SEO Optimization | |
There are "over 200 SEO factors" that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results (SERPs). What are the search engine optimization rules?
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(Keeping in mind the converse, of course, that when violated, some of these factors immediately jump into the NEGATIVE On-Page Ranking Factors domain.) The term "Keyword" below refers to the "Keyword Phrase", which can be one word or more. Green rows confirmed by Google patent - updated 08-10-06 |
Patent Claim # | # | ON-Page SEO Factors | Brief Note |
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| | Google patent - Topic extraction |
HOT | | Keyword in URL | First word is best, second is second best, etc. |
HOT | | Keyword in Domain name | Same as in page-name-with-hyphens |
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| Keywords - Header |
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HOT | | Keyword in Title tag | Keyword in Title tag - close to beginning |
- | | Keyword in Description meta tag | Shows theme - less than 200 chars. |
- | | Keyword in Keyword metatag | Shows theme - less than 10 words. |
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| Keywords - Body |
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- | | Keyword density in body text | 5 - 20% - (all keywords/ total words) |
- | | Individual keyword density | 1 - 6% - (each keyword/ total words) |
HOT | | Keyword in H1, H2 and H3 | Use Hx font style tags appropriately |
- | | Keyword font size | "Strong is treated the same as bold, italic is treated the same as emphasis" . . . Matt Cutts July 2006 |
- | | Keyword proximity (for 2+ keywords) | Directly adjacent is best |
- | | Keyword phrase order | Does word order in the page match word order in the query? |
- | | Keyword prominence (how early in page/tag) | Can be important at top of page, in bold, in large font |
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| Keywords - Other |
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- | | Keyword in alt text | Should describe graphic - Do NOT fill with spam |
- | | Keyword in links to site pages (anchor text) | Links out anchor text use keyword? |
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| NAVIGATION - INTERNAL LINKS |
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SITE | | To internal pages- keywords? | Link should contain keywords. |
SITE | | All Internal links valid? | Validate all links to all pages on site. |
SITE | | Efficient - tree-like structure | TRY FOR two clicks to any page - no page deeper than 4 clicks |
SITE | | Intra-site linking | Appropriate links between lower-level pages |
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| NAVIGATION - OUTGOING LINKS |
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| 19 | To external pages- keywords? | Google patent - Link only to good sites. Do not link to link farms. CAREFUL - Links can and do go bad, resulting in site demotion. Unfortunately, you must devote the time necessary to police your outgoing links - they are your responsibility. |
| 20 | Outgoing link Anchor Text | Google patent - Should be on topic, descriptive |
| 21 | Link stability over time | Google patent - Avoid "Link Churn" |
- | | All External links valid? | Validate all links periodically. |
- | | Less than 100 links out total | Google says limit to 100, |
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| OTHER ON-Page Factors |
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- | | Domain Name Extension | .gov sites seem to be the highest status |
- | | File Size | Try not to exceed 100K page size (however, some subject matter, such as this page, requires larger file sizes). |
| | Hyphens in URL | Preferred method for indicating a space, where there can be no actual space |
12, 13 | 27 | Freshness of Pages | Google patent - Changes over time |
| 28 | Freshness - Amount of Content Change | New pages - Ratio of old pages to new pages |
| 29 | Freshness of Links | Google patent - May be good or bad |
- | | Frequency of Updates | Frequent updates = frequent spidering = newer cache |
- | | Page exhibit theme? General consistency? | |
- | | Stem, stems, stemmed, stemmer, | |
- | | Synonyms, CIRCA white paper | |
- | | LSI | Latent Semantic Indexing - Speculation, no proof |
- | | URL length | Keep it minimized - use somewhat less than the 2,000 characters allowed by IE - less than 100 is good, less is even better |
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| OTHER ON-SITE Factors |
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| 36 | Site Size - Google likes big sites |
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| 37 | Site Age | Google patent - Old is best. Old is Golden. |
| 38 | Age of page vs. age of site | Age of page vs. age of other pages on site |
| Note: For ALL the POSITIVE On-Page factors listed above, |
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| # | ON-Page SEO Factors | Brief Note |
| | Text presented in graphics form only | Text represented graphically is invisible to search engines. |
| | Affiliate site? | The Florida update went after affiliates with a vengeance - flower and travel affiliates were hit hard - cookie-cutter sites with massive inter-linking, but little unique content. Subsequent updates have also targeted affiliates. |
| | Penalty for over-compliance with well-established, accepted web optimization practices. Too high keyword repetition (keyword stuffing) may get you the OOP. Overuse of H1 tags has been mentioned. Meta-tag stuffing. | |
| | Link to a bad neighborhood | Don't link to link farms, FFAs (Free For All's) |
| | Redirect thru refresh metatags | Don't immediately send your visitor to another page other than the one he/ she clicked on, using meta refresh. |
| | Vile language - ethnic slur | Including the George Carlin 7 bad words you can't say on TV, plus the 150 or so that followed. Don't shoot yourself right straight in the foot. Also, avoid combinations of normal words, which when used together, become something else entirely - such as the word juice, and the word l0ve. See why I wrote that zero? I don't even want to get a proximity penalty, either. Paranoia, or caution? You decide. I always want to try to put my "best foot forward". |
| | The word "Links" in a title tag has been suggested to be a bad idea. Here is my list of Poison Words for Adsense. This penalty has been loosened - many of these words now appear in normal context, with no problems. But watch your step. | |
| | - within the same C block (IP=xxx.xxx.CCC.xxx) | |
| | Stealing images/ text blocks from another domain | Copyright violation - Google responds strongly |
| | Keyword stuffing threshold | In body, meta tags, alt text, etc. = demotion |
| | Keyword dilution | Targeting too many unrelated keywords on a page, which would detract from theming, and reduce the importance of your REALLY important keywords. |
| 50 | Page edit - can reduce consistency | Google patent - |
| 51 | Frequency of Content Change | Google patent - Too frequent = bad |
| 52 | Freshness of Anchor Text | Google patent - Too frequent = bad |
| | Dynamic Pages | Problematic - know pitfalls - shorten URLs, reduce variables (". . no more than 2 or 3", M.Cutts July 2006), lose the session IDs |
| | Don't use for redirects, or hiding links | |
| | Flash page - NOT | Most (all-?) SE spiders can't read Flash content |
| | Use of Frames | Spidering Problems with Frames - STILL |
- | | Robot exclusion "no index" tag | Intentional self-exclusion |
- | | Single pixel links | A red flag - one reason only - a sneaky link. |
- | | Invisible text | OK - No penalty - Google advises against this. |
- | | Gateway, doorway page |
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- | | Duplicate content (YOUR'S) | OK - No penalty - Google advises against this. |
- | | HTML code violations | Doesn't matter - Google advises against this. |
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| Since the above 4 items are so controversial, I would like to add this comment: | IN GENERAL, this works pretty well to keep webmasters in line. The fallacy of this is that attentive webmasters can readily observe continuing, blatant exceptions to these official pronouncements.
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| Phrase-based ranking, filters, penalties | Feb. 2007 - Google patent granted. Do not use phrases that have been associated and correlated with known spamming techniques, or you will be penalized. What phrases? Ahh, you tell me. |
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| # | OFF-Page SEO Factors | Brief Note |
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| INCOMING LINKS : |
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HOT | | Page Rank | Based on the Number and Quality of links to you |
- | | Total incoming links ("backlinks") | Historically, FAST counted best (www.alltheweb.com). |
- | | Incoming links from high-ranking pages | In 2004, Google used to count (report) the links from all PR4+ pages that linked to you. In 2005-2006, Google reported only a small fraction of the links, in what seemed like an almost random manner. In Feb. 2007, Google markedly upgraded (increased) the number of links that they report. |
- | 66 | Acceleration of link popularity | Google patent |
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| FOR EACH INCOMING LINK : |
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- | | Page rank of the referring page | Based on the quality of links to you |
HOT | | Anchor text of | Contains keyword, key phrase? |
| 69 | Age of link | Google patent - Old = Good. |
| 70 | Frequency of change of anchor text | Google patent - Not good. Why would you do that? |
| | Popularity of referring page | Popularity = desirability, respect |
- | | # of outgoing links on referrer page | Fewer is better - makes yours more important |
- | | Position of link on referrer page | Early in HTML is best |
- | | Keyword density on referring page | For search keyword(s) |
- | | HTML title of referrer page | Same subject/ theme? |
| 76 | Link from "Expert" site? | Google patent - Big time boost (Hilltop or Condensed Hilltop) |
- | | Referrer page - Same theme | From the same or related theme? BETTER |
- | | Referrer page - Different theme | From different or unrelated theme? WORSE |
- | | Image map link? | Problematic? |
- | | Javascript link? | Problematic- attempt to hide link? |
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| DIRECTORIES : |
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| | Site listed in DMOZ Directory? The "Secret Hand" DMOZ Issues | This is a tough one. |
- | | DMOZ category? | Theme fit category? |
| | Site listed in Yahoo Directory? | Big boost - You can get in by paying $299 each year. |
- | | Site listed in LookSmart Directory? | Boost? Another great vote for your site. |
| | Site listed in inktomi? | Inktomi has been absorbed internally by Yahoo. |
- | | Site listed in other directories (About, etc.) | Directory listing boost (If other RESPECTED directories link to you, this must be positive.) |
- | | Expert site? (Hilltop or Condensed Hilltop) | Large-sized site, quality incoming links |
HOT | 88 | Site Age - Old shows stability | Google patent |
- | | Site Age - Very New Boost | Temporary boost for very new sites - I estimate that this boost lasts from 1 week to 3 weeks - Yahoo does it too. |
- | | Site Directory - Tree Structure | Influences SERPs - logical, consistent, conventional |
- | | Complete - keywords in anchor text | |
- | | Site Size | Previously, many pages preferred - conferred authority upon site, thus page. Bigger sites = better SERPs |
- | | Site exhibit theme? Use many related terms? | |
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| PAGE METRICS - USER BEHAVIOR: | Currently implemented through the Google tool bar? |
| 94 | Google patent - # of visitors, trend | |
| 95 | Page Selection Rate - CTR | Google patent - How often is a page clicked on? |
| 96 | Time spent on page | Google patent - Relatively long time = indicates relevance hit |
| 97 | Did user Bookmark page? | Google patent - Bookmark = Good |
| 98 | Bookmark add/ removal frequency | Google patent - Recent = Good? |
| | How they left, where they went | Back button, link clicked, etc. |
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| SITE METRICS - USER BEHAVIOR : | Currently implemented through the Google tool bar? |
| 100 | Google patent - # of visitors, increasing trend = good | |
| | Referrer | Authoritative referrer? |
| | Keyword | Keyword searches used to find you |
- | | Time spent on domain | Relatively long time = indicates relevance hit |
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| DOMAIN OWNER BEHAVIOR : |
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| 104 | Domain Registration Time | Google patent - Domain Expiration Date |
| 105 | Are associated sites legitimate? | |
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| # | OFF-Page SEO Factors | |
- | 120 | Traffic Buying | Have you paid a company for web traffic? It is probably low quality traffic, with a zero conversion rate. Some providers of traffic for traffic's sake may be considered "bad neighborhoods". Can Google discount your traffic (for true popularity), because they know it's mostly phony? |
| 106 | In a nut shell, old links are valued, new links are not. | |
| 107 | Change of Meanings | Query meaning changes over time, due to current events |
| | Zero links to you | You MUST have at least 1 (one) incoming link (back link) from some website somewhere, that Google is aware of, to REMAIN in the index. |
| 109 | Link-buying (Very good IF you don't get caught, | Google patent - Google hates link-buying, because it corrupts their PR model in the worst way possible. |
| 110 | Prior Site Ranking | Google patent - High = Good |
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| | Cloaking | Google promises to Ban! (Presenting one webpage to the search engine spider, and another webpage to everybody else.) |
| | Links from bad neighborhoods, affiliates | Google says that incoming links from bad sites can't hurt you, because you can't control them. Ideally, this would be true. |
| | Penalties - resulting from | Should result in IMPRISONMENT, forthwith! |
- | | Penalty - Google TOS violation | WMG is the worst offender - gobbles up tons of Google server time by nervous Nellie webmasters. Google even mentions them by name. I think that Google will spank you when you cross the threshold, of say, 100 queries per day for the same term, from the same IP. Google can block your IP. Get a Google API. |
| | Server Reliability - S/B >99.9% | What is your uptime? Ever notice a daily time when your server is unavailable, like about 1:30 AM? How diligent must Googlebot be? This is the worst reason to get dropped - you just aren't there! An ISP maintenance interruption can cause delisting.. |
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| Rank Manipulation by (1. Content theft causing you to get a duplicate content penalty, even though your content is the original - Examples - | Impossible by Google definition (except for a few nasty tricks, like making your competition appear to be link spammers) However, an astute observer noticed that Google changed their website to read : | |
- | | Bouncing Ball Algorithm |
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The Google Sandbox - The Single-Biggest SEO Ranking Factor for New Sites Google is clearly fighting spam by sacrificing SERP newness for higher SERP quality. | ||
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| Notes to the Above 120 Google Ranking Factors : |
1 | I have tried to summarize the best opinions of many webmaster forum posters. |
2 | There are no published rules - this is my continuously changing compilation of SEO chatter. This is my semi-annual, one-way technical Google ranking blog, if you will. |
3 | If your keywords are Rare and Unique, then Page Rank doesn't matter. |
4 | If your keywords are very Competitive, then Page Rank becomes very important. |
5 | The fewer incoming links that you have, the more important on-page factors are, for noncompetitive terms. |
6 | There are a million ifs, ors, buts . . . I am attempting a concise summary. |
7 | A few words about the LANGUAGE used on the Google site - |
8 | Become religious. Seek the light. It's there, but you gotta look. Webmaster Guidelines |
"These optimization opinions are too strong - Too much speculation - I wanna see your SEO data! ". . . OK. Here it is - Google Search Engine Optimization Forums |
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1. | NOT A Google, Inc. Site |
2. | In no way, did this data come directly from Google, Inc. |
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