Top 10 SEO ranking factors

SEOmoz have just released version two of their Search Engine Ranking Factors Guide. It is the result of the collective wisdom of the collective wisdom of 37 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization. The contributors rated each factor on a scale of 1 - 5.

Top 10 positive factors were:

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Global Link Popularity of Site
3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure
5. Age of Site
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
10. Topical Relationship of Linking Page

Top 5 negative factors were:

1. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
2. Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index
3. External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
4. Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links
5. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages

And the most controversial factors were:

1. Manual Authority/Weight Given to Site by Google
2. Relevance of Site's Primary Subject Matter to Query
3. Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links
4. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages
5. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
6. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically)
7. Domain Extension of Linking Site (edu, gov, com, ca, co.uk, etc)
8. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
9. External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
10. TLD Extension of Site (edu, gov, us, ca, com, etc)

The complete SEOmoz report can be read here and it is highly recommended.

Free Keyword Research Tools

Over the past few weeks I have been testing out a few keyword research tools to try and find out which ones are the best. During these trials I looked at the ease of use, features, speed, and the overall interface of the tool.

DigitalPoint Keyword Suggestion Tool

DigitalPoint’s keyword suggestion tool is fairly simple yet powerful. It searches through both the WordTracker and Overture data, and displays the results side by side for easy comparison. The only major thing that I disliked about it was its sluggishness, but then again it is probably a major resource hog.

Ratings:
Ease of use: 9/10
Features: 7/10
Speed: 6/10
Overall: 8/10

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

I would have to say Google’s AdWords keyword tool is one of the best tools for finding profitable niches. You can either type in a keyword, or search a dynamic page for keywords. For example, you could put in yahoo.com, set the maximum bid price to $60, and figure out which niche is high paying. You can also view search trends and keyword popularity.

Ratings:
Ease of use: 8/10
Features: 10/10
Speed: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Free WordTracker Keyword Tool:

The WordTracker tool is pretty basic, it simply displays the number of searches for a specific keyword. It is extremely quick and really simple.

Ratings:
Ease of use: 10/10
Features: 6/10
Speed: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

If you know of any more free keyword tools, feel free to post them in a comment with a quick review of it :)