Do You Know How Google Ranks Sites?

Google Algorithm Explained | SEO for the beginner

Now before I go into this, I will state for the record that no one truly knows google’s algorithm other than google.  However, some very smart minds have figured out at least a small part of the puzzle when it comes to the enigmatic score.

Googlescore= (KW Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain Strength * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) - (Automated & Manual Penalties)

Let’s examine these a little closer.

Keyword Usage Score

The keyword usage score is nothing more than how much weight your keywords are reflected in the content.  This is nothing more than adding your keywords in the appropriate places.  In other words, if you are asking what is onpage optimization, then perhaps you should investigate it further.  You can also check out my SEO for beginners article. Finally, if you want a brief  what’s what in SEO, you can check out my SEO tips for marketers page.

These factors include:

• Keywords in the Title Tag.
• Keywords in the Header Tag.
• Keywords in the actual content.
• Your Internal links using the keyword in the anchor text.
• Keyword in the actual domain or URL.

How to increase your Keyword Usage Score

In this case, it all boils down to simple SEO.  You also want to pay attention to the pathways that bots use to crawl your site.  The best option is to make sure that the bots know how to categorize you before they even get to your content.  If you can do this, then you will be lightyears ahead of most websites.

The best way to view how good your optimization is is to look at the pathways.  Here is a decent link that spoofs google’s user-agent.

Domain Strength Score

Your domain actually plays a part when it comes to building trust and authority for your site.  If you have ever built a new site and had a problem getting it ranked or had it completely drop out of the rankings, then the strength of your domain could play a big part in this.

Here are some factors:

• Registration History
• The Age of the Domain itself
• The actual strength of the links pointing to the domain.
• The Topical neighborhood and the links pointing in and out of your domain.
• Link patterns to your domain and what your domain has been used for.

Do Better with your Domain Strength Score

Chances are you are fine if you haven’t been gaming google. But one of the best ways to increase this score is to go ahead and get a aged domain that is over 4 years old.  You can buy it from a domain aftermarket like freshdrop for as little as $5.

The rest of it has to do with building backlinks.  So get backlinks. But not too many of them too quickly because that will affect your score as well.

Inbound LInk Score

Backlinking is important because it gives a site “votes” for the keyword.  There are some things that will affect this score though.

Here are some criteria that will affect the Inbound Link Score:

• Age of the links linking to you
• Quality of the actual domain sending links to you.
• Quality of the actual page your link is on.
• Link Quantity on the page.
• The Theme or topic of the page the link is on (is it relevant?)
• Anchor text of the link.

How to increase your inbound link score

Obviously, since the age of the backlink matters, then the best start is to start building links right away.  Of course, there are other factors as well.  The quality(trust) of both the domain and page your link is on matters.  The amount of links on the page sending you a link matters as well.  Also, the theme of the site (is it related to your niche) and the page content matters (is the topic related as well?)  Finally, the anchor text matters (if your keyword is SEO consultants and the anchor text is “Leo”, well, guess what you will rank for?)

User Data

Two years ago, this wouldn’t have mattered much but as google has grown, they have been able to accrue more and more data.  I imagine that this is where the internet is headed and the rankings will be more and more weighted on this data. If you want to read up on it, you can check out semantic search.

Here is what it includes:

• Historical Click Through Rate in the Search Engines.
• How long a user stays on the page/website
• Search results for the actual domain/URL
• Other data obtained from things like Google Analytics and other various Search engine vehicles.

Both user data and the content quality score are pretty closely tied together.  After all, if the content isn’t good, then you can’t expect someone to stick around.  If they don’t stick around, then your user data will reflect it.

How to increase User Data and Quality Content Score

Obviously, you want your site to be as sticky as possible. This means giving the visitor as many reasons as possible not to leave.  How do you do that?  Lots of links…link bait…killer headlines…information that you think will meet your target market.  Good content to keep them there.

If, in the future, Google decides to place more weight on this, then alot of adsense sites will be forced to change thier business model (myself included).  Until then, there is so little weight placed on this that it shouldn’t be a factor.  But trust me….it IS coming.

Content Quality Score

Remember hearing how content is king?  Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.  I think that the key here is how relevant the content is compared to what Google thinks the visitors are looking for but…whatever.

Here are some factors that could play a part in Google’s content quality score

• Probably done manually for the most part.
• Could be using some sort of automated algorithm that judges content by readability
• Google raters could also play a part in this.

That is pretty much it.  Algorithms are constantly changing.  I think the last time I read an interview by Matt Cutts, the criteria had 100+ factors!  However, if you can do some things the right way…(SEO) and build a few links from related sites, then you will be able to out compete most of your competition because….well, because most don’t know a thing about it.

Next Article- How to optimize your website from the bottom up

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