The New World of Page Ranking

Google, and search engines in general, used to act as a one-size-fits-all format. If person A and person B both searched for “best chocolate in the world,” it used to be both individuals would see the same list of rankings. Now we live in a world of customization, where Google’s results reflect not just the search terms and keywords used, but the complex personalization derived from a given user’s full interaction with the suite of Google products. Since Google, and search engines in general, are truly trying to give searchers exactly what they want, the process has seen a genesis of customization. One-size-fits-all no longer applies.

If your sole focus as a company investing in SEO is to see a high Google page rank, stop the obsession – now. High rankings don’t equate to a stellar business profile; revenues do. And now that page rankings are becoming varied, it’s much less reliable to equate a high ranking to full-scale success. So putting all your eggs in one proverbial basket is not only risky, it’s now completely illogical.
What should you focus on? Quality traffic, quality content, and a quality user experience. Yes, rankings factor in here, there’s no doubt about it, but it isn’t a means to an end. Quality is. That’s what will keep users returning, again and again. And since not all of your visitors are likely sent via a search engine, it’s time to consider the whole enchilada, and stop worrying about what Google might think.


The Role of Customized Search Results
Let’s say I’m an employee at a place called Company SEO. It’s safe to say I’m probably visiting that company’s web site often, and using related search terms on a frequent basis. If I do so while logged in to my Gmail account, or any other Google tool, this correlation begins to become apparent. It’s therefore more likely that if I search for a keyword or term targeted by Company SEO, I will see its results rank higher, as Google has correctly determined I am interested in what that company/author has to say.
Google’s results cannot be quantified in any meaningful manner. We’re seeing fewer and fewer ranking reports as a result. The rankings you see in any given search are not just based on the keywords — Google also incorporates your location, service provider, previous search history, and various other personal factors. Since we can’t predict a given user’s customization, it’s crazy these days to fully focus on a high SEO ranking.
Anyone who has traveled recently can attest to this shift. Search for “best chocolate in the world” in San Francisco and you’ll see a different set of results than if you’re traveling in Sweden. The point is, you can’t control rankings in the way we’d all like to anymore, so it’s time to shift focus.

Make Traffic and Conversions Your Top Priorities
This is not a call for all to give up the SEO game. It’s just a matter of adjusting how you approach the goals. By moving your emphasis to quality and consistency, you’ll still be aiming for the highest rankings, but in a manner that will yield better results.
Traffic and conversion rates are your best SEO friends, because they make the most of whatever ranking you are currently achieving. The more you capitalize on your traffic, the more retention and loyalty you’ll achieve, and customers will keep coming back. For instance, a site with high page rankings won’t maintain that status for long if they develop a high bounce rate. You can send 10,000 visitors to your site per day via Google, but if you can’t convert those into revenue generating visits, the eyeballs are costing you cash, not the other way around.

Generate Quality Traffic
As with everything in this world, quality trumps quantity. What you’re after are targeted links and referrals full of visitors that are truly after what you offer. Your marketing strategy no doubt contains a myriad of efforts to generate these quality visits. To really be a player in SEO these days, these campaigns should involve the following:

• Organic search
• Paid search
• External links, from articles, bloggers, news sites, etc.
• Press releases and other PR efforts
• Social signals from Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, etc.
• Local map listings
• Online advertising
• Direct traffic via offline strategies

Yes, organic search still sits at the top of the list above, but if it’s your sole focus, you’ll definitely waste your efforts. Failure to consider the other factors means you’ll experience just a smidgen of your potential success.

Pay attention to your analytics so you can understand where your site is succeeding and failing with regards to visits and conversions. Ascertain where the bulk of your traffic truly comes from (here’s a clue: it’s not always from Google) and adjust the list above accordingly. It may be that local listings or even offline strategies trump search in terms of what works best for your specific needs.

The point is simple: in the last few years, page rankings have become the Holy Grail, and it’s time to stop obsessing over a top page ranking. You can’t begin to control rankings from a personalization perspective, so stop losing sleep over your own ranking ebbs and flows. Instead, focus on the data you can control – namely traffic and conversions. If you’re aces at converting high percentages of your site’s visitors, you’re on a winning streak. It’s not a matter of being #1 for a search term, but in making your customers and visitors happy.

Original From SPN
 The New World of Page Ranking

How Google Looks at Backlinks Today to Rank Your Site

I talked about link value last year but I thought I’d go a few steps further and add to that, covering how Google values links nowadays when link building isn’t the center of attention or the entire game that it once was.

Total Number:
First and foremost, Google considers the total number of links which you have. This isn’t a particularly influential factor considering one good one from a high ranking, established, trustworthy site (more on this later) will be more valuable than thousands of spammy, low quality site links.

Number of Domains/Source:
If you have thousands of links from the same site then it’s not really going to be helping you. For instance, if the majority of your links were all coming from the same article directory, Google is going to discount the influence of most of those links. Some people argue that Google discounts influence after the first link from a particular site. Therefore, link diversity is extremely important, so you should be getting links from all types of sites from directories to blogs to video sites and so on.
Google can identify where your links are coming from not just from the sites themselves but through varied IP addresses, so you definitely want your links coming from different IP addresses around the globe as this suggests you’re getting links from different people.

Anchor Text:
I’ve talked a lot about anchor text lately in terms of how important it is to vary up the anchor text which you use when creating links to your site. This works to keep your link profile diverse and natural looking because you have to think that if someone was linking to your site from his site, he likely wouldn’t use the keyword you’re targeting on that page when pointing to your site.

Age:
While some people believe that older links – links you’ve had for years pointing to your site – are more valuable and powerful than newer links you receive, when I refer to “age” here I’m referring to the age of the sites you’re receiving links from. Older, more established site links will be more influential whereas links from newer sites won’t make as much of an impact. This goes with the idea that older sites have more authority and page rank and Google trusts them more.

Variation:
I’ll include “variation” here to once more drive home the point that diversity is important in terms of anchor text and source of links. It doesn’t stop there, however; variation is important in terms of image versus text, placement of them on the various sites linking to you (high up in the content is best as oppposed to sidebars or menu bars which are signs of link buying or exchanges), and dofollow versus nofollow links, as well.
Years ago, Google said that only DoFollow links would pass influence. After hearing that, everyone began concentrating entirely on DoFollow and discounting going after NoFollow links altogether. While a lot of webmasters still focus entirely on DoFollow, a lot of SEOers believe that NoFollow links pass more influence than before because Google will do what is necessary to diminish the success of those who are trying to game or play to Google’s algorithm and reward those who are not.

Quality:
Quality is still a factor as I mentioned in opening. Receiving one link from a highly ranked and trusted site is far more valuable than thousands of links from spammy blogs. If you are going to spend your time trying to get links, you want to focus on getting links from highly trusted and established sites which it’s difficult to receive links from because they’re more conservative in whom they link to. In this case, it’s less about “getting” links and more about “earning” links through techniques like creating and sharing link bait or guest blogging for them.
Another sign of quality is relevance, in that you want links from sites which are relevant to your site. If you’re getting one from a site about cars when your site is all about puppies, Google is likely going to discount the influence that it has as it is very likely that you created that link yourself because typically a webmaster of a car site would not link to your puppy themed site on their own. In keeping with the variation point, it’s all right to have a few links from irrelevant sites, but generally you’ll be staying in your niche.

Bad Links:
On the other hand, the opposite of quality links, bad links will detract from and have an adverse effect on your ranking, so do what you can to limit the number of bad links pointing to your site.

Velocity:
Link velocity refers to the rate and schedule at which you’re building links to your site. The key here is to make your link velocity look natural or, in other words, you shouldn’t get 10,000 links one month and 100 the next month. There shouldn’t be many curves in your velocity. You should continue to build more links each month than the one before it.

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Article by Paul M Ventura, in SPN
 How Google Looks at Backlinks Today to Rank Your Site

10 Ways to Improve Your Google Ranking

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Shortly after its creation, Google’s popularity skyrocketed and it soon became
the dominant search engine for finding information on the internet. This is why, if you own a website, you want it to be high in the Google ratings.

Google is constantly changing and evolving so you need to keep up with the changes. Their recent changes, called the Panda Update, caused many sites’ rankings to drop significantly. Google’s mission is to provide the highest quality information for each search done and in doing this, many sites get lost in the endless pages of search results.

To get your website increased ranking there are many things you can do and many things you should not do. I have tried to list some of the more effective things you should do and a couple things you should not do for better placement in Google.

1. Limit Your Advertising – If you have a hodgepodge or cluttering of advertising on your site, this can decrease your ranking. Google considers excess advertising to be a sign of a low-quality spam site. And remember, Google’s goal is to provide the highest quality sites at the top of the search results.

2. Google Toolbar – The Google Toolbar is an important tool to have because of all the features that will help you improve your ranking. The Google toolbar can help you monitor your page rank, help you find sites to link to and help you find which sites are linked to you. You can also keep tabs on how your site is doing with targeted keywords. Get it for free at Google.com.

3. Relevant and Quality Content – One of the most important things to do for better SEO is to provide quality content with relevant keywords. Quality is always more effective than quantity so don’t plaster a ton of low-quality articles on your site just to have content. Make sure the articles you choose are relevant to your site and provide helpful information. If you have some of the same articles as another site, the most relevant quality site will be higher in the rankings so the duplicate content itself, will not lower your rankings. Also, be sure to add fresh new content on a regular basis.

4. Google+1 Button – By joining Google Plus and adding a Google+1 button to your site, you can help lift your site’s rankings. One of the things Google looks at the most is your site’s level of importance and relevancy. The more plus ones you can get, the more importance it will give your site, thus causing Google to increase your ranking in the search results pages. This will also get your site more exposure resulting in more visits as well.

5. Become a Blogger – If you haven’t already done so, you need to add a blog to your business website. Blogging is a highly efficient way to raise your ranking in Google because a blog does two things. First, it can add many pages of keyword-rich, relevant, quality content to your site which will be noticed by Google. The more quality pages indexed, the more chances you have to be on page one. And secondly, a blog can increase the amount of quality inbound links to your site.

6. Relevant Inbound Links – Quality inbound links are a great way to add relevance and importance to your site. Guest posting on high quality blogs is one of the best ways to accomplish this task. Commenting on existing blog comments works well also. Always use keyword rich posts with appropriate sites and use relevant keywords for your links. Google does not value links from article banks as much as they used to so choosing a few quality blogs is better than submitting to countless article sites.

7. Social Media – As with many facets of internet marketing, social media plays a big part in SEO. Be active on your social sites. Do not let them go stale. Engage in conversations, post new info regularly and involve your visitors.

8. Keyword Research – Keywords play an important part in SEO, but using the wrong keywords can do more harm than good. Be sure to research keywords to find what search phrases people are using to find your site’s info. Google offers a keyword tool called Google Keyword Tool. This free tool will give you a list of keywords and tell you how often they are used and their competition.

9. Hidden Text – Hidden text is text displayed on your site but invisible to your visitors. A common way of doing this is to set the font color the same as the background color. The reason for doing this is to add a large number of keywords for the search engines but not make your content seem redundant to your visitors. Do not do this. Google considers this manipulation and it could get your site penalized.

10. Bad Linking – Reciprocal linking, inbound links, and outgoing links can all be good if you follow the proper procedure. Do not link with any and all sites. Be very selective and only link with sites that are relevant to your site and contain quality content. Stay away from FFA (Free For All) or link farm sites. Check your links regularly to make sure they are not broken. Broken links will catch the attention of Google and other search engines. Linking to poor quality sites or spam sites is also something you do not want to do. Years ago quantity might have gotten you a boost but now it is all about quality links to relevant sites, NOT quantity.
Obtaining a high Google ranking is the goal of every webmaster. It can be done, but you need to be consistent, persistent and keep abreast of Google’s ever evolving search methods.

Source: SPN