Chapter 1 - The Importance of Google
So why a special guide just on Google? Aren’t there hundreds of search engines out
there that need to be worried about? There are many other search engines, but
Google is the most prominent, most used, and most important of them all.
Google also currently provides search results to other “partner” search engines and
directories. This means a # 1 ranking on Google will most likely land you a # 1
ranking on these partner sites as wel ! I say “likely” because the partner sites tend to
blend their results a little bit so the rankings across the partners may not be exact.
Specifically, a # 1 ranking on Google for a specific search term also means a # 1
ranking on AOL, Netscape, Earthlink, CompuServe, Lycos, iWon.com, Go.com and
AT&T Worldnet!
With its partners included, Google alone is responsible for powering over 70% of all
search engine traffic to websites.
Clearly, Google is where you need to focus your website promotion efforts first. After
you have applied the techniques discussed, have monitored your results, and then
refined your efforts over time, you should start seeing dramatic results. The two other
major search engines of importance – Yahoo and MSN Search, look for the same
things as Google in terms of ranking sites. So if you get it right for Google, you have
also gotten it right in general for the other search engines!
Chapter 2 - How Google Works
This chapter explains those elements of the Google ranking process that will matter
most to you. It is not meant to be an exhaustive inside look of how Google ranks
pages – only a handful of persons at Google know this closely-guarded information.
Google, like other search engines, uses automated software to read, analyze,
compare, and rank your web pages. So you need to know what elements and factors
Google cares about, and how important these factors are in relation to each other.
This is an important concept: Google uses automated software that looks at code
and text, not human beings. This means the visual elements of your website that
may matter to you – like layout, color, animation, Flash, and other graphics, are
ignored by Google. The Google search engine is like a blind person reading a book
in Braille – anything that is graphical, spatial, or visual in nature is simply not seen.
As such, you need to start thinking like the Google search engine.
So What Is a Ranking?
A ranking on a search engine is a web page’s listing and relative placement on a
results page (known as a SERP) for a certain search query. As an example, if you
type “house plans” into the search box at Google, you will get those listings displayed
(10 listings per page by default) that Google deems most relevant to the search
phrase house plans, sorted in order of relative importance.
The most relevant and most important web pages are listed in descending order.
For Google, page relevancy is dependent on how wel a web page “matches” a
specific word search. Page importance on the other hand is dependent on the
quality and quantity of links that point to your web page from other websites. The
concept of link quality is important and will be discussed in a later chapter.
If your site does not appear in the top 20 for your most important keywords (search
terms), you might as wel forget getting much traffic from Google or from any other
search engine. Because many people never go past the first page for a search
result, you really need to be in the top 10.
It is debatable how much more traffic a #1 ranking gets compared to say, a #3 or a
#10 ranking. Those listings “above the fold” on a page (anything higher than #4 or #3
depending on your monitor size and resolution) do get clicked more than those below
the fold. Above the fold is anything displayed on the page before you have to start
scrolling downward.
A recent study provides some interesting numbers on the subject of ranking vs.
percentage of clicks for that position. This study tracked the number of times people
clicked on a listing on Google for a given search query:
First Page:
1st position: 30%
2nd position: 15%
3rd position: 7%
4th position: 5%
5th position: 4%
6th position: 4%
7th position: 2%
8th position: 2%
9th position: 3%
10th position: 5%
Second Page:
1stt position: 6%
2nd position: 4%
3rd position: 2%
4th position and beyond <1%
As you can see, if you aren’t on the first two pages, you might as wel forget getting
clicked. When was the last time you went to the third page of a search query versus
just starting a new search query?
When Google Comes Visiting
To be listed in Google’s search database (or index), Google visits your site using
automated programs called robots or spiders. Such programs “read” each and every
page of your website, starting typical y with your home page and then following each
link to all other web pages on your site. When a search engine robot or spider visits
your site, it is said to crawl or spider your site.
Important: Google will not add a new web page to its index unless there is at least
one other web page in its index that links to that page. So don’t fret over submitting
your site to Google directly. Instead, you need to get another website to link to your
website first.
Website crawls are performed by the main Google spider, cal ed Googlebot. The
more “popular” your site, the more often it typical y is crawled by Google. Highly
ranked sites and sites that update content frequently (like news and blog sites) get
crawled daily.
If interested, you can check your server log files for the user-agent “Googlebot”. This
will tell you when Google crawls your site. You can also check by IP address
although this method is not as accurate as Google uses different IP addresses for
their robots, which can change over time.
Google updates its main index more or less continuously although major “updates”
still happen several times a year. These major updates correspond to major ranking
algorithm changes. These updates have all been named – you may have heard
about Florida, Bourbon, Allegra or Jagger in the forums.
For new websites, I advise you to make your site live as quickly as possible, even
before you are completed. Given that Google prefers sites that are older, it no longer
makes sense to wait until every "i" is dotted and "t" is crossed before going live with
a new site. Instead, create an overall skeleton of your site, with a reasonably finished
Home page and other important pages and make it live. Add new content, or update
the content, on at least a monthly basis. Google also prefers sites that add or update
content regularly.
This strategy has to do with what is cal ed the Google Sandbox or the aging factor.
The Sandbox is a set of filters applied to new websites whereby the site cannot rank
wel (or at all) for any competitive keywords for 6 – 24 months. Also cal ed the aging
delay. New sites can rank wel for very niche, unique keyword phrases, such as their
company name, but that’s about it. It is for this reason that new sites need to be
made live on the Web as soon as possible in order to “start the aging clock”.
Important: It is critical that your website is up and running when Google visits you
by following a link from another site. If your site is down, your listing on Google may
disappear until the next update! The reason is that Google thinks your site doesn’t
exist and may remove it from the index after a couple of attempts.
How Google Ranks Pages
Google uses a sophisticated and proprietary algorithm for ranking Web sites that
uses over 100 different criteria in the calculation, each of which is given a specific
weighting which can change over time. Because the algorithm can change, specific
techniques that used to work wel may no longer work as wel over time. This is
important to remember when your site’s ranking seems to change for no apparent
reason. For this reason, optimizing your site should not be considered as a one-time
task. You should always try, test, and refine your efforts.
The Google algorithm can be broken down into two major groups of factors:
On-page (keyword) factors. Keyword factors involve how, where and when
keywords are used. Meaning how wel your website is optimized for your most
important keywords, and if those same keywords appear in your content and in links.
Keyword factors determine page relevance.
Off-page (link) factors. These include the quantity and quality of links that point to
your site. Link factors determine page importance and are related to Google
PageRank (PR). Links play a VERY important role in getting high rankings,
particularly for competitive markets.
Very simply put, Google finds pages in its index that are both relevant and important
to a search for a particular term or phrase, and then lists them in descending order
on search results pages.
On-Page Factors and Page Relevance
Keywords are intrinsical y related to search terms – words and phrases that people
enter into a search engine to find specific information. Most people enter 2 to 5-word
phrases in Google to find what they are looking for. Google in turn analyzes all pages
in its index and lists the pages which contain those search terms. Each web page
usual y contains one or two keywords that are repeated more often than others
throughout the site. These keywords dictate the “theme” of a website.
In addition, Google analyzes other sites that contain links to your site. Specifically,
Google looks to see if the text of a link (the clickable portion) that points to your site
also contain those same keywords.
Off-Page Factors and Page Importance
Page importance is all about links - their quantity, quality, and strength, which we will
discuss later on. This part of the algorithm includes Google PageRank (PR).
Google looks for links that point to your site from other websites. Google believes a
link from website A to website B is a “vote” for the importance of website B. In this
way, other websites add votes for your website, which in turn helps increase a pages
PageRank value on your site. Each page on your site has a PR value. Usual y the
PR value is the highest for the home page as most people will link to your home
page rather than another page on your site.
The more web pages that link to your site, and the more important in turn those
pages are, the more important Google thinks your site is and hence the higher your
PageRank value. Moreover, it is the quality, as wel as the quantity, of links that
matter – not all links are valued the same. Keep in mind that PageRank is but a
single (albeit important) factor used in ranking.
Sites that are highly optimized for on-page factors can outrank sites that are less
optimized but have higher PageRank.
PageRank value is assigned after comparing every page in the Google index against
one another. This is billions and billions of web pages.
Note that PageRank does NOT factor in keywords or phrases used on your site.
Top Things Google Looks For
Although Google looks at over 100 different criteria (which can change in importance
over time) for ranking pages, here are the top aspects or elements that are currently
deemed a “must-do” if you are serious about a top ranking. Other elements will be
discussed later on that are also important. The following are listed in approximate
order of importance, with the first two items being more important than the others:
1. Keywords used in link text – both on your site and especial y on other websites
that point to your site. And the more links you have on other sites that point to
your site and that contain your most important keywords, the better, all else being
equal.
This is extra important if you are targeting broad, generic or otherwise
“competitive” search terms.
2. Keywords used in the title of your Web pages (between the <TITLE> tags).
3. Keywords used in headings (H1, H2) and in the body of your Web pages.
4. The PageRank (PR) of your web pages, which in turn is dependent on the
number of links that point to your site from other sites. The importance of these
incoming links in turn is dependent on the PageRank of the linking page, which in
turn is dependent on the number of incoming links to that page, and so on.
5. Web pages that contain at least 200 words of relevant text content. The more
web pages on the site, the better chance of ranking wel for a larger number of
keyword phrases.
6. How often the content on your site is updated. You should update your site once
a month if possible.
7. How fast you are obtaining new links (too many links too fast is a bad thing).
8. How old the site is, how old individual web pages are, and how old links to a site
are. In general, the older the site and the older a link is, the better. So don't wait
unnecessarily before launching a new site, a new page or obtaining new links to
your site.
Put simply, to rank wel on Google, you need to optimize your website for your best
keywords, get as many important and relevant sites to link to your site as you can,
make sure the text of those links contain your best keywords, and don't do anything
that looks "excessive", "unnatural", “manipulative” or “spammy” to Google. Keep it
looking natural and act as if the search engines didn’t exist.
Important: You should also read the Google Patent Papers. In them are additional
factors that Google may look at in determining rankings. For more information, see
Appendix C for the link.
So let’s continue by looking at the foundation of SEO in the next chapter – keyword
research, analysis, and selection.
