Hi Foodman1234 ~
I've done a little checking on the first two search engine results
pages (SERPs) and provide some comparisons of the results below.
I made an educated guess (actually a SWAG) that the site you were
referring to might be www.foodman123.com - but whether or not it
actually is, I'll use it for comparison and explanation, since its
name is so similar to your Google name.
Before I go too much further, I want to remind you that Google Answers
Researchers are independent contractors and not Google employees. We
do not have any special knowledge about how Google's closely-guarded
algorithm works to produce SERPs. Thankfully, Google provides some
good information for webmasters, together with specific
recommendations and suggestions to achieve a good ranking.
=========================
Google's PageRank
& Search Engine Results
=========================
Google explains how to get listed and its placement in its Information
for Webmasters:
"The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your
page to be linked from lots of pages on other sites.
Google's robots jump from page to page on the Web via
hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you, the more
likely it is that we'll find you quickly."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#A2
And it further explains its technology in "Our Search: Google
Technology":
"The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for
ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page
and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we
have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect
of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide
the basis for all of our web search tools."
and its PageRank in "PageRank Explained"
"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the
web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of
an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets
a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for
page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume
of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the
page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are
themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make
other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank,
which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of
course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't
match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with
sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that
are both important and relevant to your search. Google
goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a
page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and
the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if
it's a good match for your query."
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
Using the Google toolbar, our example site, www.foodman123.com, has a
Page Rank (PR) of 4. You can download the Google toolbar from here:
- http://toolbar.google.com
A search, specifically for www.foodman123.com, produced the following
results.
-------------- Google Results -------------------------------
Foodman. Do-it-yourself Point-of-Sale (POS) Software Systems for ...
This is a No-Nonsense WebSite. Copyright 2003 - Standard Commercial
Systems - 800-971-3663 Do-it-Yourself Restaurant Point-of-Sale ...
Description: POS software for restaurants, home-delivery, office-
delivery, catering, fast food, pizza and take-out.
Category: Business > Hospitality > Software > Point-Of-Sale Systems
Google can show you the following information for this URL:
Show Google's cache of www.foodman123.com
Find web pages that are similar to www.foodman123.com
Find web pages that link to www.foodman123.com
Find web pages that contain the term "www.foodman123.com"
---------- End Google Results -------------------------------
There has been much speculation about the difference between "link to"
and "contain the term" links, including this recent one on Webmaster
World:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/17953.htm
Speculation is that 'contained the term' doesn't have a link, but I
found this was not the case. Very often there was a link to either a
full URL (ie., http://www.foodman123.com) or a partial URL
(http://foodman123.com), so this didn't bear out.
Other speculation was that only links with a PR of 4 or higher were
listed in the "link to", while links from sites with a lesser PR were
included in "contain the term". Again, this didn't bear out in random
searches, either. So at the moment, I'm as in the dark as those who
speculate on the difference.
As it currently stands, however, Google treats http://foodman123.com
(without the 'www') differently as http://www.foodman123.com (with the
'www'). So it might behoove you to ensure that all your links go to
the full URL - this may help eliminate confusion and give you better
stats in the important categories.
============================
Results for the term
restaurant POS software
============================
Below are the first two SERPs of results for the search term
"restaurant POS software" (without the quotation marks), with a
comparison of the site's PageRank (which may not always have been the
particular page the search results returned), number of links and
number of "contain the term" results from a search on the page
results.
Total results for the search term "restaurant POS software" (without
the quotation marks) = About 50,300
1. ASI Restaurant Manager - PR5
www.actionsystems.com -- No of links = 20
"contain the term" = 418
2. Nextpos Restaurant Software - PR5
www.nextpos.com -- No of links = 25
"contain the term" = 91
3. Comcash - PR6
www.posww.com -- No of links = 12
"contain the term" = 14
4. Capterra Restaurant Mgmt Software - PR7
www.capterra.com -- No of links = 399
"contain the term" = 1,690
5. 123 Restaurant Pos - PR0
www.123-restaurant-pos.com -- No of links = 0
This is a new domain and is experience placement from a
'Freshbot' crawl (see explanation below)
6. Point of Sale Software - PR5
www.point0fsale.com - No of links = 29
"contain the term" = 2,550
7. 123 Restaurant Pos
(same as above)
8. Plexipos - PR4
www.plexispos.com - No of links = 6
"contain the term" = 149
9. Digital Dining - PR4
www.digitaldining.com -- No of links = 12
"contain the term" = 229
10. NTN Software Solutions - PR5
www.breakawaynet.com -- No of links = 95
"contain the term" = 353
11. Point of Sale (POS) Information at Business.com - PR8
www.business.com -- No of links = 6
12. NextPos
www.point0fsale.com (same as above)
13. Price Watch - PR5 (for POS) -- PR8 for whole site
www.pricewatch.com/1/330/4791-1.htm -- Links = 1
"contain the term" = 1
14. BMC Restaurant POS - PR4
www.bmccomputers.com -- Links = 6
"contain the term" = 88
15. POS Software - PR5
www.pos-software.org -- Links = 32
"contain the term" = 106
16. 123 Software (see above)
17. 123 Software (see above)
18. Trrap Restaurant Accounting Software - PR5
www.trrap.com -- Links = 14
"contain the term" = 184
19. Foodman Do-It-Yourself - PR4
www.foodman123.com -- Links = 8
"contain the term" = 25
20. POS2000 - PR5
www.assal.com -- Links = 4
"contain the term" = 29
You will note from the above that there is one relative 'new' site,
the 123 Restaurant Pros, which is ranking pretty high at the moment.
The domain was registered the first part of October, and as often
happens when a new site is submitted, it shows up in results at a high
ranking and then may very well disappear.
Google explains this in its rank information, "Why does my page's rank
keep changing?",
"We update our index every four weeks. Each time we update
our database of web pages, our index invariably shifts:
We find new sites, we lose some sites, and sites ranking
may change. Your rank naturally will be affected by changes
in the ranking of other sites."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
and the 'Freshbot' phenomenon is discussed in numerous discussions on
the Webmaster World website, for example:
"When does Google bot comes and what crawls? Can someone
explain the google bot behaviour?"
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/17164.htm?highlight=fresh+bot
"Did i spook the bot? Googlebot hit and run"
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/15838.htm?highlight=fresh+bot
and numerous other discussions about how the Fresh Bot picks up a
site, places it highly and then it disappears within a few days.
Some of the other ranking pages in the search results above were
individual pages within a much larger site. Sometimes those pages
didn't seem to have a PageRank at all, but the entire site (the index
page) has a high PageRank with hundreds or thousands of indexed
internal pages and links TO the site.
If you make an exception for the new site (freshbot crawl), and
compare just that data, you will see that for the moment, using just
the PageRank, links to and "contains the term", the site,
www.foodman123.com is placed just about right in the ranking with
relation to those above it.
======================
Google's Recent Crawl
======================
There is evidence that Google recently crawled, and from all the
complaints, apparently there was a major tweak to its algorithm.
If you take a look at the Google News section of Webmaster World,
you'll see several discussions relative to this most recent crawl, all
of them having to do with either disappearing completely from Google's
index, or falling drastically.
- http://webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It's no consolation, but you aren't alone.
========================
What You Can Do
To Increase Your SERPs
========================
Being on the second page of search engine results with over 50,000
results isn't really too bad a placement in the results.
But if you want to increase your chances of staying high in the
rankings, you might want to take a look at Google's Design & Content
Guidelines -
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Some of the guidelines, such as putting title and alt tags to work to
your advantage, a text navigation system to aid the crawler in getting
around your entire site and other recommendations in those guidelines
usually increase your visibility, and help with indexing all the
pages of your site.
In addition, establishing more RELEVANT links to your site will help
increase PageRank, which can always help in SERPs.
===========================
Establishing Links
===========================
As stated, Google's PageRank is based on the number of pages which
link to your site.
"The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your page to be
linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's robots jump from
page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to
you, the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly." (SEE Google's
" How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google? - 2. Submitting Your site")
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#A1
There are many practical ways of establishing links which are
beneficial to you in your endeavor to get respectable position
placement on search engines. These methods may take time, but they
also help in establishing credibility and help with your page rank.
Approach like-minded or complementary businesses about linking to your
site (with a reciprocal link from your own). This works without
harming search engine positioning or page rank.
A WORD OF WARNING:
==================
Google specifically warns "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." (See Google's
Quality Guidelines - Basic principles)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
It stands to reason that what's good for Google, currently ranked as
the number one search engine is good rule to follow for other search
engines.
Articles on Link Popularity
===========================
A couple of excellent articles on how to establish the right kind of
links are available in Traffick's "Ten Steps to Building Links to Your
Site", Craig Fifield - 5/3/2002
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=77
and "The Right Way to Improve Link Popularity", By Paul J. Bruemmer
-4/14/2002 -
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=41
Notice both articles offer suggestions which can be easily adapted for
use on any website without resorting to link farms. They both point
out the differences and offer easy ways to get started to the kind of
linking search engines prefer.
"Link Building Is Important", which discusses link building from A to
Z and also provides a good reference page with linking resources.
- http://www.linkingmatters.com/WhyLinkingIsImportant.html
The information contained in the above articles offer suggestions
which can be easily adapted for use on any website without resorting
to link farms. The differences in "good links" and those which may be
harmful are discussed, and the articles offer simple ways to get
started to the kind of linking search engines prefer.
==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================
Remember, Google's responsibility is to present the best and most
relevant information to the searcher's search term. If you want to be
among those, then it is up to you to make sure your site is among
those listed.
Here are some important links from Google's Webmaster Information and
Webmaster Guidelines. Webmasters who follow the guidelines and avoid
Google's "Thou shalt nots" usually have no problem with their listings
under the search terms they want.
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
There is also good information from many of the top search engine
optimization experts, such as
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/detlev/
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings
- http://www.highrankings.com/
* Shari Thurow, Web Pro News (and quoted all over the Internet)
- www.webpronews.com/
who all have columns or newsletters to which you can subscribe and
keep abreast of the best way to use good content for better
positioning in search engine results.
In addition, Webmaster World - http://www.webmasterworld.com/ - has
discussion boards on most of the search engines. While some of the
discussions are anecdotal and/or questions for information, there is
usually enough discussion to keep abreast of what seems to be
happening.
There is an entire section devoted to Google at:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It never hurts to keep track among these discussions, but remember,
trying to optimize for search engines only is like trying to hit a
moving target. You'll notice among the more experienced contributors
to the discussions - plus the SEO experts listed above - that there
really is no substitute for content, relevant links and good HTML.
Search Terms
================
In this case, besides the search as mentioned above, I relied on
bookmarks and other resources I use on a regular basis.
Although you may have slipped a bit in the rankings, the second page
of returns is still certainly respectable. Improve your site using
Google's recommendations and suggestions can help you get back to
where you wish to be.
Good luck,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
