Good Day gaucho1-ga,
Before I answer your question, please keep in mind:
There are very few people in this world that KNOW any search engine's
algorithm. Us Google researchers are not included in that small group,
even when it comes to Google itself. This means that my answer will be
based on what the SEO (search engine optimisation) community has
learned about the ways of Google and other search engines (SEs),
rather then on scientific information derived from the algorithms or
behind the scenes knowledge.
YAHOO & AOL, POWERED BY GOOGLE
------------------------------
I am not sure about AOL, but Yahoo switched over to the Google's
search engine (SE) in June of 2000.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/26/financial0319EDT0015.DTL
Quite a while ago. Unless you started noticing the changes back in
2000, chances are that the switch has little to do with the your
degraded search results. It is more likely a result of algorithm
changes, increased competition for keywords, and backlink quality
changes.
What does all that mean?
ALGORYTHM CHANGES
-----------------
The formula to calculating who and why is listed at the top of the
search results keeps changing. As people find new ways to cheat the
algorithm to improve their website ranking, methods of calculating
relevance also change. What made your website #1 yesterday might not
be a factor today, because too many people discovered the formula and
used it to their advantage.
INCREASED COMPETITION FOR KEYWORDS
----------------------------------
More and more pages appear on the Internet every day. Naturally the
number of matching search results will increase as well. Since results
are not displayed on first come, first serve basis, but via the
relevance algorithm, it is very possible to lose rank for specific
keywords as more competition arrives.
BACKLINK QUALITY CHANGES
------------------------
Who and how links to you is probably the most important factor for
search engine results, especially when it comes to competitive
keywords. Backlinks have two important parts:
How important is the website linking to you?
--------------------------------------------
A page's importance is rated in PR (PageRank).
PR is a number value assigned to a website, on a scale of 0 to 10
(ten being
the best possible ranking).
Find out more about PR, how to improve yours, and much more at:
Website: Google Technology
URL: ://www.google.com/technology/
Website: Website Promotion 200
URL: http://www.bytechcanada.net/resources/website-promotion-200.shtml
How does the link to your website appear to the search engine?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Let us take three pages, all three linking to you. Each page that
links to
you has only 1 link, and it leads to your website. Who will give
you the
biggest advantage?
Link 1: This link is a clickable logo of your company. The visitor
sees your logo, clicks on it, and they arrive at your
website.
Link 2: This link is in the form of a sentence that goes something
like
this:
"Click Here" for the Contact Lens Center & Optical
Boutique
(Note that the part in quotes represents the actual link)
Link 3: This link is also in the form of a sentence:
Please stop by the "Contact Lens Center & Optical
Boutique".
(Again, the part in the quotes represent the actual link)
Which link would you benefit the most from? Well, from a PR point
of view
probably the page with the highest PR would give you the biggest
boost. What
about other benefits?
Well, link 1 is an image. Search engines cannot read images, so
all
they really know is there is this link going to your page from
this
image.
Link 2 is a little different... Now the search engine knows how
the
link is presented to the user. Unfortunately "Click Here" is used
to
describe your link. The search engine now associates the words
"Click
Here" with your website. Not very useful.
Ah, but link 3, here is the biggest gem! It links to your page
with
the term "Contact Lens Center & Optical Boutique"! Now the search
engine
has extracted your URL and associated the terms contact, lens,
center,
optical, and boutique with your website address! Next time someone
does a
search for these terms, your website has better chance of coming
up high in
the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Of course you can use any
text for
the anchor text, and thus improve the chances of being found for
the
anchored keywords when a search is performed. The more places link
to you
with relevant terms in the anchor text, the better the chances of
a high
listing for those keywords.
Because Google is the biggest and most popular search engine, most of
my references are on Google. Once you have optimised your website for
Google, your results will be very good under most other relevant SEs
like Yahoo. I have experienced this first hand when optimising my
website for Google. As soon as my Google ranking improved, I saw
almost a mirror image of results for Yahoo and AltaVista.
KEYWORDS TARGETING
------------------
Seldom will a page be found and listed at the top of the search engine
result pages (SERPs) just because it contains a term that a user
searched for. If that were the case, finding relevant information
would be much more difficult.
On page keyword density, page title, font size used to display the
keyword on the page, and other factors are considered by a search
engine when deciding which match to display at the top of the SERPs.
BASIC RULES FOR KEYWORDS
------------------------
I have read the keywords listed in the meta tags on your home page.
You have a lot of keywords in the meta tags that do not show up
anywhere on the home page. If a keyword is listed in the meta tags, it
should appear in the page body. Same goes for the text in the title of
the page: make sure it appears on the page.
Following the above will help ensure that you are not penalized for
keyword spamming.
Bold, italicised, underlined, and heading text carries more weight.
Text with these attributes is considered more important and gives you
more relevance on the emphasized terms.
Probably the place that holds the most weight with keywords is the
title of the page. Make sure you include in the page title the
keywords you wish to be found for.
Considering the large amount of information and pages on your website,
I would recommend aiming each page at a different set of keywords.
Make sure that those keywords appear in the title of the page, the
meta tags, and throughout the body of that page. This allows you to
target many keywords without the penalties resulting in keyword
spamming.
RESOURCES
---------
Hopefully you will find these educational and worth a read. The
resources include more information on specific techniques I described
above, as well other steps you can take to improve your rankings. The
first link is a must read, as it will give you a lot of insight on
things you can do directly on your page to improve the likelihood of
becoming a primary search result for select keywords.
Website: SEO Copywriting
URL: http://www.internet-marketing-research.net/seo_copywriting.php
Website: Anchor Text and Inbound Links
URL: http://www.internet-marketing-research.net/anchor_text_inbound_links.php
Website: Search Engine World
URL: http://www.searchengineworld.com/
Website: PageRank Explained (VERY DETAILED)
URL: http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html
Website: Lessons in Failure: The Top 10 Ways to Ensure Your Search
Marketing
Strategy Sucks
URL: http://www.marketleap.com/report/ml_report_45.htm
Also, I have answered a few other questions on similar subject matter.
Here are a few of them:
Question: Links pages and Google
URL: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=254939
Question: Web site ranking in Google has dissapeared
URL: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=254601
Question: Google search engine placement
URL: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=248512
Question: Google page rank
URL: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238877
The included information is based on the resources I have provided,
and in large part on personal experience, which I acquired when
promoting my own, and my clients’ websites. The provided resources
were found by me over time, and I am not sure anymore how I came by
them. If you would like to find more information on the subject, I
would recommend doing a Google search for the following phrases:
seo copywriting
website promotion
promote a website
search engine optimization
If for any reason you feel unsatisfied with my answer, or would like
me to clarify any part of it, please use the “Ask for Clarification”
feature. I will be glad to assist you in any way I can in order to
make your investment a valuable one.
Regards,
slawek-ga |
