An Overview:

Google considers a multitude of factors, including the address of a website in its Ranking Algorithm. Brad Fallon, an SEO expert who spoke at our WSI conference, quoted that 90% of SEO is accredited to Off-Page factors. One of the reasons why Off-Page factors such as linking are so important is because they add the aspect of impartiality to search engine rankings. Links are seen as “votes” from the Web community and help define a site’s reputation. In theory, great sites will naturally attract many links, and content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links.

Given that all factors in the real world are not equal, and the IP address is only one consideration, the following other Onpage and Offpage factors listed below are likely to have more impact in the ranking by Google:

Off-Page (the impact of other websites on your website)

• Page Reputation: This refers to the value of the sites linking to your site.
• Anchor Text: – The text that is used to link to your site (it should have your keywords in the blue hyperlink).
• Incoming Links: Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank the website, including the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link, and historical factors relating to the links (*the Google sandbox, or aging delay begins to countdown the minute the links to the website are discovered by Google – fast link acquisition may be a strong indicator of potential search engine spam). 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 using other underhand tactics.*The term “Sandbox Effect” applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

• Link Exchange: This is very important but these must be ethically acquired and used. If these are not obtained ethically your website can be banned and your IP address recorded by Google. Better quality links acquired at a natural rate will reap long term benefits. Attempts to increase link popularity within hours by submitting to free link exchange websites, would be an example of unethical practice. Newer links that are created are put on a “probationary” status until they pick up in rank from other matured websites or placed directly by an ad campaign. The idea behind the probation is to prevent a fast ranking to occur on a new website. The usual holding period seems to be between 90 and 120 days before a website would start obtaining rank from reciprocal or back linking.
• Website Click thru Rate (CTR): This is monitored through cache, temporary files, and bookmarks, favorites via the Google toolbar or desktop tools. Many have suspected for some time that websites are rewarded for good CTR with a raise in ranking, similar to how Google Adwords works.

  CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result. CTR is also analyzed 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. Websites can be ranked seasonally. A ski website 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 website you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Ideally you will want to integrate a call to action in that copy to increase your listings and CTR. Clicks away from your website back to the search results are also monitored. Make your website as sticky as possible to retain visitors longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could get your visitors to bookmark you.

• Meta Description Tag: May show up in the search results so it is important that it contains keywords and persuasive text so people will click. Include a call to action, benefit statements and overall good copy!
• Title Tag: One of the most important factors for Google, Yahoo and most of the major search engines. You want the keyword density to be high (approximately 66%) and your keywords should appear first. You can repeat them but do not make it overtly obvious, you do need some filler words.
• Domain name registration period: The longer the domain has been registered, the more likely the owner is considered to be legitimate (i.e. not a spammer).
• Link Anchor Text: This text should vary, but remain consistent with the main keywords on the website. Do not use your main keywords on every link exchange, as this is seen by Google as “anchor spam”. You need to use your top five to ten key words in various links.
• Public Relations and News Articles: A website with more articles and news releases providing appropriate content that reflects relevant keywords will have a higher opportunity for ranking.
• Fresh Website Content: The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded by search engines. Mass updates of hundreds of files will see you pop up on the radar as a spammer. On the other hand, too few updates to your website could see your rankings slide, unless your CTR is good. Frequent but relevant updates is the key!For example, Google is known to be cracking down on spam by observing sudden changes to multiple pages. It indicates that a significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may no longer be reliable if previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., don’t apply anymore. Similarly, a sudden spike in the number of topics could also indicate spam.So a particular document may be associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a stable period of time. If the number of topics associated with the document increases suddenly, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a doorway page. 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 with the document.
• Changes in keyword density: These are monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.
• The domain name owner’s address: This is considered most likely to help in a local search result. The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency. Google appears to have learned from the spam attack they suffered in early 2004 and they are determined to prevent any recurrence in their listing results.

Things to remember in effectively getting your website ranked well with Google:

• Use SEO to grow your website as organically and naturally as possible.
• Carry on with link exchanges but consider each website carefully and slow down in your gathering of them.
• Vary your anchor text.
• Add small amounts of good quality content to your website regularly.
• Check your search engine listings and edit meta descriptions of your website to include a call to action in them if possible.
• Make your website more ’sticky’ to encourage visitors to stay a while.
• Encourage visitors to bookmark your website.
• Register new domain names for at least two years. (This can also work as a great selling point for your new customers, encouraging them to have a long-term business relationship with you).
• Before you do anything, remember to reference the above information first! It may just save you months of misery as your website gets banned and ‘Sand boxed’.
• Overall keep it ethical and you can’t go far 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.

Both comments and pings are currently closed.