The Strange World of Google
July 15, 2006
Everyone who understands how Google works, please stand up. I'm convinced that the only people who MIGHT understand are the actual Google insiders who come up with the search engine's algorithms. Even they may not be able to foresee all the effects their algorithm changes may have on the typical (if there is such a thing) well-designed and seo'd website.
I'm not saying that it's bad, just strange. I have a website that has been ranked in the top 10 on Yahoo for 4 separate key phrases for months. That same website has been buried so deeply in the Google search results that no one would ever find it. Recently, though, it has moved into the top 100 for a couple of keyword phrases, top 70 for another, and top 40 for yet another.
Maybe I was simply expecting too much, too quickly. I had certainly followed all the seo "rules"; both on and off-page. It's possible the website had to mature further berore it began working it's way up in Google's rankings. Or, just maybe, the recent algorithm update resulted in my site being deemed more important in Google's eyes than before.
One weird thing I noticed was that, although all of my older pages retained their same page rank, new pages I had added ranked much higher. A couple of those pages contained nothing more than an image with a two or three word description. They each had only one internal link to them and no backlinks, yet they achieved a PR5! I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, Google is still at the top of the search engines with more than 59% of all searches, so having a site highly positioned in Google will make a major difference in the amount of traffic it receives. Second is Yahoo with 22% and MSN with 12%. The remaining 7% is split between search engines such as Alta Vista, Dogpile, AOL search, etc.
So how do I move my site further up in the Google rankings? Well, considering whose sites are ranked in the top fifteen, I'm sure that backlinks are the answer. And I'm not just talking about the quantity of backlinks they likely have, but also the quality of those links. It's obvious that these "big name" sites are being linked to from many other major websites.
Then why does my site rank so highly in Yahoo? The answer is that Yahoo uses different criteria for ranking sites. Backlinks are certainly important, but so is on-page optimization. Google, on the other hand, doesn't think much of meta tags or keyword density but certainly likes good content that's popular with the rest of the web world.
So what's a little guy to do? Well, I can continue to add some worthwhile content that others (hopefully) will want to link to, keep adding good, relevant reciprocal links, submit to more quality one-way directories and submit an article to some article sites, then note the effect on the site's position ranking. I don't need to be number one in Google for my keywords, but being in the top twenty would sure be nice.
I'll keep you posted.
July 15, 2006
Everyone who understands how Google works, please stand up. I'm convinced that the only people who MIGHT understand are the actual Google insiders who come up with the search engine's algorithms. Even they may not be able to foresee all the effects their algorithm changes may have on the typical (if there is such a thing) well-designed and seo'd website.
I'm not saying that it's bad, just strange. I have a website that has been ranked in the top 10 on Yahoo for 4 separate key phrases for months. That same website has been buried so deeply in the Google search results that no one would ever find it. Recently, though, it has moved into the top 100 for a couple of keyword phrases, top 70 for another, and top 40 for yet another.
Maybe I was simply expecting too much, too quickly. I had certainly followed all the seo "rules"; both on and off-page. It's possible the website had to mature further berore it began working it's way up in Google's rankings. Or, just maybe, the recent algorithm update resulted in my site being deemed more important in Google's eyes than before.
One weird thing I noticed was that, although all of my older pages retained their same page rank, new pages I had added ranked much higher. A couple of those pages contained nothing more than an image with a two or three word description. They each had only one internal link to them and no backlinks, yet they achieved a PR5! I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, Google is still at the top of the search engines with more than 59% of all searches, so having a site highly positioned in Google will make a major difference in the amount of traffic it receives. Second is Yahoo with 22% and MSN with 12%. The remaining 7% is split between search engines such as Alta Vista, Dogpile, AOL search, etc.
So how do I move my site further up in the Google rankings? Well, considering whose sites are ranked in the top fifteen, I'm sure that backlinks are the answer. And I'm not just talking about the quantity of backlinks they likely have, but also the quality of those links. It's obvious that these "big name" sites are being linked to from many other major websites.
Then why does my site rank so highly in Yahoo? The answer is that Yahoo uses different criteria for ranking sites. Backlinks are certainly important, but so is on-page optimization. Google, on the other hand, doesn't think much of meta tags or keyword density but certainly likes good content that's popular with the rest of the web world.
So what's a little guy to do? Well, I can continue to add some worthwhile content that others (hopefully) will want to link to, keep adding good, relevant reciprocal links, submit to more quality one-way directories and submit an article to some article sites, then note the effect on the site's position ranking. I don't need to be number one in Google for my keywords, but being in the top twenty would sure be nice.
I'll keep you posted.
Website Builder Software
● Software
Want a website?
Do it yourself with our WYSIWYG
Website Builder Software!
Do it yourself with our WYSIWYG
Website Builder Software!
▲ Return
Copyright 2006 - 2007 Websitedoit.com - All Rights Reserved