Great Website Ranking in Google: The Secret's Out

by Darren Yates, June 2005

Website Ranking Tips: Length of Domain Name Registration

Google recently filed a US patent which reveals a great deal of how they rank your Website. Some of it you could never have guessed...

How many years did you register your domain name for? If it's only one then that's a point against you in Google's eyes.

Why?

Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. A domain registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their Website.

This is just one of the unusual factors now considered by Google when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could never even have guessed at in some cases.

How do I know this?

Google filed United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005.

You need to read this if you're serious about ranking well in Google. The days of spamming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent they reveal just how hard they're coming down on Spam sites. You do not want to break their website ranking rules.

Website Ranking Tips: Inbound Links

It's common knowledge that Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site. Now they explain exactly how it works.

This is a major factor so I'll take a few paragraphs to explain what is going on.

As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link, Google also seems to consider historical factors. Google's aging delay begins countdown the minute links to a new site are discovered.

Google records the discovery of a link and link changes over time, including the speed at which a site gains links and the life span of each link.

With this in mind, fast link acquisition may be a strong indicator of potential search engine Spam.

Gone are the days of pages and pages full of link farms. 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 other underhand tactics.

Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and utilize them ethically. If you do these wrong and you get caught, the recovery from a ban can last for months. In addition, your host and IP may also be recorded.

Do this slowly and carfeully. Fewer but better quality links will benefit you more than lots of poor quality links coming to your site.

Website Ranking Tips: Anchor Text

Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange you gain. That's 'anchor Spam'. Instead, you should vary them around your top five to ten keywords.

Website Ranking Tips: Click Through Rates

Site click through rates (CTR) may now be monitored through cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites via the Google toolbar or other desktop tools. Many have suspected for some time that sites are rewarded for good CTR with a raise in website rankings.

CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result. CTR is also monitored for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons.

Website Ranking Tips: Variations in Website Rankings over Time

Why do Website rankings change over time? Here are a few factors that may come into play:

• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.
• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.
• Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site 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 site you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Ideally you want to integrate a call to action in there to increase CTR.

Clicks away from your site back to the search results are also monitored. Make your site as sticky as possible to keep visitors there longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could get your visitors to bookmark you.

Website Ranking Tips: Website Updates

The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages. If Google sees mass updates of hundreds of files, you might pop up on their radar as a spam site.

On the other hand, too few or too small updates to your site could cause your Website rankings slide, unless your CTR continues to be good. A stale page that receives good traffic may hold it's own and not require an update. So don't update for the sake of it.

Depending on your market, fresh content may not be a requirement. If the information your pages contain does not go out of date then updating may not be necessary. If your market is more news based, then regular changes are a must. In general, changes don't necessarily have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits to current content.

Here's the quote from Google -

"A significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no longer reliable.

Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate Spam. For example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’ period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with the document, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.

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 the document."

So what should you do?

There's a lot to take onboard here and consider. But you can't go far wrong with your SEO if you try to grow your site as organically as possible.

Carry on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully and slow down in your gathering of them. Vary your anchor text. Add small amounts of good quality content to your site regularly. Check your search engine listings and edit your site to include a call to action in them if possible. Make your site more 'sticky' to encourage visitors to stay a while. Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site. Oh and register new domain names for at least two years.

Before you do anything, remember to reference the above info first. It may just save you months of misery as your site gets banned.

Overall keep it ethical and you can't go wrong. Stick to the guidelines above and you are much more likely to outlast and out rank your competition.

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