The Most Important Ways to Rank in Google
Google uses many different attributes to determine where a website appears in its search engine results. No one really knows for sure what those attributes are. But, with some time and testing, you can get a small idea of what Google wants to see.
What Not To Do.
I can say, from first hand experience, you do not want to cloak your website. This will get you banned. Now, you may be asking, “What is Cloaking?”
Cloaking.
Cloaking is sending one page of HTML to your users and another page of HTML to the Google spider. The purpose of this is to maximize factors you believe Google wants to see and showing it to the spider. However, these factors may leave you with an unpopular (and unprofitable) page with your users. So, you send a different HTML page to visitors to your website.
For a search engine, cloaking can be very difficult to detect. Usually, search engines only use spiders to see the web. A spider is like the eyes of a search engine. So, if you show the “eyes” a web page, how is the search engine to know it is false?
In my experience, the way they learn this is by doing manual checks of the most popular web pages. For instance, I had a web page that ranked for one of the most popularly searched terms on the web at the time. To get that ranking, cloaking was used. But, as my website got the #1 position, it seems Google did a more in-depth analysis of the page content.
Within a month of getting the #1 spot for a hugely popular keyword, the site got banned. It may not have been for the cloaking, but it was the most obvious attempt made to manipulate the search engine rankings. It took 3 years for the site to get back in the index. By that time, the hugely popular keyword phrase had a fraction of the importance it had at the time of the banning. So, my advice, do not cloak.
Sig stuffing.
Another tactic that will get you a Google penalty is sig stuffing. For a long time I thought the sheer amount of links to a website would help its ranking in Google. If those links came from an established, well-known forum, I thought this would be even better. Well, that is wrong!
A signature has to do with forums. When you make a post in a forum, the area beneath that post is called the signature, or sig. You can usually set what appears in your signature by going to the user control panel in a forum. They will have an area called ‘Edit Signature’ and allow you to place code there, including links.
Sig (or signature) stuffing happens when you put nothing but links in your signature with the hope of improving in the Google search engine rankings. While it is true people may do this to drive traffic to their website, it seems Google may penalize your website for doing this.
After removing a number of links in a signature of one of my forum user accounts, I noticed a dramatic increase in the rankings of the sites that were listed. In the future, I will only use the signature area to drive traffic rather than improve Google rankings.
What May Work but Unsure.
Without a doubt, one of the clearest ways to establish what your web page is about is to look at its keywords. But, there are many different ways a search engine spider determines what keywords to find in your page. Some areas they identify are the meta tags (title, description, keywords), the header tags (h1, h2, h3), the frequency of the keyword in the page, and the order of the keyword in the text (does it appear first, later, or last).
With this knowledge, you know what to do when creating a web page, if you are trying to optimize it for the search engine spiders. This leads to a tactic that many, many webmasters have tried, with mixed results. It is keyword stuffing.
Manipulating the Web Page.
Suppose you have a website that is ranked below a number of other websites for a certain keyword phrase. Let’s say the phrase doesn’t appear in your web page very prominently. What some webmasters will do is change the text in their web page to include the keyword phrase more prominently. This can be very important if the keyword phrase is popular and/or profitable.
Changing the text on your web page specifically to rank higher in Google, isn’t so bad if you are changing the content to add more value to potential web page visitors. However, if you go too far, it becomes what is known as keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing is changing a web page to include more keywords than is gramatically necessary to make a web page appear more relevant to search engine spiders. Thus, it is hoped to improve your search engine rankings.
While I have done this repeatedly on many web sites, it is not clear if this has any real positive effect. While your ranking may improve in Google, it may deteriorate in Yahoo or Bing or other search engines. If your ranking is not in the Top 10 in Google, but is in the Top 10 for other search engines, this can have a very detrimental effect on the success of your website.
The Stingy Web Page.
Some have speculated, and it is most likely true, that you are penalized based on the links on your page. If you link to a website that has been banned or penalized in Google, then it is assumed your website is similar. Therefore, your website could be banned or penalized, too!
Another issue with links are what is called dead links or holding page links. If your website has many links to web pages that no longer exist (dead links) or 404 pages on websites because the web page content no longer exists (holding page links), then Google will consider your website stale. This could result in a penalty for your website, which means lower search engine rankings.
Link Hoarding.
To get around the link problem, some webmasters only link to websites that are either entirely controlled by them, already very well established, or will not link to other sites at all. When you do this, it is called link hoarding.
Whether link hoardng works is unknown. On the one hand, it greatly reduces the possibility of linking to bad websites (penalized or banned). But, on the other hand, Google may penalize you anyway because your website appears to be a dead end. The Google web spider is unable to reach any other website, from your web pages.
Link stuffing
For the webmaster trying to manipulate links, another technique to try is putting as many links to web pages from one website as possible. It has been speculated that Google will not go any deeper than 2 links into a website. So, if no other site on the web links to a web page on your site, the Google spider gives you two chances on site links to get there.
To get unlinked or deep content (not linked to from other websites) ranked in the search engines, what some webmasters will do is “stuff” a web page on another site they control. The home page on site 1 will have a list of links to web pages on site 2 that cannot be reached in 2 links from site 2′s navigation structure.
I have certainly tried this approach. It does seem to create penalties when you combine this approach with sig stuffing, from a forum. But, it is unclear if that is true if the “stuffed” web page is one you control. The best strategy to avoid the deep content problem is to put the link in a blog. If you can’t do that, then have a very shallow linking pattern. This means every page on your website is no more than 2 links away from the home page.
What Does Work.
Without a doubt, the most effective way to get ranked in any search engine is to have a website that is linked from certain “authoritative” websites. If you get a link from Wikipedia, EBay, Amazon, a college or university, a charity or church, or a large corporation (there are many more possibilities), you will be greatly helped in the search engines.
Blogs.
Of course, getting an “authoritative” link is not easy. That is one reason why they are so valuable. But, another way is to have a blog. Google loves blogs. If you update the content fairly frequently (twice a week), the search engine spiders will have reason to visit your site. This is good because sites with more frequent visits from search engine spiders tend to get better rankings.
The best blog software to use is WordPress. It is widely supported, highly customizable, relatively easy to install (and easier to upgrade), and not too difficult to learn. If you are thinking about doing it yourself, I highly recommend looking at WordPress first!
Page content.
While it is true, web page content can be easily manipulated to try and get higher rankings, it is probably the number one way to determine what a web page is about.
If your website has many authoritative links pointing to it about bird feeding, but the content is about auto repair, you will not rank for very long for bird feeding. However, if the links point to bird feeding and the search engine spider finds content about bird feeding, your web page will rank much higher and longer, than it would otherwise.
You must be sure that your web page is laser-targeted on the most valuable keywords. Without a doubt, this should be the 1st lesson you learn to improve ranking in the search engines.
Unique content.
While you may have a highly-focused web page, it doesn’t mean much if a million other web pages have the same content. You become just another face in the crowd without anything to recommend your content as being a reason to rank higher in the search engines.
For Google at least, unique content is very important. This is true for several reasons.
1) If the google spider sees you have content that it has already indexed, your web page may get hit with a penalty, reducing your rankings.
2) Your duplicate content may give the google spider less reason to visit in the future. That will definitely hurt your ability to rank and to get new content included in the search engines.
3) You may get hit with a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notice. Believe me, these are serious. You will not only get that web page removed from the index, you may also get booted from the Google ad network. What if your home page has duplicate content (rather than an interior page) and you get a DMCA notice. You could get your website kicked out of Google!
Now, this is not to say any of these things will happen if you have duplicate content. Just be aware there are risks, which is another reason to use unique content whenever possible.
Fresh content
Not only does it help to have unique content. It is very helpful to have fresh content. This doesn’t mean changing your whole web page every day, every other day, or every week. It just means that some part of your web page needs to be updated periodically.
This isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Usually, the only page that really needs to be updated is the home page. The reason is that the search engine spider has to start somewhere. Since the home page is the entryway to your website, updating it periodically will give the spider a reason to come back.
Regular search engine spider visits give you the opportunity to more finely tune your keyword phrases, get new web pages indexed, and to establish your web page as an active page on the web (building authority). These all help in search engine rankings.
Your URL.
When a search engine decides where to rank your website, it considers page content and links. A third factor is the URL of your website.
When a search engine ranks a website, and it sees the keyword phrase in the URL, it assumes that is what the website is about. This gives you a BIG BOOST in rankings you would not get with an unrelated URL.
The best place to have the keywords is in the domain name itself. For example, if you have a website about web services in Uganda and your website domain name is webservicesinuganda.com, you are given a real boost in your search engine rankings that you would not get with webservices.com or servicesinuganda.com.
If you do not have the keyword phrase in the domain name, the next best place is your directory structure. Let’s say your domain name is happygolucky.com. If you want to rank for automotive repair in Boise, Idaho, then a web page with the URL, happygolucky.com/automotive-repair/Idaho/Boise will give you a good improvement in the search engines.
Not everyone will be able to get their keyword phrase in the domain name. But, you can get it in the directory structure. Without a doubt, this helps in the search engines. So, when you create new content, keep the directory structure in mind and the relevant keywords, if you want to have a good chance at ranking in the search engines.
What Does All This Get You?
If you avoid the known pitfalls and stick with the proven techniques, you give your website a chance to get a good ranking in the search engines. It takes a lot of work and attention to detail to include each of these elements into every page of content you create or have. However, the payoff in improved search engine rankings is hard to argue.
While it is clear what works and what does not, it is the unknown factors that may make the difference between a good ranking and a great one. Once you have mastered the proven techniques, you will be ready to be more adventurous at improving your search engine rankings with more untested strategies.
Hopefully, knowing what has worked and what does not will help you see better results in your search engine rankings.
The #1 Way to Get Google/Yahoo/Bing to Love Your Website
Everyone wants to rank #1 for a higly-competitive, highly advertised, and high traffic keyword. If you could be in the 1st, or top 5, or top 10 for debt consolidation, would you leap at the opportunity? However, it takes more than a willingness to work to rank highly in the search engines.
The Way of the Hack.
Typically, how do most webmasters try to get high rankings? They get as many links as possible! They trade links, write articles, create a blog, maybe a forum, submit blog comments, go to squidoo, myspace, facebook, etc. and HOPE that the search engines will index the links and move them up the search engine rankings.
This means living in the world of directories, social bookmarking & social networking wesites, link counters & checkers, link trading, and keyword tools. None of this makes your website better and doesn’t add value to your visitors. It is all a huge waste of time if it doesn’t work.
The Basic Problem.
If every webmaster is doing the same basic things to rank, then doesn’t that mean the established website is the permanent website in the search engine rankings? Is there a better use of your time than chasing links? Would you rather add value to your visitors and give them something they can use?
Today, even for the most competitive terms, the only thing separating one website from another is links and age. The top websites don’t really offer the visitor anything more than lower-ranked websites. You can almost guarantee the content isn’t unique because it’s not as if they are the sole knowledgeable source in the world. For commercial websites, such as electronics, apparel or music, you get the impression the search engines rank certain sites higher (such as Amazon and EBay) because of behind-the-scenes trade agreements.
So, how do you beat all this competition as an unknown, newly-started webmaster who wants to be noticed on the web?
The Solution.
Since it doesn’t seem to be any real reason one website should rank above another, you have to look at how you can use the search engines own tendencies to your advantage.
If the top websites aren’t giving the visitor anything more than ads and an opinion, you have to give the visitor something more. It must be something they can use and for which they find real value. It is these websites that are almost impossible to beat in the search engines.
What type of websites are these? They are software websites.
A Little Background.
Software developers are a very logical group. It is required to have the patience to create software that people want and to find and fix bugs. So, when they create software, they usually name it according to its function. They will name a zip program after compression, or “something’-zip, or file packer. They will name an image program “The Ultimate Icon Editor” or “Image Maker” or “PhotoEdit” or something similar. They would never name it “Debt Consolidation” or anything like it.
Why is the name of the software so important? It is because this is the name people will use to search for your software on the web. And, that is important if you want to rank for that term.
How to Become An Authority.
The best way to get a search engine to love you is to become an authority. One of the simplest ways they determine that is by looking at the domain name. For instance, if you want to rank for debt consolidation and your website is “debtconsolidation.org” then you get credit for being an authority for that keyword phrase.
There is more to it than domain name, but it is a start. Next, they look at the content. If the content matches the domain name, then it is further confirmation of your website’s purpose. If they see many links to your website, that adds more confirmation.
In the case of Google (maybe others), they look at the anchor text of the link and maybe the site where the link is coming. If the anchor text matches the name of your website and the website where the link is coming has authority of its own, then that makes your “debtconsolidation.org” website look that much better.
If you can put all this together (domain name, content, links, and links from an authority site), then your site will become an authority for that keyword phrase.
You will be a content authority.
The Next Step.
As a content authority, the search engines still may not move you up the rankings (could be too much competition, could be your site age, could be not enough content, etc.). Or, they may not move you up far enough to make any difference. What next?
You need to become a software authority.
The Software Authority.
When you create software and submit it to the shareware/freeware/software directory sites, you create a lot of links to your sites. If you name your software with the keyword phrase in your domain name (Debt Consolidation for debtconsolidation.org), you have added a lot of websites with authority linking to you as the authority for this software, with the keyword-rich name in your domain.
You are now a software authority.
To the search engines, they see all these authority websites linking to you, with software, domain name, and content all matching a specific keyword phrase. Not only that, but since none of the other keyword-targetted websites above you have these software websites linking to them, you are seen as the software AND content authority for this phrase.
In many cases, this will dramatically move you up the search rankings. In a world of content-only websites, the software AND content website reigns supreme.
The Catch.
There are several problems with becoming a software authority. A few of these are that you must create the software, it must be good, and it must be unique.
Creating software is a time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive effort. You have to design it, write it, and test it. The hardest part is creating software someone will want. But, one nice thing is that you really don’t have to worry about competition. If you create yet another word processor, but it has one unique feature, that alone may justify its existence.
One Last Word…
Do understand that these shareware/freeware/software directories are not dummies. They know people will try to harvest them for their authority. They will check your software, use it, test it, and some will check it for viruses. It is not worth their effort to go through all that if they believe you are using them to get search rankings and not to provide useful software.
If you can get past this issue, you are well on your way to crushing your competition in the search engine rankings as the clear authority for your keyword phrase.
Google Ranking and the Changing SERPs
While doing an experiment with Google, I learned something that never occurred to me before. It may be true it has been discussed in the webmaster forums. Or, Google may have made an announcement. Or, maybe it was always this way and I just never noticed it. But, did you know Google’s results are not what they seem?
My experiment.
Let me give you a little background on what happened to lead to my discovery. Then, I will tell you what the implications are for webmasters, advertisers, and users of Google. search.
I have a few websites that are ranked in Google for a lot of different terms. They have done well for me and their links have moved a few of my sites up the Google listings. Before expanding into other websites, I decided to see if my links had as much power for other people as for me. Who knows? Maybe it might lead to reciprocal linking or some nice trades.
With several websites from volunteers, my test began. The terms were all over the place and the starting positions went from just outside the Top 10 into the hundreds. It was a diverse group to use for testing.
After about a week of monitoring, I realized that my links worked as well for my sites in Google as they did for the volunteers. One website was in China, another in India, and the rest in the United States. It didn’t seem to matter. Once the links went live, the rankings improved, within a week.
Now, you may be thinking, so… what was the discovery?
A little lesson learned.
Since the experiment worked so well, I decided to try it again. This was just to be on the safe side. Except, this time, I wanted a very specific site to try. This time it had to be in a money-making niche, with a highly keyword-targeted domain and in the first 100 results.
After getting another volunteer, a funny thing happened.
Having learned from the earlier experiment to make a clear distinction on the starting position of the site, it became obvious that…
Google displays results based on your location!
It took awhile to confirm this. It may be common knowledge. It may have been announced. It may be obvious. It may already be known to advertisers. But, it was news to me and to the volunteer.
What does this mean?
The biggest implication of this is that you have to re-examine your link building, search development, and site checking strategies. Just because you rank highly for a keyword when you do a simple search in Google, does not necessarily mean that rank is seen by the rest of the country, or the world.
In retrospect, it makes sense. I have seen one of my websites rank for an extremely competitive keyword phrase (10k+/day) and yet the traffic trickled in from Google. That alone should have told me something was not quite what it seemed. Yet, I ignored it. Lesson learned.
Strategy for success.
The best solution I have for handling this problem is to use proxy servers. Before, I thought they were only good for testing websites and avoiding viruses. Now, it seems, they are great for testing Google searches.
There are many proxy servers out there and new ones seem to become available every day. You have to be careful with them, because you can expect to be inundated with all kinds of intrusive ads. So, it may take some time to build a list of proxys to suit your tastes. However, they are invaluable for the purpose of checking Google search results.
My new strategy.
Now knowing how Google handles its results and with a list of proxy servers, I am ready to accurately understand how well my websites are doing in the SERPs. Since not everyone knows this, it is SEO experience that you can share with other webmasters. This is great if you are doing any kind of link trading or search engine optimization (SEO).
Another idea is to check to see if Yahoo and Bing do the same thing. Of course, it is not as worthwhile since they do not deliver the traffic of Google. Yet, it shows how search engines may not be as straightforward as you may have first thought.
Making Money with Yahoo and Google – My story
Getting Started as a Webmaster
I first decided to make money off the web, in 2005. Back then, there were two big players in the contextual ad game, Google’s Adsense, and Yahoo’s Publisher Network. Really, it was just Adsense and Yahoo decided to join the party later in 2005 because of Google’s success. In those days, the earnings were great, the competition not as fierce, and there was enough for everyone to make some money.
My goal in making money was rather modest. I had no plans to do it seriously. Since contextual ads were rather new for a lot of people, many didn’t realize how lucrative it could be. Sure, Google was successful, but they were a big, faceless corporation. Why would a mom-and-pop website, or individual expect to get anything from that? Well, that kind of thinking was out of place in 2005.
The emergence of social networking.
When I first started, Myspace was all the rage. While many people searched for layouts and backgrounds, many webmasters completely ignored this audience. Too many “serious” webmasters thought Myspace was equivalent to an AOL. It was simply for the newbies and not for serious web development. That was my first lesson on the web, never underestimate your audience.
Since the Myspace crowd was being ignored, I decided to focus my webmaster activities entirely on serving them. The results were phenomenal. Both Google and Yahoo ranked me #1 for many Myspace-related terms. The traffic was pouring in to my humble website. I couldn’t believe my good fortune! But, a problem arose. How do you make money off all this traffic?
First, I tried dating websites. That was a disaster. It was all wrong for my audience. As a matter of fact (I didn’t know this at the time), most of the Myspace traffic was female. I guess that would explain why the mostly male webmasters didn’t understand the mostly female Myspace traffic. That taught me lesson #2, know your audience.
Discovering Adsense and YPN.
After much trial and error, I stumbled onto Google Adsense. It seemed like a very easy way to get ads in front of my Myspace traffic while I figured out what they really wanted. Well, it seems Google was the answer, not a temporary solution. With Google Adsense, my website started making a little at first. Then more and more until it began out-earning anything I had made in computers, doing anything.
Google was a real find. It took several months before I really understood how to use it. But, it was time well spent. While this was happening, Yahoo decided to get in on the action. They created the Yahoo Publisher Network. To attract Adsense users, they offered very attractive payouts and often complemented Adsense. Traffic that did poorly in Adsense would do well in YPN. It was a great arrangement. That taught me lesson #3, always diversify your ad networks.
Competition Is Tough.
The YPN/Adsense arrangement worked great through the balance of 2005 and into 2006. Unfortunately, while Adsense continued to do well, Yahoo began to suffer. It seems that earnings were declining for the entire year of 2006. While, many other webmasters attributed it to many different things, a general consensus seemed to be that Yahoo was not what it had been the previous year.
While 2006 was weak for Yahoo, Google remained strong. In 2007, that began to change for Google. While it continued to do well, in the face of Yahoo’s seemingly unending fall, Google began to show very slight decreases also. In hindsight, it’s clear what was happening. Many of the advertisers were beginning to suffer. But, at the time, no one was sure what the problem was.
By 2008, Yahoo’s Publisher Network was a shell of it’s former importance. The excitement of joining began to disappear and many realized that Google was the king of the contextual ad game. Despite the mighty Google’s slight decline in payouts, it was still far and away the premier choice among webmasters.
We all know what happened in 208. The United States suffered a major financia meltdown that did not spare the webmaster nor Google. Earnings for everyone dropped or stopped growing. It was a time of $4 gas and disappearing mortgage and credit card ads. Things got tough but Google weathered the storm. However, it did show me that Google is not invincible. Google is not immune to the economy.
Spending 3 years with Google can make one lazy, if you’re not careful. With the rampant uncertainty of 2008, it was time to look into the affiliate game and other ad networks. While none matched the size of Google, they offered many ways to protect oneself from being dependent on just one advertiser (e.g. Google). That led me to lesson #4, there’s more to webmastering than Google.
Saying goodbye to Yahoo!
By 2009, I was extremely disappointed with Yahoo. My sites still carried their ads, despite 90% drops in earnings from 2005. Things looked very bleak, yet I persisted with the hope that one of these years things would change. Well, when someone makes an offer for cold-hard cash, you see how deep your loyalty is.
One day, while browsing a webmaster forum, a user offers to buy my YPN account. They offered a sum that was irresistible, given my earnings with Yahoo over the past couple of years. With some negotiation, I sold them my account. Thus ended my belief and hope Yahoo would ever become a relevant ad network again.
That leads to the last lesson I learned over that incredible period from 2005-2009, this is business, not personal.
Domain Front-running
If you are searching for a good domain name, be careful who you use to do searches.
In the past, it has been confirmed that certain registrars would analyze domain searches. If they decided enough searches had been made for a domain name, they would register it themselves.
The purpose of this is to resell the popular domain to the user who searched for it, or auction it to all users. This greatly increased the cost of domain registration for popular domain names.
This is called front-running.
Definition.
From Wikipedia,
Domain name front running is the practice whereby a domain name registrar uses insider information to register domains for the purpose of re-selling them or earning revenue via ads placed on the domain’s landing page. By registering the domains, the registrar locks out other potential registrars from selling the domain to a customer. The registrar typically takes advantage of the 5-day “domain tasting” trial period, where the domain can be locked without payment.
The term was created by domain investor and retired stockbroker Daniel Stager who likened the practice to front running, when a stockbroker illegally puts their own financial interests above that of their clients. ICANN has since picked up on the practice [1]
In January 2008 it was reported that Network Solutions uses data collected from their web-based WHOIS search to register every domain that users check for availability.[2] Although the practice forces users to register the searched-for domains from Network Solutions, Network Solutions defends the practice, claiming that “This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running.”[3] However, during the 4 day period the domain is still up for sale to the general public solely through Network Solutions and is not, in fact, reserved for a specific person at all.
In June 2008, Network Solutions proposed a small fee for domain tasting, in part to end the practice of domain name front running.
Domain name lookup to avoid.
It has been claimed that GoDaddy does this. They will register a domain name that has been searched and then offer it for resale as a premium domain name. Of course, Network Solutions does this.
As far as I know, NameCheap doesn’t do this. But, if you ever do a domain name search, and later discover the name you wanted is taken, you may be a victim of front-running.