Google have recently filed a US patent which reveals a great deal of
how they rank your web site. Some of it you could never of guessed at…
By Darren Yates, 6/11/2005 this article blatantly ripped off from www.buzzle.com.
How many years did you register your domain name for?
If it’s only one then that’s a point against you in Googles eyes.
Why?
Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name
for one year. A domain registered for a longer period implies that the
owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.
This is just one of the unusual factors now considered by Google
when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could never even have
guessed at in some cases.
How do I know this?
Google have recently filed United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005.
In which many of the search giants secret ranking criteria is
revealed and it makes very interesting reading. You have got to read
this if you’re serious about ranking well in Google. The days of
Spaming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent they reveal
just how hard they’re coming down on Spam sites. You Do Not want to get caught out.
Below you will find the hard facts, I recommend you bookmark this
page now. You will need to reference it each time you optimize a new
site.
• First of all Links. It’s common knowledge that Google relies
heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site. Now they explain
exactly how it works. 🙂
This is a major factor so I’ll take a few paragraphs to explain what is going on.
As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link.
Google seems to also consider historical factors. Googles ‘sandbox’ or
aging delay begins countdown the minute links to a new site are
discovered.
Google record the discovery of a link and link changes over time. The speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.
With this in mind fast link acquisition may be a strong indicator of potential search engine Spam.
Gone are the days of pages and pages full of link farms. You must
grow your links slowly to stay below the radar and be careful who you
exchange links with. That means no more buying hundreds of links at
once or other underhand tactics.
PR is now very valuable.
Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your
site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange
you gain. That’s ‘anchor Spam’. Instead vary them around your top five
to ten keywords.
Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and
utilize them ethically. If you don’t and you get caught the recovery
from a ban can be months in coming and your host and IP may also be
recorded.
Softly softly seems to be the message. The fact is fewer but better
quality links will benefit you more anyway and likely to be more
long-term which is good to.
• Site click through rates (CTR) may now be monitored through
cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites. Via the Google toolbar
or desktop tools. Many have suspected for some time that sites are
reward for good CTR with a raise in ranking. Similar to how Adwords
works.
CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result.
CTR is monitored for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons.
• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.
• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.
• Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site may rank higher in the
winter than in the summer. Google can monitor and rank pages by
recording CTR changes by season.
• Bookmarks and favorites could be monitored for changes, deletions or additions.
• User behavior in general could be monitored.
As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should
closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results.
Ideally you want to integrate a call to action in there to increase
CTR.
Clicks away from your site back to the search results are also
monitored. Make your site as sticky as possible to keep visitors there
longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could get your
visitors to bookmark you.
• The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages.
Mass updates of hundreds of files will see you pop up on the radar.
On the other hand to few or to small updates to your site could see
your rankings slide. Unless your CTR is good. A stale page that
receives good traffic may hold it’s own and not require an update. So
don’t update for the sake of it.
Depending on your market fresh content may not be a requirement. If
the information your pages contain does not go out of date then
updating may not be necessary. If your market is more news based for
example then changes regularly are a must. In general changes don’t
necessarily have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits
to current content.
A further indicator that Google is really cracking down on Spam is
made clear in the following extract from the Patent. Mention is made of
changing the focus of multiple pages at once.
Here’s the quote –
“A significant change over time in the set of topics associated
with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and
previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no
longer reliable.
Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate Spam. For
example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or
more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’ period of time and
then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with
the document, this may be an indication that the document has been
taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.
Another indication may include the sudden disappearance of the
original topics associated with the document. If one or more of these
situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the relative score of
such documents and/or the links, anchor text, or other data associated
the document.”
There’s still more to look out for:-
• Changes in on page keyword density is monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.
• The domain name owner address is considered, most likely to help in a local search result.
• The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency. These are often falsified for Spam domains.
• Your hosts IP address. If you are on a shared server it’s
possible somebody else on that server is using dirty tactics or
Spaming. If so your site will suffer since you share the same IP.
The impression I get here is that Google have learned from the Spam
attack they suffered in early 2004 and are determined to eradicate it.
So what do you do?
There’s a lot to take onboard here and consider. But you can’t go far
wrong with your SEO if you try to grow your site as organically as
possible. If you know what you’re doing you can take short cuts. Carry
on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully and slow down
in your gathering of them. Vary your anchor text. Add small amounts of
good quality content to your site regularly. Check your search engine
listings and edit your site to include a call to action in them if
possible. Make your site more ‘sticky’ to encourage visitors to stay a
while. Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site. Oh and register new
domain names for at least two years.
Before you do anything remember to reference the above info first.
It may just save you months of misery as your site gets banned and
‘Sand boxed’.
Overall keep it ethical and you can’t go wrong.
Do not be tempted to Spam. Stick to the guidelines above and you are much more likely to outlast and out rank your competition.
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