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What the Google patent means
for SEO
In the past issues of this newsletter we discussed Google's
recently filed patent
that details many factors that Google uses to rank web pages
(click here to read part
1, part
2, part
3, part
4 and part
5).
We summarize the most important parts of the patent specification
in this issue so that you have a quick overview about how
Google might rank your web site according to this patent.
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
How to optimize your web site for Google's ranking
algorithm
Detailed information on how to react to the different ranking
factors can be found in the previous
five issues of this newsletter.
Remember that this patent doesn't mean that Google really
uses all of this. The patent only lists options that might
be used by Google in addition to their main ranking algorithm.
The most important factors for high rankings on Google are
good
incoming links and optimized
web page content. You should make sure that your web site
has both if you want high rankings on Google.
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