To all of us interested in having our websites rank high in Google’s search engine, called search engine optimization, Google revealed some of it’s ranking algorithm secrets in a recent patent filing. I have not read the patent, but an article by Daniel Yates was a very helpful summary.
The bottom line confirmed what I’ve thought for quite some time: we should do our job well, ethically, grow links because we are providing top quality content, be faithful to keep our sites current. We should avoid tempting shortcuts that promise overnight success.
Several words come to mind — patience, goodness, faithfulness from Galatians 5:22. Sowing and reaping from Galatians 6:9 — “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Kind of sounds like a plan for building high-ranking websites…
… or how to grow in our journey with Jesus called the Christian life.
Good article and commentary. Thanks for the link. You’ve been blogged.
Yes, great find and good application.
Hi Keith. I agree with your comments. Daniel Yates’ article is decent but has some speculation in it. I always like to go to the source. Here is a link to the latest google patent. You will notice that it was actually filed on Dec. 31, 2003. Google has yet to implement most of these strategies but it is their path to the future. The key is that Google is looking for sites that are grown organically and is becoming very agressive against black hat SEO techniques that appear to them as spam. Here is a helpful summary of the patent from Axandra without so much speculation:
Google might use the following to determine the ranking of your pages:
– the frequency of web page changes
– the amount of web page changes
(substantial or shallow changes)
– the change in keyword density
– the number of new web pages
that link to a web page
– the changes in anchor texts
(the text that is used to link
to a web page)
– the number of links to low
trust web sites (for example
too many affiliate links on one
web page)
Your Google rankings can also
be influenced by your domain
name:
– the length of the domain registration
(one year vs. several years)
– the address of the web site
owner, the admin and the technical
contact
– the stability of data and host
company
– the number of pages on a web
site (web sites must have more
than one page)
How Google might rate the links
to your web site:
– the anchor text and the discovery
date of links are recorded
– the appearance and disappearance
of a link over time might be
monitored
– the growth rates of links as
well as the link growth of independent
peer documents might be monitored
– the changes in the anchor texts
over a given period of time might
be monitored
– the rate at which new links
to a web page appear and disappear
might be recorded
– the distribution rating for
the age of all links might be
recorded
– links with a long life span
might get a higher rating than
links with a short life span
– links from fresh pages might
be considered more important
– if a stale document continues
to get incoming links, it will
be considered fresh
– Google doesn’t expect that
new web sites have a large number
of links
– if a new web site gets many
new links, this will be tolerated
if some of the links are from
authorative sites
– Google indicates that it is
better if link growth remains
constant and slow
– Google indicates that anchor
texts should be varied as much
as possible
– Google indicates that burst
link growth may be a strong indicator
of search engine spam
Search results and user behavior
might influence your Google rankings:
– the volume of searches over
time is recorded and monitored
for
increases
– the information regarding
a web page’s rankings are recorded
and monitored for changes
– the click through rates are
monitored for changes in seasonality,
fast increases, or other spike
traffic
– the click through rates are
monitored for increase or decrease
trends
– the click through rates are
monitored to find out if stale
or fresh web pages are preferred
for a search query
– the click through rates for
web pages for a search term is
recorded
– the traffic to a web page is
recorded and monitored for changes
– the user behavior on web pages
is monitored and recorded for
changes
(for example the use of the back button etc.)
– the user behavior might also
be monitored through bookmarks,
cache, favorites, and temporary
files
– bookmarks and favorites are
monitored for both additions
and deletions
– the overall user behavior for
documents is monitored for trend
changes
– the time a user spends on a
web page might be used to indicate
the quality and freshness of
a web page
Miscellaneous factors that
can influence your Google rankings:
– web pages with frequent ranking
changes might be considered untrustworthy
– keywords that have little change
in the result pages are probably
matched to domains with stable
rankings
– keywords with many changes
in the results are probably matched
to domains with more votality
Greg Outlaw
AllAboutGOD.com