Google Ranking - Factors

Have you ever wondered why some sites are ranked so high on Google and why other sites are no where to be found? Over the last 5 or 6 years Google has been tweaking their algorithm to analyze on page (code) and off page (links) factors which affect how websites rank on their popular search engine. Here is a list of the factors that Google analyzes and a viewpoint that Google can take when analyzing a site:

Title Tags

1. Keywords - the keywords within the title tag should represent the content on the page.
2. Length - the title tag should be short and to the point.

Recommendations

* When creating a title tag make sure it is both unique and concise.
* Try to keep the number of characters between 60 and 80.
* If you have a blog try to make the title tag the name of the blog entry instead of the name of your blog.
* Do not try to stuff too many keywords in your title tag.
* Make sure that the title tag is readable and makes sense to your website's visitors.

URL

1. URL structure - the URLs of a website should be static with no extraneous characters.
2. Keywords - URLs should contain keywords as long as they are relevant to the content.

Recommendations

* Remove any extraneous characters from your URL strings (%&$?...)
* Try to add keywords in the URL strings but make sure that they represent the webpage.
* Make your URLs end with a .html or .htm extension or appear to be a subdirectory (about.html or /about).

Meta Description Tag

1. Keywords - the keywords in the meta description tag should represent the content of the page.
2. Length - the meta description should be short and to the point.
3. Unique - each page should have a unique meta description.

Recommendations

* Make the description a complete sentence so it is easy to read and understand.
* Try not to make the meta description tag longer then 120 characters.
* Do not use the same meta description tag throughout your site, each page should have a different tag. Many times it is best to just place the first one or two sentences from the content into the meta description tag.
* If possible, use only a couple of keywords in your meta description and try to place them towards the beginning.

Headings

1. Text type - sites should use H1, H2, and H3 tags
2. Keywords - the keywords in the heading tags should represent the content of the page.

Recommendations

* Use H1-H3 tags over H4 or lower tags.
* If you place a keyword in your heading tag, make sure that keyword is also in the content or at least related to the content of the page.
* Make headings short and to the point.

Content

1. Keywords - there should already be keywords within the content if content is written for your visitors. There should also be variations in the keywords (apple, apples) as well as additional related keywords (apple, fruit) within the content.
2. Prominence - the earlier the keywords appear in the content the more likely that the content is related to these keywords.
3. Font - Words within the content that are larger, bolder or italicized are usually considered more important.
4. User - The content should be written for visitors.
5. Links - links within the content should be related to the content.
6. Freshness - content that is updated more frequently may be more useful to searchers.
7. Uniqueness - content that is unique and original will generally rank higher then duplicate content.
8. Quantity - sites that have a only a few pages of quality content.
9. Themes - The content on a website should be based on similar topics or "themes".
10. Keyword density - the keyword density of a website should be similar on context to other related websites.

Recommendations

* Always write content for the user first and then the search engines.
* Try to place keywords throughout the content, also make sure that keywords are related to each other and the content on the page.
* Place links in your content to related websites as well as related conteont on your own website.
* Try to add content on a daily basis.
* Do not worry about keyword density, if the content is on "apples" then you will naturally mention "apples" multiple times within the content.
* Writing on related topics will show that your website is related to that topic and other keywords associated with that topic.
* Content should be unique, try not use content that is also on other websites.
* Use bold and italicized styled text when it makes sense for the readers, do not just do it for the search engines.

Alt Tags

1. Images - all images should have alt tags.
2. Keywords - words in the alt tags should be relevant to the image.
3. Length - alt tags should be short and to the point.

Recommendations

* Place alt tags on all images so you can improve the accessibility of your website.
* You can place keywords in your alt tags as long as they describe the image.
* Make sure your images are links when it makes sense, such as for a company logo.
* Do not stuff alt tags with keywords.
* Length of alt tags can vary, but usually the shorter the better.

Internal Links

1. Keywords - links that contain keywords should be related to the webpage they point to.
2. Titles - links should have titles that represent the anchor text of the link (tool tip).
3. Representation - link text should represent the linked page.

Recommendations

* You can place keywords within the anchor text of internal links but it is best to make sure they are relevant to visitors.
* Do not stuff your anchor text with tons of keywords.
* Keep the anchor text representative of the page you are linking to.
* Make the titles (tool tip) on each link the same as the anchor text.

Indexing

1. Links - by crawling all the links, all the pages of that website should be discovered and indexed.
2. Sitemap - a sitemap should contain links to important pages within a sitwebe.

Recommendations

* Link within your content to other pages within your website this can help Google index all of your pages.
* Create a sitemap that links to all or, at the very least, the important pages on your website.

External Links

1. Authority - if an authority website links to another website, then that other website will be considered valuable to people.
2. Keywords - if there are keywords within the anchor text of a link then it is normal for Google to consider that the website should be ranked for those keywords.
3. Age - the longer a link stays live on a website, the more valuable the link is.
4. Relevance - if a website links to you and another website, both websites, or at least web pages, should be related to the same topic.
5. Quantity - the more outbound links on a page, the less weight each link will have.
6. Extension - sites with important extensions such as .edu and .gov are considered to link to more valuable sites.
7. Freshness - if a site has outbound links and updates frequently, then even the old outbound links are considered to be valuable.
8. Link count - if a lot of websites link to one website, then that one website is considered useful to people.
9. Linking websites - links from related websites are better then links from non-related websites.
10. DMOZ - websites that are in DMOZ and link out to other websites are considered to link to good sites.
11. Placement - links within a website's content is considered better then links in the footer of a website.

Recommendations

* Try to get links from authority websites.
* Do not participate in link exchanges to build up your link popularity.
* Try not to purchase all page links.
* Do not go for links from high PageRank websites; instead go for links from related websites.
* Links from directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo Directory can not just help with search engine rankings but can also drive traffic.
* Use the new social websites such as MySpace, digg, del.icio.us, and YouTube to build link popularity.
* If you purchase text links try to keep them live as long as possible. The older the link, the better.
* Links from .edu or .gov websites will usually carry more weight and greater benefit.
* Stay away from websites and blogs that link out to non-related websites or that may seem spammy.

Code

1. Size - the size of the code on a website should be streamlined, the less KB it takes up, the better.
2. Clean - sites that are using web standards and have clean code usually load up faster for users.

Recommendations

* Use CSS to make your page size smaller.
* Use CSS to help improve the cleanliness of your code.

Website

1. Website Age - older websites are considered more relevant then newer websites.
2. Visit Length - in most cases the longer people stay on a website the great the chance that the website is useful to them.
3. Sandbox - websites in the Google sandbox are usually not as relevant compared to older websites.
4. 301 redirect - websites should do a 301 redirect from "yourdomain.com" to "www.yourdomain.com" or vice versa, depending on the circumstance.

Recommendations

* Try to register your domain name for more then 1 year.
* Use a 301 permanent redirect so that your website appears as 1 website instead of two separate websites. (www and the non-www are looked as two sites unless your do a redirect from one to the other)
* Try to grow at a natural rate; growing too fast may put you in the Google sandbox.

The following are some factors that Google may look at in a negative way:

1. Visibility - websites with invisible text might be trying to trick Google.
2. Over optimization - websites that are overly optimized may not be relevant for any search terms.
3. Keyword stuffing - websites with too many keywords stuffed into the content might be trying to trick Google.
4. Reciprocal links - websites that link between each other too many times might be trying to cheat.
5. Cloaking - websites that show Google a different page then what the viewer sees usually get banned.
6. Anchor text - if all the websites linking to a website have the same anchor text, those links will not be considered natural.
7. Doorway pages - if tons of 1 page websites filled with keywords are linking to another website, the ranking of that website can be affected negatively.
8. Frames - it is hard for Google to crawl and index a website with frames, which can make it harder to rank that website.
9. Flash - it is hard to read/crawl websites made fully in flash which will make it harder to rank Flash websites.
10. All page links - if tons of websites link to another website on every one of their pages then the text links may have been purchased, which is frowned upon by Google.
11. 301 redirects - websites that have tons of other websites redirecting into them might be trying to increase their link count to rank high, so Google may penalize these websites.