go through the post comlpetely.Thanks dear for posting a very good post.Please do continue to post these kind of good posts.
I was just wondering if you know why google lists so few of the actual links to a site on theier query (link:www.site.com). Of the thousands of links to my site only a handful are shown? How do they choose what links they list? Why don’t they list all of them? Is there any rhyme or reason to which ones are included and not? Is that about age, relevance, content or quality of the linking site? If they are not listed does taht mean that google does not recognize them and that they are not given any weight? Thanks.
@ Fred:
You will have to ask Google. There is a lot that goes into their algorithm, and it changes frequently enough that even I can’t keep track. I gave up a couple years ago worrying about this. Look at the search results and you will often see a link to see “more” links that they omitted, considered duplicates and such. Try other sites to see what they report, and compare them. Maybe you don’t have as many incoming links as you think. I don’t know. Much of this is a mystery to me.
What I do know is not a mystery is: write for your readers and for those searching for your content, and let the rest of it go. Google isn’t the only search engine in town.
66 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] bewertet. Technorati Tags: Google PageRank DomainAge Posting Frequency CTR Links | Permalink | Trackback-URL [...]
[...] Lorelle on WordPress have tips on how Google Rank websites. Check it out if you want to have your site rank better. [...]
[...] I found this interesting article on how Google ranks pages. The cat’s out of the bag, folks! [...]
[...] Lorelle hat sich ein schon etwas älteres Patent zur Suchtechnologie von Google ein wenig näher angeschaut und analysiert. Robert ist irgendwie darauf gestoßen und verweist in seinem Blog mit den Worten “wie Google eine Webseite bewertet” darauf. [...]
[...] We recently wrote about how Google ranks websites, Google Blogsearch, and how to submit your sitemap and feeds to Google, but there is plenty of information on the web about what Google is doing, if you know where to look. [...]
[...] Qu factores toma en cuenta Google para asignar el ranking a cada website. [...]
[...] Set a schedule for deadlines on adding new pages, or changing the old, on your site. Each site should have a schedule unique to its user’s needs and your business. Google scores higher points for sites which add consistently changing and new content, resulting in higher page ranks. A static website that doesn’t change is fine for a single store front and a small business with limited resources and information and targetting a narrow audience. If you are actively seeking clients and want people to return to your site frequently, consider adding and updating content on a regular basis. Once a day or week might be too much, though for some it is too little. Only you can decide what the right schedule is for your site or blog. Keep your web pages fresh and invite people to return for more. [...]
Google 网站评估大?秘
Google Pagerank的?题已?被??得让人厌烦了，?过?使如此，我们也?能掉以轻心，是?？现在我们就?次?习一下这几个题目
1 链接 Links?注?两点：[1] 在精?在多，并?多多益善哦。?…
Google rankings explained
Lorelle on WordPress explains how Google ranks websites.
…
[...] It’s quite strange I found something very unrelated when looking for WordPress plugin that can list my own private posts after logged in. Here it is, a nice summary on how Google ranked its pages. Of course, this is not news at all. [...]
Google and Page Ranking
I found this interesting article on how Google ranks pages. The cat’s out of the bag, folks!
[...] This type of spamming tries to manipulate the search engines algorithm. As one of the seo element, webmasters will submit URL to the search engines for indexing. Then, basically search engine will send its bots/spider/crawler to crawl the website, read and collect the Meta keywords, description, title and contents. Found links will be followed and start a new information reading and collecting. The collected information will be indexed in their database to make it searchable. After the indexing is completed, the documents are ranked to determine their relevancy. In the hardware aspect, the search engine database is stored in thousand of servers (use clustering, load balancing and redundancy etc.) to ensure the user searching faster. Well, the main purpose of the spamdexing is to increase the chance to be placed close to the beginning of search engine results, for example page 1 in 10 listing per page of the serp. Search engines use a variety of algorithms to determine relevancy ranking. Some of these include determining whether the search term appears in the META keywords tag, others whether the search term appears in the body text of a web page. A variety of techniques are used to spamdex, including listing chosen keywords on a page in small-point font face the same colour as the page background (rendering it invisible to humans but not search engine web crawlers). Search engine spammers are generally aware that the content that they promote is not very useful or relevant to the ordinary internet surfer. They try to use methods that will make the website appear above more relevant websites in the search engine listings. Unfortunately all known technique has been recognized by the search engine. If you got caught (else, it is business as usual), your site or in the worse case the domain will be penalized and de-indexed. Major search engines’ features information can be found here. [...]
[...] Secret Out: How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] If you are not familiar with SEO and search engine page ranking, then check out my article on How Google Ranks Websites for a better understanding of how search engines work and how they evaluate your site. And for more information on how a search engine gathers information from your blog, read How Search Engines See, Search, and Visit Your Website. [...]
[...] Secret Out: How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Lorelle, in here “Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites“, presents a thorough walk-through of Google’s ranking system, the patent made public last year. Rumors of how to fool the serch engine has run around the Internet for quite some time.Would a lot of keywords in metat tags do?What about homungous link lists, or lots of hidden text or random image scripts? [...]
[...] Secret Out: How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Secret Out: How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Lorelle on WordPress » Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] I got a comment on my article about how Google ranks websites asking me: “How did you get from 0 to 4 if you do not have visitors? And why would you care if no one else does?” [...]
[...] As a long time fan of accessibility in website design, A List Apart’s Andy Hagan’s article, “High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization” is a splendid look at how the fight for the right for accessible web pages actually helps your SEO and search engine page rank. I have been a search engine optimizer for several years, but only recently have become infatuated with web accessibility. After reading for weeks and painstakingly editing my personal website to comply with most W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, I have come to a startling revelation: high accessibility overlaps heavily with effective white hat SEO…On further reflection, this overlap makes sense. The goal of accessibility is to make web content accessible to as many people as possible, including those who experience that content under technical, physical, or other constraints. It may be useful to think of search engines as users with substantial constraints: they can’t read text in images, can’t interpret JavaScript or applets, and can’t “view? many other kinds of multimedia content. These are the types of problems that accessibility is supposed to solve in the first place. [...]
[...] Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Found a very interesting read today: Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites. Now I’m wondering if all those language links on Blank Slate are such a good idea after all… [...]
[...] I’ve written about this before, and in basic English, this statement, a part of the original 2000 dated submission, says that Google will monitor what you search and view and associate that information with you. Their efforts will lead to targeted search profiling, increasing the odds of generating search results based upon your history of searching. In other words, it’s like visiting a restaurant that “knows you” and only being served what they know you will like because you’ve established history and reputation with them. [...]
[...] Qu factores toma en cuenta Google para asignar el ranking a cada website. Aprovechar el espacio (28/9/2005): [...]
[...] Now, move ahead to “modern” web design and development techniques where such keyword spamming is recognized and punished by search engines, knowing a trick when they see one. The same pages are now filled with tags. The same type of article on buying ring tones for your cell phone might include a list of tags like this: [...]
[...] David Breyer’s article on putting Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati and Slashdot buttons in your WordPress blog is brilliant and a must have if you are going for good SEO page ranking. It also makes it easy for users of Del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg, and Slashdot to add your article to their tag service. [...]
[...] >> Lorelle on WordPress » Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] The goal of splogs is two-fold. One is to attract the attention of search engines to drive traffic to their site. The other is to create a lot of links to their main marketing scheme sites. The more incoming links their main site has, typically the higher the page rank in search engines. Fortunately, search engines are getting smarter and the number of incoming links is just one of the factors in determining page rank, not the most important one. [...]
[...] By recommending a site with a link, you are lending your site’s linking power and reputation to that link. Search engine’s have the ability to judge incoming and outgoing links as part of their page ranking analysis. If your site ranks high and you link to another site, their site scores better for that link than if a lessor site linked to them. Thus, your site is judged by its link popularity. To help you determine your own linking reputation, I wrote about how to test your site for its link popularity and page rank. [...]
[...] Link popularity, the number of external sites which link to you, is still critical to successful search engine page ranking. But it isn’t a matter of how many but who links to you. Search engines know the difference between lots of links and quality linking. They evaluate who is linking to you and if their links and content matches your content. If they don’t, it’s ignored. If it does, it scores. [...]
[...] Along with the linking theme here, you may want to read this one: Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites, by Lorelle on WordPress “. May be old news for some (from 2005), but… She explains in interesting and easy to read language the in’s and out’s of how Google manages to outwit the spammers. And she makes some more sense out of the queries in my 1st post. [...]
[...] Not all search engines use Meta Tags, but some do. WordPress sites do not have meta tags for keywords out of the box, but you can add them manually to your template files or use a keyword plugin. They are not required today for search engine inclusion, but it also doesn’t hurt. [...]
[...] Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
How Google Ranks Websites
An analysis of the Google PR algorithm
[...] “Google monitors this ‘refreshing’ of pages to show activity and an increase in interest, scoring high. The patent also reveals that stable pages that are working which suddenly attract a “spike” in the number of incoming links or click throughs may be an indication of a change of site ownership or spamming. Google evaluates not only the content but the historical changes in the content of the page and the site and if the changes are dramatic and sudden, then the site will rank lower. Stability over time scores higher.” -Secret Out [...]
[...] In my popular article, “How Google Ranks Websites”, I wrote about the various elements used in form of score card that Google and other search engines use to judge your site in order to determine its rankings. As a reminder, here are some of the items evaluated on your site: [...]
[...] She also has a lot of other useful and well written entries, so next time you’ve finished reading here, check out her site Click the relevant icon above to share this page with othersThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] Many of us are still trying to figure out how Google’s Page Rank works, but at least we have a better clue now on how Technorati ranking works through a good explanation by Brian Pinkerton in “Making Sense of Technorati Link Counts”. We display four count-related numbers in just this little part of the page. Here’s what they mean: [...]
[...] Lorelle on WordPress » Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites [...]
[...] Today, I was reading Lorelle VanFossen’s WordPress blog specifically her article title ‘Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites. [...]
[...] that use a form of link exchange to try to enhance their search engine ranking. After reading this article by Lorelle on WordPress, I’ve decided that she has written a good piece (most of her writing [...]
[...] engines now have patented algorithms to guess at what I’m really searching for better than I know myself. The sites at the top of [...]
[...] Ja ir interese, var palasīt Wikipēdijas rakstu par PageRank: [PageRank] Labs skaidrojums ir arī šeit: [Secret Out - How Google Ranks Websites] [...]
[...] engines now have patented algorithms to guess at what I’m really searching for better than I know myself. The sites at the top of [...]
[...] במנועי החיפוש. הפטנט של מנוע החיפוש של גוגל כבר פורסם ונחקר. מנועי החיפוש של יאהו ו-MSN, אינן שונים בצורה [...]
[...] on who you are linking to as well as who is linking to you to add to the mishmash they call their page rank algorithm