Search Engine Optimization and Google PageRank

By admin | March 21, 2008

Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Google PageRank

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of increasing your web site ranking in the search engines. The object is to enhance the user experience by offering greater value to site visitors through page design with quality focused content based on core keywords. For anyone involved in Internet Marketing and Making Money Online Search Engine Traffic means the difference between success and failure in your Online Business. And Natural, Organic Search Engine Traffic is the best kind because essentially it’s FREE!

Google PageRank is a way of measuring the relevance of your web site in relation to other similar web sites based on a number of different criterion.

PageRank, a patented system for ranking web pages was developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, while they were students at Stanford University.

The name PageRank is a trademark of Google. The PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999 ). The patent is actually assigned to Stanford University.

Page Rank Explained (Quote: from Googles Web Site)

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.

Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.
Integrity

Google’s complex automated methods make human tampering with our search results extremely difficult. And though we may run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a particular or higher placement). A Google search provides an easy and effective way to find high-quality web sites that contain information relevant to your search.”

The PageRank Algorithm is a complicated mathematical formula, and is not relevant to this training. What is important is important to understand is the relation to Page Rank and your site ranking in the search engines. PageRank does NOT necessarily determine your site placement in the search engines.

The key good PageRank is to have a good linking structure, both internal and external, and to use good keyword rich content, relevant to your sites main focus.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

There are no great mythical secrets to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as some SEO firms would like you to believe. Achieving good ranking in the search engines is an achievable goal. Top ranking in the search engines is an intricate combination of many different factors all combined that will propell your web site to the top of the Organic Search Listings.

Search Optimization, Content Management, Keyword and Linking Services can provide you with good results if you have the time and money to invest. You do need to be careful as the SEO business is known for fraud and less than honest operators.

Armed with a good fundamental knowledge of SEO and some good basic Optimization Techniques, it’s not as hard as you may think to get good rankings for your keywords. The real secret is to keep it simple.

Here is a good basic Step-By-Step to follow

1) Identify Your Keywords. Do your keyword research and find out what the other top ranking sites in your category are using.

2) Add quality content to your site based on your keywords. Use your keywords in different ways throughout your site content.

3) Establish good on-page and off-page linking strategies. Links should naturally occur within your site linking relevant keywords on the same page (Target Links) and other pages (Deep Links) linking your site. The incoming links to your site should be not only to your home page but to internal pages within the site (More Deep Links).

4) Submit your site to search engines and directories. Site Submission is an important part of your linking strategy. Incoming links from main authority sites like Google, Yahoo, DMOZ, ASK, AOL, MSN, Looksmart, and others as well as second and third tier directories like BestOfTheWeb and SEOLinks are an extremely important part of your Linking Strategy.

As with any Internet Marketing Strategy it is important to track your results. With proper tracking you can fine tune your keywords and keep your site at the top of the Search Engine Results.

While your hosting service should provide log files for tracking traffic our friendly Google provides a great service for tracking your traffic stats called Google Analytics. It’s free and will give you a wealth of information. I will discuss Analytics in a future training.

Understanding Google PageRank

All this Top Secret Algorithm and Mathematical formulas that require an MIT PHD degree to figure out really don’t matter when it comes to PageRank. It’s really simple when you come right down to it.

Google’s success and rise to dominance as the #1 search engine with over 60% of all search traffic is based on one simple premise, giving the user what they want, Quality Search Results. People use Google for one reason, because they know that they will get the results they are looking for.

Google will reward your site based on the Relevance of your site based on your Keywords and providing the user with a quality “User Experience”. In other words, if I type in “Dog training for my German Shepherd” and I get to your site and that’s exactly what the site is about, that is a quality user experience. If I get there and it’s about something else then this is a waste of time. Google has built their success by providing quality searches for their users.

Here are some simple steps to Increase your Page Rank.

1) Provide Quality Content - Words on the page with Keyword Rich Content, is the basis for your PageRank.

2) Relevance - be sure the content on your site is relevant to the keywords you use. In other words, don’t try to fool your readers, give them exactly what they are searching for.

3) Incoming Links - Increase the number of High Quality Links coming into your site, from other quality sites.

4) Site Submission - Submit your site to Google (and the other search engines) and to relevant directories such as Yahoo DMOZ as well as other directories in your relevant category.

The Importance Of Linking

Google gives you a clue in their Webmaster Help Center. The 1st sentence on their “How can I improve my site’s ranking?” page specifically states:

“Sites’ positions in our search results are determined based on a number of factors designed to provide end-users with helpful, accurate search results.”

They go on to state: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”

There it is straight from the source. This chart will help you to see the relationship between incoming links and your page rank. Quality is better than quantity. The value of the incoming links is based on the quality of the site linking to you. This gives you an idea of how many external links, and of what PageRank values, are required to for your site to achieve a specific Google PageRank.

Having and ongoing link campaigning is an important factor in your overall Search Engine Marketing Strategy. It can be a time-consuming task, but every website owner should have an ongoing link campaign, whether you do it yourself or you outsource to a search engine optimization professional.

One thing to keep in mind is the link should be a Keyword or “Anchor Text”, and not just the URL to your site. In other words for this site since I am looking to rank for the keyword term Internet Marketing I will link this term to my site instead of just steverenner.com This is what’s known as an “Anchor Text”. Also, as I mentioned before, naturally occurring links from other web site will not be all to your home page. So, while it is important to link to your home page for your Keyword, it is also important to have Anchor Text Links coming in to your internal pages or “Deep Links”.

In upcoming trainings we will go into Linking Strategy in greater detail, including Web 2.0 and Social Bookmarking Strategies. I know this has been a lengthy article but I thank you for making it this far. Hang with me and you can achieve the Search Engine Marketing Results you are looking for!

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