In order to understand what drives website rank you must first look at Google and how it views the web. You have to remember that Google is a computer algorithm, a program. It cannot read a web page like you and I and tell what the content is about and what should be ranked highest.

How can Google tell who should rank in the #1 spot?

There are many factors that effect rankings including keywords, content and site structure but to look at this a little closer we need to look at Google’s explanation of PageRank^TM.

“We use more than 200 signals, including our patented PageRank^TM algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. We then conduct hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, we’re able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.”

“PageRank^TM also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value.”

Source

In part it can be deduced from the above explanations that Google looks at links pointing to your website and determines what the page should rank for, in part based on who is linking to you and more importantly HOW they are linking to you.

As I said earlier, in my opinion links play the largest roll in ranking. But not all links are created equal. A link from a lawyer’s site when you are a florist does little to help your rankings. The best links come from websites that have the same theme or topic as yours, uses your keywords in the anchor text of the link and has a lot of quality incoming links from the same theme/topic related sites as their website and yours.

If website rank depends on links, then keyword specific rank must be dependent on keyword specific links which means effective links are links pointing to your website using the phrase or keyword you want to rank well for in the anchor text of the link.

Assuming I wanted a website to rank for “screen capture tutorials” I would seek out other websites in my topic and format the link to my site something like this:

Five <a href=”http://www.mysite.com>PC Screen Capture Tutorials</a> by Tim

The link ends up looking like this:

Five PC Screen Capture Tutorials by Tim

Note: Your link appears more natural by using word besides your keywords. This goes along way with your link reputation.

It’s not enough anymore to just have links as Google is looking for much more:

• Link popularity
• Link age
• Link authority – links from a site that are ranking high
• Link reputation – crosses over into authority
• Link growth rate – how often are links being added – to fast will hurt you here
• Linking within a topical community – stay within your topic/market
• Link anchor text – natural keyword rich text

So to wrap it up the website with the most and “best” links pointing to it using the proper keyword anchor text will stand the best chance of ranking for that keyword.

Understanding what factors affect rankings and how to effectively include them in your search marketing strategy will help your pages rank well and get the laser targeted traffic that any red-blooded webmaster wants.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

What Actually Drives Most Website Rank

Over the past few years it has become apparent to me that search engines rank web pages in relation to a keyword based on their perception of the authority of that page in relation to that keyword. What a mouth full huh?  In layman’s terms; If your site is about courier services then the content of  the website or page page should be on that topic.

There are a lot of definitions of authority but I believe Google views authority in terms of quantity and quality of links that point to your website. Also from websites that also has quantity and quality pointing to them.

Here are a few of my views on what factors make up a good link -

• Static one way links are better than reciprocal links
• Links from higher PR websites (more authority) are better
• Links from websites with the same theme relevance as the websites they link to are better
• Links that contain the keyword phrase are better
• Links from .edu and .gov rock!

Authority

Authority is a indicator of how much a particular website or a particular web page is considered the “go to” source on a particular topic (keyword).

Back link

Back link, or incoming link, is a term used to describe links that are on other web properties pointing your your website.

Static link

A static link is a link from a website that points to you but you don’t have a link on your website pointing to them. If you have a website that has a large number of good quality static one way back links pointing to it then Google will perceive that that website has authority in relation to the keywords that the website is optimized for.

Reciprocal link

A reciprocal link is when you link to them and they link to you. I wouldn’t recommend exchanging links with other websites.

Anchor text

Anchor text is the words used on other peoples web site that form the link back to you. Good anchor text is not the words click here or check this out, rather good anchor text contains the keywords that are relevant to your sites theme and what you want to rank for.

Theme

Lets say your websites theme is  about courier services. You would not want a link from a website that was perceived by Google to be about seo, nor would you want to link to a website about seo. There is no relevance between the two sites and the link, thus is given less consideration.

.edu – .gov

Back links from .edu and .gov are much harder to get but if you can get them they are golden!

There are other factors that might lead to ranking such as the age of the domain, on page optimization and content but by far the websites that rank highest in the search results tend to have the most back links.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Link Building Factors To Obtaining High Rankings