Rank Among The Best
Posted on August 3, 2007
Filed Under Content, General, SEO, Surveys, Web Development
SEOmoz recently announced the brand spanking new Google ranking factors. This is a very valuable piece of information for determining how to approach your SEO strategy. We can observe the changes of the Top 10 most important factors since 2005 till now.
Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2005:
1. Title Tag (4.57)
2. Anchor Text of Links (4.46)
3. Keyword Use in Document Text (4.3)
4. Accessibility of Document (4.3)
5. Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages (4.15)
6. Primary Subject Matter of Site - (4.00)
7. External Links to Linking Pages (3.92)
8. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.77)
9. Global Link Popularity of Site (3.69)
10. Keyword Spamming (3.69)
Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2007:
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag (4.9)
2. Global Link Popularity of Site (4.5)
3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link (4.4)
4. Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure (4.1)
5. Age of Site (4)
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site (3.9)
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.9)
8. Keyword Use in Body Text (3.9)
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site (3.7)
10. Topical Relationship of Linking Page (3.6)
1 Keyword Use in Title Tag
Comparing the two listings we can undoubtedly say that the title tags are the ultimate king in SEO. This means only one thing. You have to choose the titles for your pages very carefully, so that they match the content.However, having duplicate titles on your site pages extremely lowers the ranking ability of them. Those pages compete on internal links and title tag relevance, that is why it is important to have a unique title on each page.
2 Global Link Popularity of Site
The biggest change is definitely this one. From ninth place in 2005 to the second most important SEO factor. Here it is more about quality rather than quantity. If you are linked from a web site that already has good rankings then your site will benefit from that. This link will show the search engines that your site is important enough to be linked to and give you credit for that with a decent rank.
3 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
No major moves here. Comparing the two charts we can clearly say that doing things like thinking about how you name your pages or articles or site, can have an influence. Remember that Google will now tell you the most popular anchor text used to point at you. Google now reporting anchor text phrases explains this in more detail.
4 Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure
One place up the charts this factor has proven that linking to your pages in however you’d like way is a thing that has to be avoided. Think very carefully when pointing to your own pages. You have to choose the right words that you want them to be found for.
5 Age of Site
The age of a site was not a major factor back in 2005 if we look at the chart. Now, it seems that we have a totally new picture! The increasing role of this factor is gaining more and more influence in the SEO of a site. This can lead us to the conclusion that there have been implemented some filters that prevent from ranking high sky the newly build sites that live only like 1-5 months and link to other sites as means of boosting their rank artificially.
6 Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site
With all the community sites and networks that enable content to travel, the exchange of links and the way they relate to what you are about and link to you has become a crucial factor. Although requesting such links requires some good marketing skills and it consumes a lot of time SEO experts and webmasters have pointed out its importance.
7 Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
Only one step up the chart but still a factor that is worth considering. If your website covers a specific niche it could not have a lot of links but just a few from the authoritative sites from the neighbourhood. This could do a great job with the rankings.
8 Keyword Use in Body Text
This is a significant drop for this factor. If one wants his/her page to be found for specific terms or word they use those words on the page. Sometimes, people get carried away with the keyword usage, and the excessive usage has probably made Google change their ranking strategy.
9 Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
Is the site that is linking to you of some importance? If so, it can transmit its popularity to your site and help it in the rankings. This has been known for many years. It is all about the quality of the links, and their anchor text. We do not observe any change here!
10 Topical Relationship of Linking Page
The meaning of a particular page that links to you is what makes it relevant to your site. According to some SEO experts this is not a major factor as most of the sites have a great variety of subject matter.
While these factors may not be perfect they surely give us a remarkably concise and trustworthy panorama of what makes a site rank well at Google.
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