Hi - Why is it that when I type my url www.discountdomains.ltd.uk into
Google then select web pages that link to , only 2 links appear? If I
select pages
that contain term then 170 odd appear?  My ranking is only 1/10 but I
appear to have better and more links that sites with ranking of 3 or 4
(in similar areas and markets )

Clare

Thanks for asking!

Linking is only part of the PageRank system. Your site's rank within
search results is likely influenced by what Google (the Googlebot
spider in tandem Google's ranking algorithms) perceive as the focus of
the site, based upon the actual text.

A Keyword Density analysis of your site's homepage the page is about:


Count    Word        Density
-----   ------       -------
  5      domain       16.67% 
  4      vat          13.33% 
  3      00           10% 
  2      20            6.67% 
  2      22            6.67% 
  2      biz           6.67% 
  2      domains       6.67% 
  2      info          6.67% 
  2      name          6.67% 
  2      names         6.67% 
  2      registration  6.67% 
  2      transfer      6.67% 


Google ignores META Keywords and Description in its determination of
what the page is about. Most of your keywords density comes from the
Page Title alone, which isn't enough to convince the Google ranking
algorithms there is human-useful content there. You can check your
keyword density for yourself using Search Engine World's Analyzer. You
can learn how to improve your search ranking via copywriting at the
RankWrite Roundtable.

Search Engine World - Keyword Density Analyzer
http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/kwda.cgi

RankWrite Roundtable
http://www.rankwrite.com/


Backward Links
--------------

When I check backward links, I found:

Google Search - links: discountdomains.ltd.uk - 152 links
://www.google.com/search?q=links%3A+discountdomains.ltd.uk

Google Search - link: discountdomains.ltd.uk - 46 links
://www.google.com/search?q=link%3A+discountdomains.ltd.uk

Several of your inbound links come from sites classified as link
farms. Google discourages this linking strategy, and penalizes sites
for OUTBOUND links to link farms, since outbound links are within the
control of the webmaster.

Google's Guidelines state it thusly:

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's
ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or
"bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected
adversely by those links."

Google Webmaster Guidelines
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html


Possible Link Farm
http://www.uk-warehouse.com/links_d.shtml

You should carefully examine all of your outbound links to insure that
you're not being penalized for "bad company."


Additional Resources
--------------------

Linking101.com - Warning Link Farm Ahead
http://www.linking101.com/articles/linkfarm.htm 

The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works
Ian Rogers, IPR Computing Ltd.
http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/index.html

Page Rank Explained, by Phil Craven
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html




Answer Strategy
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Google Answers Researchers do not speak officially for Google itself,
however, we can provide insight into webmaster use of the search
engine and PageRank system, based upon our own experiences,
observation and study.

If anything I've said is unclear or if you (egads!) discover a broken
link, please, let me know. I'll be happy to make it right.
   
---larre

---

Request for Answer Clarification by clare2-ga on 30 Jul 2003 13:51 PDT

Larre - thanks that is very helpful - It does not fully answer part of
my question

e.g My site is listed in the Yahoo Business Directory which is very
highly rated, this is one of the 152 links as are other lower ranked
directory entries.

Why are these not show as links when the "select web pages that link
to? But instead appear in the "contain" term.  Why is the Nominet site
shown as a link and not for example the Yahoo one - which I would have
though to be more relevant.  Is it simply that the site isn't keyword
dense enough to trigger the link associate or is it one of the
factors?

Thanks Clare -  

PS I rank your reply 4.75 out of 5!!

---

Clarification of Answer by larre-ga on 30 Jul 2003 14:24 PDT

Your site appears on the Yahoo page:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Domain_Name_Registration/

Which has a Google toolbar PageRank of 3. Toolbar PR is an estimate,
the actual, calculated PR may be less than 3 and rounded upwards.
Toolbar PR only means that the page likely has an actual PageRank
between 2.5 and 3.4. Further, deep within directory structures, the
toolbar will often "guess" the PR, based solely upon the next highest
level. The categories above have a toolbar PR of 4, so this may also
be the possible explanation.  The Google link: directive only shows
sites with (actual) PR of 4 or greater.

Similarly, the Nominex page you note looks as if it has a derived or
estimated PR 4, conferred by its upward hierarchy. The page "above"
has a PR of 5.

There may well be additional linked sites out there, and those are
definitely counted in your actual PR, but Google chooses to display
only linked sites with PR 4 or higher.

Phil Craven's Page Rank calculator will simplify the process of
determining the most accurate PR possible.

PageRank Calculator
http://webworkshop.net/pagerank_calculator.html


Unfortunately, for those of us on the outside, the accurare
determination of PageRank isn't an exact science, since Google doesn't
share this proprietary algorithm with anybody. We can only observe how
it's applied over thousands (even millions) of cases, and from those
observations, make educated guesses about behavior in any one
particular case.

Hopefully, this helps make a 'muddy' subject clearer. I can highly
recommend a research surf through the forums at Webmaster World.
You'll find many, many discussions of PageRank by both webmasters and
SE professionals.

WebMasterWorld
http://www.webmasterworld.com

WebMasterWorld - Site Search
http://www.webmasterworld.com/help.cgi?cat=search

---l