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How is your
Google IQ? If You Don't Pass, Your Income Suffers...
Google-Opoly
Sure there is
Yahoo! and MSN and some other upstarts on the net, but Google is
really the place to be found. It may not always be so, but for
now, you need to have your site not only indexed by Google, but
ranked high by Google. Let's test your Google IQ and see how you
do.
Got PageRank?
PageRank is
Google's formula that determines what other sites think of your
site. PageRank tabulates the number of links coming to that site
and the importance of those pages linking to it. Next PageRank
assigns a one to ten ranking, to determine the site's position in
specific results.
A site with a
PageRank of ten is favored in results over a site with PageRank of
seven. Most web pages are lucky to have a PageRank of even two or
three. You can even have a negative PageRank which means Google
knows who you are and they don't like you.
It Is Great to
be Trusted
It used to be
that Google looked for "great sites" to help anchor the PageRank
index. Google now seems to have added the term "trusted sites" to
the "great sites" factor. Here is why - "great sites" were
abusing their privilege by selling links on their main page for
$1,000 - 5,000 per month regardless of relevance.
You would find
very busy and well-known software sites with links to mortgage
companies and credit card offers at the bottom of their page.
Thus, Google now not only looks for a "great site," but a "trusted
site" in which the site provides only the "highest and best use"
for their visitors.
You can
download Google's tool bar so you can see your PageRank at http://www.google.com/downloads/
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How Do The
Terms Jagger,
Florida
and Big Daddy Affect Your Rankings?
Jagger,
Florida and Big Daddy are the names given to the major Google
index updates over the last two years. These updates can cause
massive swings whereby smaller, less known sites show up, or drop,
in the results. Each major index is an attempt by Google to create
more accurate search results.
The latest
update, Big Daddy, seems to be an entire rebuild of all results;
as many companies have lost previously held top rankings.
Have You Been
Googlized?
These periodic
updates have caused multiple lawsuits against Google by companies
that previously held high rankings, and subsequently lost them.
Google keeps
its search ranking algorithms secret so that they can not be
manipulated. Each update refines their proprietary algorithm. A
drop from the top search result can mean the loss of thousands and
thousands of dollars. Earlier this year, KinderStart.com sued
Google because it lost it top ranking "without warning."
KinderStart
said its traffic plunged; and Google accounted for up to 70
percent of its visitors. After Google dropped KinderStart, the
number of visitors from Google was at 0.01%. At its peak,
KinderStart's visitors viewed more than 10 million Web pages per
month, according to the suit.
Of course, for
every company like KinderStart that loses a substantial amount of
business, there is a new top-ranked company that takes its places
and receives that traffic, and revenue.
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So How Do
You Get A Top Ranked Site?
Google isn't
divulging anything, but top search engine marketing companies
theorize that Google is now assigning different weights for
selected factors, including high quality links, the age of your
domain (i.e,. when it was registered), the keywords embedded in
your domain name, the quality of your content and the size of
your site.
Also you
need to avoid keyword stuffing on your site. A phrase like, "Our
New York mortgage loan finance company has the lowest New York
home loan interest rates for residents of
New York
and the New York area," would constitute keyword stuffing.
Garbage In,
Garbage Out
Google
appears to selecting "trusted sites" and rewarding outbound
links from those sites with an increased value. In example, a
link from Stanford.edu is worth more than a link from
StanfordsFamilyRestaurant.com
Your site
can increase its ranking by having "trusted sites" link to your
pages. Conversely if you have submitted your site to "link
farms" (domains established solely to provide links), your site
can be penalized for participating in that endeavor.
Once Blogged,
now Bogged?
Also, some
mortgage companies used special software to post to blog sites.
The method was simple: Your software would locate a blog site
and say something like, "Nice site. Thanks for having it," and
then your signature (HeyThisIsMyMortgageCompany.com) would be
added in the hopes that a blog would become a valuable site and
a link from that blog to you would improve your Page Rank.
Google wised
up, and now are penalizing these type of links. Links from high
quality blogs or blogs that exhibit editorial control are still
of value if they can demonstrate they police their postings for
relevance.
Do You
Provide Links To "Great and Trusted Sites?" Or Are You
Reciprocating Links To Link Farms?
Google
appears to review the quality of your outbound links.
There does
appear to some additional value by having good (not trusted)
sites link to you as well. In example, local banks, the chamber
of commerce, escrow companies and other related, but neutral
sites.
Are You In
The Google "Sand Box"? Does It Even Exist?
Some search
engine specialists theorize that any new site is placed in a
"sand box" to sit (and play) while Google decides whether or not
to include them in their index. This gives Google a chance to
determine whether it is a valuable site or a "Spam" site that
goes straight to purgatory. Other people suggest that the sand
box doesn't exist, there just is a period of time between when a
site is reviewed and added to the Google index.
Trust Me
Regardless,
this much appears to be true: if you have a high value, good
content site that contributes to the well-being of the
Internet... (a site that your visitors can trust), you will get
into the Google index. If not, you will never receive a single
visitor from Google.
************************************************************* Rod Aries and Robert Farris are co-founders of MortgagePromote.com, a leading Internet marketing provider to corporate mortgage clients. Web site: www.mortgagepromote.com
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