WebStrategies - website optimisation and search engine optimisation (SEO) Auckland, New Zealand » link popularity

FAQ: What are the important factors for ranking well on Google?

Webstrategies — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:37:57 +0000

We are often asked what are the important things that Google factors in, when determining where in the search results a website is ranked, and how to improve those rankings over time. The main factors that you should attend to on an ongoing basis, in order for Google to assign your website increasing value (PageRank) are:

Age of website. The older the website the more “value” it accrues with Google. The website and business behind it is more stable, so is probably a better resource for the Google searcher (Googler).
Grow links in from other websites. Whenever you get the opportunity, ask other website owners to add a link TO your website FROM theirs. You may have to return the favour which is fine: add them to a new page called “Resources” or similar. Google measures and analyses links into your website. The more valuable the website that has the source link the better. Google sees this as a “vote” for your website.
Update your website regularly. Google will measure this and if a regular frequency of updates are recorded then your website will be assigned more value from Google. Regular updates and a growing website are an indication that the website content will be fresh and up to date and of more value to the Googler, than a site that doesn’t have these.

Of course getting the relevant keywords into each page in the correct places and density underpins all of these things. Keywords and phrases that you optimise for should be relevant to the content of the page, and from there you can develop a keyword pool for the website. If you want to optimise your website for other, additional phrases then you need to add new pages to support those.

Author: Ashley Bryan
Webstrategies
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FAQ: Why doesn’t my Web site rank very well on Google?

Webstrategies — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:01:24 +0000

I’m often asked what the key factors are that determine the success of a website on Google. There can be a lot of reasons why your site is not ranking very well in search engines, but some of the reasons are more important than others. Here’s a quick rundown:

1. Your website is too young. Google measures the age of all websites and assigns more value (PageRank) to websites as they get older. Age is a measure of business stability, which means a more valuable result for people doing searches.

2. Your keyword placement is not right. Bottom line: your website can’t be found on Google if the search phrases used isn’t in your website. If it is there, then it has to be placed correctly in the page eg Title tag, page headings, page content, image tags. If your keyphrases are in text (i.e. not inside an image) and emphasised for your human visitors, then Google will pick them up.

3. You have a low level of quality websites linking into yours. If another website owner places a link on their website to yours, Google considers this a “vote” for your website. The more links in the better, but the better quality websites linking to yours the better.

4. Regularly updated content. Google will keep coming back to your website and re-indexing it. If a regular frequency of updates for your website is measured, then this contributes to your page rank. Websites with good, fresh, up to date content is good for people searching on Google, so Google values it.

5. Technical barriers to Google. Make sure your website is Google friendly and that there is nothing in place which is potentially stopping Google from finding all your content. Website made in Flash still do not perform well on Google.

Of course each of these gives rise to a whole area of website optimisation and management but taken as a whole, these are the key factors which influence the success of your website on Google.

Author: Ashley Bryan
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What is PageRank (PR)?

Webstrategies — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:33:20 +0000

PageRank is the numerical value that Google assigns to each page on a website and is a measure of the importance or “authority” that Google places on that page. Google does not disclose exactly how the PageRank value is calculated however it is a number displayed as between 1 and 10 which is boiled down from a much larger number derived from Google’s complex algorithmic analysis of each web page. And that is important to note: EACH page on a website can be assigned a separate PageRank value, even if it is zero (some pages, especially new pages, may not have a PageRank assigned at all). PR does contribute to a page’s rankings or placings in the Google search results but while it seems that in general the higher the PageRank for a page then the higher up the Google rankings it goes, this often does not hold true as other factors come into play.

Several factors contribute to PageRank (PR) and a significant one is inbound link quantity/quality, or Link Popularity. Whenever a website links into your own website, that counts as a “vote” for your website which Google measures and this contributes to your PageRank. Now, the higher the PageRank held by the page linking to yours, then the more valuable that in-bound link is and the more it will contribute to your own page’s PageRank. So it is more important to grow quality links into your website rather than quantity, but even better is to grow the quantity of good quality links in. There are a number of ways in which inbound links can be developed:

Best practice methods:
- Request links from business partners, suppliers, customers etc
- Blog marketing
Dubious or low success methods:
- Purchase links
- Article marketing
- Directory submissions

Absolute no-no’s:
- Use of Link Farms

As well as inbound links from websites that are external to your own website counting toward your PageRank, internal links between pages within your own website are important too. In this way PageRank from high PR pages (often your home page for instance) can be distributed to internal pages on your website, thus increasing their perceived “value”.

So we can see that Google assesses each page on your website separately: analyses inbound link quality and quantity and analyses internal linkage and then in conjunction with other factors pronounces its judgment on every one of your pages by way of the PageRank value. Clearly if Google can’t find a page(s) on your website then it (they) won’t be assigned a PageRank at all and so won’t perform well in the search results pages. This where a website built with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind is essential for Google success.

The building of PageRank is a slow process driven primarily by the slow process of acquiring quality inbound links. Gradual it must be: if Google sees any dramatic or sudden increases in your Link Popularity it may deem there to be “unnatural” inbound link development and penalise your website by holding back PageRank and keeping you lower in the search results.

Author: Stuart Wilkerson and Ashley Bryan
Webstrategies
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FAQ: What is the Google bot?

Webstrategies — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:54:19 +0000

Google Bot is an automatic tool used by Google using a mathematical process to continually crawl, just like a spider, through web pages and websites to find new and updated content to add to its database. At the same time it removes old links to dead pages or websites thus keeping the “index” of websites that it has listed, as up to date as possible. In short the Google bot checks your website and tells Google what it is all about so that Google can then present your website to people who are doing searches using keywords and phrases.

An important point is that the bot only reads text. So a page with no text will not perform well on Google because Google has nothing upon which to determine what that page is about. A page that does have text and so can be read by the Google bot will most probably get “indexed” and listed in the database. Of course it’s logical to then realise that if Google bot reads text to gain an understanding of what your page is about then it is reading words and phrases and so it’s important to ensure your relevant and desired words are in the page where Google can find them (giving rise to Search Engine Optimisation or SEO).

You can tell if the Google Bot has visited your website by looking at your website statistics supplied by your web host or by joining Google’s Webmaster Tools, which is a service provided free by Google. These tools will tell you how often the Google bot returns and checks your website. The bot follows links so the more links into your website the more often the bot will return.

What does all this mean to you? Well, it’s really important when your website is designed to ensure that the Google bot can find all of your pages. And when writing your content ensure that meaningful and relevant phrases are included and placed in the right places on your pages for Google to find. Quality keyword-rich content with relevant links into your pages is what the Google bot needs, and that is what you need in order for your website to perform well on Google.

Author: Stuart Wilkerson
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How to grow your link popularity

Webstrategies — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Links into yor website are critical to your site’s success. For optimal success you need to develop an effective link strategy. The following are some things you should consider:

1. Examine your competition’s inbound links and see if you can get links on those same websites. Not all of these websites will be relevant, and not all will be willing to place your link on their website, but this is definately one of the easier ways to grow your inbound links.

2. Contribute to a blog. Blogs are the hot thing at the moment, and are are a very effective way to grow your link popularty, and to also attract the atention of human visitors. Usually when you post to a blog you are able to include a link back to your own website.

3. Article submission. There are many article directories avalable now that allow you to submit your own article and to make it available for others to post on their webstes. Usually website owners who post your website on theirs are required to lace a credit to the original author: you, and to feature your web address – thats a great link. It also allows you to build your reputation as an expert in your field.

4. Join a link farm. ABSOLUTELY NEVER BUY A LOAD OF LINKS FOR THE LOW, LOW PRICE OF . . . . . Thats a great way to get dropped from Google.

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WebStrategies - website optimisation and search engine optimisation (SEO) Auckland, New Zealand » link popularity

FAQ: What are the important factors for ranking well on Google?

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FAQ: Why doesn’t my Web site rank very well on Google?

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What is PageRank (PR)?

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FAQ: What is the Google bot?

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How to grow your link popularity

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