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PageRank, the Google Algorithm, Keyword Difficulty and Website Success. Keyword SEO Pro Technique

By on May 16, 2012

The Google Algorithm
Google is the most popular search engine. Webpage positioning for a keyword in Google’s search engine results pages is determined by the Google algorithm.

The importance of PageRank in Google’s algorithm is discussed by the author in “10 Hidden Key Facts You Need To Know About Getting To The Top Of Google”. A webpage on a website with high authority will be positioned above a webpage on a lower authority website, everything else being equal.

Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty is an indication of the competitive strength of the top webpages for that keyword. Many top positioned webpages have PageRank 0 and this leads most optimizers to believe that PageRank is of no great importance. Others believe that PageRank is the top factor in the Google algorithm and it provides the best indication of keyword difficulty.

PageRank

In his ebook ‘OnPageDomination’, Byrne averages the PageRanks of the top 10 webpages on Google for keywords to determine keyword difficulty. He gives an example (keyword ‘Soundbar Reviews’). The results were:

8+4+2+0+1+1+1+9+5+8 = 39/10 = 3.9 Average.

PageRank is on a logarithmic scale from 0-10 and Byrne’s example, to my mind, would support those who question the value of PageRank. Several keyword difficulty tools incorporate webpage PageRank to evaluate competition.

HomePage PageRank

The current HomePage PageRanks for the top webpages for ‘soundbar reviews’ are

6+4+4+7+6+6+5+8+4+5 = 5.5 average.

HomePage PageRank seems to be a better indicator of keyword difficulty than the PageRank of the page. Every search engine optimizer believes he knows a lot about the algorithm but the truth is that only Google holds the key. We must individually look at the evidence and come to our own conclusions.

The majority of top performing webpages are on websites with PageRank of at least 4 (64% in a series of nearly 50,000 – ‘Domain Authority: The Top Two Factors On Google: A Study of 50,000 Webpages in 5 Countries’). Surely this is compelling evidence that HomePage PageRank cannot be ignored.

The current HomePage PageRanks for the top 10 webpages on Google.co.uk for ‘Windsor website designer’ are:-

3+3+4+4+5+0+1+2+0+5 average =2.7

(italics numbers indicate that these webpages are HomePages). The webpages with HomePage PageRanks 0, and 1 are HomePages. Thousands of keyword analyses demonstrate that Google must be giving a boost to the effective HomePage PageRank when HomePages are competing for keywords. The majority of top positioned webpages on websites with low HomePage PageRanks are HomePages. This works like a golf handicap system designed to level the playing field. It means small business websites have a chance to successfully compete against locality and professional directory websites that have much higher authority. For SEO purposes, I would emphasize that only the HomePage receives the boost.

Keyword SEO Pro Technique

HomePages with PageRank less than 5, are boosted to an effective PageRank of 4.5. In the analysis of 50,000 top webpages for 5,000 keywords, this boost came into play for 30% of top webpages. With this adjustment boost, the effective HomePage PageRanks for the top 10 webpages for ‘Windsor website designer’ becomes

4.5+3+4+4+5+4.5+4.5+5+4.5+5 average = 4.4

There are at least 200 factors in the Google algorithm. It is my belief that HomePage PageRank has the greatest influence particularly if one accepts the ‘boost theory.’ The technique is called the Keyword SEO Pro technique. It is simple to do and takes about 5 minutes for each keyword. The only way you can convince yourself one way or the other is to put it to the test. No program is required.

A problem arises when several top webpages for a keyword are HomePages. Their adjusted average HomePage PageRanks will be around 4.5. If we look at the examples of ‘Windsor website designer’, ‘Manchester website designer’ and ‘London website designer’ their respective average adjusted HomePage PageRanks are 4.4, 4.6 and 4.8.

The HomePage of a new website would be boosted to an effective HomePage PageRank of 4.5 for the keywords it targets. It is tempting to assume that if a new website was to compete for ‘London website designer’ with its HomePage, top page positioning could be quickly achieved. The true PageRank of the top webpages, however, is also of importance albeit less than that of the HomePage.

For ‘Windsor website designer’ the average PageRank of the webpages on the top Google results page is 2.4 and two HomePages have PageRank 0.
The average PageRanks for ‘Manchester website designer’ is 3.9 and the lowest PageRank of the top webpages is 3.
For ‘London website designer’ it is 4.1 with a lowest PageRank of 2.

Clearly, PageRank of webpages is a factor in the Google algorithm although it is not quite as powerful as HomePage PageRank.

In my opinion

  • HomePage PageRank is the top factor in the Google algorithm.
  •  Google boosts the effective PageRank of HomePages of low authority websites to 4.5 when they are competing for keywords.
  •  Averaged HomePage PageRanks, including the boost, of the webpages on the top Google results page for a keyword is the top indicator of keyword difficulty.
  •  PageRank of webpages remains an important factor in the Google algorithm.
  •  Averaged PageRanks of the webpages on the top Google results page is a secondary indicator of keyword difficulty.

Website Success

Search engine optimization aims to maximize targeted visitors to a website. There are many programs and optimizers who promise that with their guidance you can reach the top on Google for any keyword you choose. The fact is that if your competition has high authority as indicated by webpage and HomePage PageRanks, and you have a website with low HomePage PageRank, success is unlikely. The Keyword SEO Pro technique shows you what you are up against. If you target niche keywords that are in range for your website, you will gradually increase the authority of your websites and ever more desirable keywords can be successfully targeted. Start small and build gradually.

This entry is filed under Google algorithm.

BuildMyRank Sites Deindexed – Google winning the artificial link war.

By on March 22, 2012

Google is committed for its own welfare to ensure the best webpages are at the top of their results pages for keyword searches.

Backlinks, links from other websites, have the potential to increase page authority (webpage PageRank) and website authority (HomePage PageRank) and these are top factors in the Google positioning algorithm. The Google anti-spam team, led by Matt Cutts, is committed to eliminating unnatural links from its index.

BuildMyRank.com is one of many commercial websites set up to provide artificial links – a link building service. Here are some quotes from its HomePage. “Serious internet marketers know the only way to improve a site’s ranking is to build high quality, one-way backlinks – and tons of them. Rather than placing these links one at a time, build links quickly by tapping into our wholly-owned network of hundreds of aged, high page rank domains.” “It’s quite simple really. To rank higher, your site needs incoming links from many different sources. And we’re not talking about garbage blog comments or forum spam. You need links from authority sites with targeted anchor keywords and surrounded by relevant content. The more competitive the keyword, the more links you need.” “Unlimited, permanent 1-way backlinks for any number of domains …  Natural looking, contextual links  ….  We’ve invested significant capital to assemble a virtual real estate empire of aged, high page rank domains with tons of link juice. And since the search engines love to see links from many different sources, we host these domains over many different Class C IP addresses. All precautions are taken to minimize any footprints that the search engines might use to devalue the network’s link power.”

From early 2012, there have been numerous publications on the web confirming that Google has joined the most effective and popular blog networks, mapped out their domains and deindexed them. This means that backlinks from these domains have become worthless.

The best means to acquire links is to build quality content that will attract them naturally. Blog commenting with worthwhile information may encourage others to visit your website and a small percentage of these will provide real links.

 

 

This entry is filed under Off-Page Optimisation - Link Building and tagged .

Matt Cutts announces major alteration to Google algorithm – due May/June 2012

By on March 20, 2012

In a recent audio conference, Matt Cutts was given the opportunity to explain that Google is about to make an important change to its positioning algorithm. Essntially, Google is continuing to expand means to promote websites that are producing great content and to reduce the potential benefits of overdoing SEO.

Q: A lot of markets are getting saturated with ‘optimized content’. What is Google doing to try to counter this?

A: (Matt Cutts) | That is a fantastic question. Normally, we do not pre-announce changes but there is something we have been working on for the last few months. We hope to release it in the next coming weeks. The idea is to try and level the playning ground. So all those people who have been doing ‘over optimization’ – we want to make the playing field more level.

We try to make the Googlebot smarter. We try to make our relevance more adaptive. And we also start to look at the people who try to abuse it. Whether they throw too many keywords on the page, or they exchange way too many links or whatever they are doing beyond what a normal person would expect.

The relevant section of the audio can be found on Matt Cutts Audio

This entry is filed under Google algorithm, Uncategorized.

Backlinktopia Review | Backlinking Software| Document Sharing Websites

By on March 3, 2012

Backlinktopia is backlinking software that claims to be “Revolutionary Software Plucks Website From Google’s Abyss… And Effortlessly Zooms It To Page #1 Rankings”. (http://www.backlinktopia.com/). In this Backlinktopia review, we look at its potential for SEOs.

The website suggests that previous modes of backlinking are futile. It goes on to explain that Social media, article writing, link pyramids, blog commenting, expensive tools and outsourcing are a waste of time and money and furthermore they are “all about to go downhill…. Because unless you’re armed with a state of the art, powerful backlinking software you’re about to get left behind.”

So what is the magic that Backlinktopia provides?

Backlinktopia claims to build quality PR6-8 backlinks on complete autopilot and reap #1 Google spots effortlessly.

Essentially, you prepare pdf files ready for submission to document sharing websites such as Scribd.com (HPR – HomePage PageRank 8) . There are plenty of other document sharing websites including DocStoc (HPR6),   Google Docs (HPR8),  Microsoft Office Online (HPR6) and Gazhoo.com (HPR3).

Will Backlinktopia build PR6-8 backlinks and reap #1 Google spots effortlessly?

There are two reasons that this will not happen:

  1. The backlink value depends on the PR of the webpage giving the link and not the PR of the HomePage. The HPR of Scribd.com, for example, may be 8 but the new internal page where your documents will be placed on a new page that has to be indexed by Google and then have content of value to have any chance of even achieving PR1.
  2. I ran a test of 20 webpages on Scribd for internet marketing, software and SEO. These document webpages were aged between 1 and 4 years and were the top ones for my searches on the Scribd website. Not one of these document webpages had even been indexed by Google.

Summary:

Backlinktopia is automated backlinking software designed to upload as many pdf documents as you would like to various document sharing websites and you can place a backlink to your website with your preferred keywords in the anchor text. As the backlinks will be on webpages that will not have significant PR, the value of the backlink would be questionable.

Comment:

Backlinks are even more important than content for top positioning on Google for search terms with reasonable traffic.

Creating backlinks that are not naturally acquired has minimal, if any, long-term benefits.

 

 

 

This entry is filed under SEO Software Review.

The Top Two Factors In The Google Algorithm: A Clinical Approach

By on October 18, 2011

I came across the top two factors for top positioning by chance.
Several of my webpages were in top position for some keywords (search terms). Some dropped from #1 to #2.

What did the pages that were now in #1 position have that my demoted #2 pages did not?
Search engine optimisation depends on on-page factors (content and coding) and off-page factors (links from other websites). A comparison of the on-page scores of the new #1 pages were lower than mine. The new #1 webpages had one or two incoming links with minimal link value and PageRanks 0 – less than mine. PageRank indicates total value of incoming links to a webpage with the best pages scoring 10.
The new #1 pages were publications in national newspapers’ websites. Whilst the PageRanks of the new #1 webpages were all 0, the Homepage PageRanks (HPR) ranged from 6 to 8. It was not the authorities of the individual webpages that were pushing mine down, but the authority of their respective websites as indicated by their HPRs.
There were a few exceptions to the rule occurring with some medium difficulty keywords. Most of these top page positioned webpages with HPR0 for medium keyword difficulty were themselves Homepages.
Google has been all about “authority” as indicated by links from other websites. Google is providing a boost in effective PageRank to Homepages when they are competing for a keyword (the second factor in the Google algorithm – G-Factor 2).
Web techies are welcome to test the validity of the top two factors as explained above. Search any keyword on Google with either Internet Explorer or Firefox with the Google toolbar active. Check the PR of any of the webpages on the top Google SERP and also the corresponding HomePage PageRank. If one of the top webpages is a HomePage with PR less than 5, add the G-Factor 2 boost so that the adjusted HPR becomes 5.

This entry is filed under Search Engine Optimization.

Websites – Missed Opportunities

By on October 17, 2011

The Internet is an amazing place to display information and the potential to reach an audience of billions worldwide. The search engines, such as Google, will advertise snippets of your information on their results pages without charge. For those with commercial interests it all sounds so incredibly attractive.

On the negative side, if your webpages are not on the top search engine results page for your targeted keywords they are unlikely to be found by more than a few of your anticipated audience.
For those new to website promotion it quickly becomes apparent that search engine optimisation is required. At first the research looks encouraging as there is a ‘googol’ of information and everyone claims to have answers. A few ‘guaranteed’ improvements are enthusiastically made to your website. You relax, sit back and wait for your bank manager to call you asking if you have won the lottery: Invariably nothing happens – no call – no busloads of visitors or clients and no sign of that life of luxury.

Sadly, search engine optimisation has acquired a bad press. There are no regulations and anyone can claim expertise. Understandably, many website owners become totally disillusioned with website optimisation and settle for a web presence only. The cost of a couple of hours SEO, however, is likely to be more than offset by two or three additional new clients.

I more than sympathise with website owners who take a negative view to all things SEO. The fact is that for the majority of small and medium sized business websites, the internet will not bring about a change in lifestyle. However, in terms of return on investment, SEO with guidance from a genuine optimiser is likely to outperform other marketing strategies.

Most web designers have wonderful artistic skills but only a minority understand SEO beyond the absolute basics. SEO is a science rather than an art. A beautiful website that has not been adequately optimised will fail to deliver.

This entry is filed under General Comments.

10 Hidden Key Facts You Need To Know About Getting To The Top Of Google

By on October 11, 2011

 What does it take for a website to get to the coveted top page on Google for a keyword? The team at Google is remarkably skilful at revealing a little information whilst concealing many key facts.

  1. HomePage PageRank (HPR) is the top factor in the Google algorithm: Compelling and readily verifiable evidence has recently been published that demonstrates this (G-Factor-1). The PageRank (PR) of the webpage we are browsing appears in an indicator on the Google toolbar (Internet Explorer or Firefox only). A pop-up appears by the indicator when we hover the cursor over it informing us that “PageRank is Google’s view of the importance of this page” followed by a number/10. The author believes that we should read this more fully as – “PageRank of the HomePage is Google’s view of the importance of this page – number/10″. 
  2. Google gives a boost to the effective PageRank of a HomePage that is competing for a keyword; this is the second factor in the Google algorithm (G-Factor-2). 
  3. We are only shown integer values of PageRank and not the decimal places known to Google (PR 4 rather than 4.6788834 for example). 
  4. As we are provided with integer readings of PR only, we see changes in PageRank as major steps that happen infrequently. As PageRank has many decimal places, changes to PageRank as far as Google is concerned, are usually no more than a small upward or downward slide along a continuous slope. If a webpage has an HPR of 6.00001 we will see it as PR6. Even if the total value of incoming links to the page stays constant, the Google index of webpages is expanding and this page may slip to a PR of 5.99999 but we will see it as PR5 at the next PageRank update. In terms of positioning on the SERPs, there would be no change because, from Google’s perspective, there has been virtually no change in PR.
  5. Google frequently updates PR information for itself but only releases updates to the public at intervals varying between a few weeks to many months. 
  6. When PageRank updates are released, they are already out of date by at least three months. 
  7. Google tells us that ‘Page’ in PageRank relates to one of the two Google co-founders – Larry Page. Whilst this is undoubtedly true, it also refers to the webpage. 
  8. If all the other factors (there are at least 200) of two webpages competing for a keyword are identical, the one with the higher HPR would be listed above the other in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). 
  9. Google does not keep us fully informed about those links to a website that it recognises. A ‘link:URL’ search on Google will return only a few of those revealed by other search engines. 
  10. The best indicator of keyword difficulty is the average adjusted HPR (allowing for the G-Factor-2) of the webpages on the top Google search engine results page (SERP) – HPR-KD. These tend to be in a narrow range.

PageRank

Google determines PageRank of a webpage in two stages.

It summates the value of all the incoming links to the webpage. The value of each link is dependent on the PR of the linking page divided by the number of outgoing links on that page.

 

Every page indexed by Google is ranked according to the total value of its incoming links. This is derived mathematically and is independent of such factors as relevancy or anchor text. The webpages are not in 11 groups (PR0 -10) but in a continuous league because of the decimal places known to Google.

The most popular webpages have PR10. PageRank is on a logarithmic rather than a linear scale. Experts are divided as to the base number of the log scale but one group with good quality data, suggest that it is to a base somewhere between 8 and 9. If it is 8 this would mean that for every webpage with PR10 there would be 8 with PR9, 64 with PR 8, 512 with PR7 and 858,993,452 pages with PR0.

Google moved ahead of its search engine competitors by incorporating user signals into its positioning algorithm. Initially this focused on PageRank but the recent Panda updates take into account additional signals such as time spent on a website. Reassuringly, published keyword difficulty data analyses before and after Panda have demonstrated that the average HPR-KD for a cohort of 1000 keywords has remained stable. Those webpages that were demoted by Panda have been replaced by others with similar HPR.

The majority of respected search engine optimizers have come to the opinion that PageRank has lost most of its earlier importance and many regard PageRank these days as irrelevant. It is impossible, retrospectively, to evaluate the importance of PageRank when it was first introduced into the Google algorithm more than a decade ago. The literature, however, would suggest that the PageRank of the individual page played a major role in determining positioning on SERPs at that time.

There are many examples of internal web pages with PR0 having top page positioning on Google for extremely competitive keywords. Clearly, PageRank of internal pages is not currently a major factor in the Google algorithm. It is this observation that has led so many SEO experts to give little import to PageRank in webpage positioning.

HomePage PageRank is the top factor in the Google algorithm.

The internal webpages with PR0 on the top page of Google for high difficulty keywords, however, are invariably found on websites with HPR of at least 4 and often 6 or more. It became apparent that whereas the PageRank of an internal webpage has no major influence in the Google algorithm, the HomePage PageRank of the website is the top factor.

There are also examples of webpages with HPR0 having top page positioning for medium difficulty keywords but careful observation shows that it is the HomePage itself that is competing. This observation formed the basis for the conclusion that Google assumes that the HomePage of a website has the greatest authority and Google is providing a boost to its competitive PR. HomePages with HPR0-4 have their effective HPR boosted to 5. There is no visible increase when the HPR is 5 or greater.

Average adjusted HomePage PageRank keyword difficulty – HPR-KD

The average adjusted HPR of the webpages on the top Google SERP for a keyword is the best indicator of keyword difficulty (HPR-KD). This can be easily missed as the range of values is small.

The HPR-KDs for a series of keywords on Google.co.uk are:-

website 7.2

design 6.3

website design 5.5

website designer 5.4

website designerLondon5.1

website designerNorth London4.8

website designer Wembley 3.6.

HPR-KDs are in a narrow range because;

· PageRank is allocated logarithmically; an HPR of 4 equates to about 2,500 average value links, HPR5 to 75,000 and HPR6 to 250,000.

· The G-Factor-2 boost for HomePages competing for a keyword to at least PR5 means that the average adjusted HPR of the top webpages on the Google SERPs is rarely less than 3.5.

All the webpages on a new Wembley website designer’s website when indexed would have PRs of 0. In practice, only the HomePage of the website could compete for any worthwhile keywords because of the G-Factor-2 boost. Experience shows that initially only keywords with HPR-KD 4.3 or less are within range. This Wembley website could from the beginning target ‘website designer Wembley’ and with appropriate on-page optimisation should reach the top page of Google. The keyword ‘website designerNorth London’ would be out of range as the HPR-KD is 4.8. Internal webpages on a new website will have HPRs of 0 and will not be able to compete for any worthwhile keywords.

Guidelines have been produced to indicate the minimum HPR a website requires to have any chance of top page positioning for keywords on Google depending on their HPR-KDs. These guidelines differentiate between the required HPR according to whether it is the HomePage or an internal page that will be competing. The guidelines have been produced to show when at least two webpages with equal or lower HPR than the planned competing webpage are likely to be found on the top page of Google.

 

 

This entry is filed under On-Page Optimisation, Uncategorized and tagged .