Wednesday, October 15, 2008

How to improve your ranking

How do search engines rank pages?

Search engines use a ranking algorithm to determine the order in which matching web pages are returned on the results page. Each web page is graded on the number of the search terms it contains, where the words are located in the document, and other criteria that changes frequently.

All search engines have a different method of ranking. That's why you might rank number 1 on one engine and number 25 on another. Robots look for relevance and rank results on a secret ever-changing algorithm. Some look at TITLE, some look at META tags, some look for link popularity. Search engine optimization means optimizing the Web site for the best possible positioning based on the page's keywords and description.

NetMechanic's Search Engine Power Pack has a search engine optimization package that will walk you through the whole optimization process. NetMechanic has numerous experts who have conducted extensive tests to help identify what techniques work to better your ranking in the search engines. Additionally, we have identified what can get you into trouble with search engines.

General tips to get a good ranking.

1. Create a good site with good content.

This is critical, especially as search engines grow in sophistication. If your site contains worthwhile material, users will return to your site and will recommend it to others. Other sites will link to you - which will in turn help you by improving your link popularity.

2. Pick keywords visitors will actually use on a search engine query.

If you have keywords that are very competitive, consider narrowing your focus to improve results. The keyword "horse" will return thousands of responses and may not place you near the top, while "Appaloosa" is more focused and targeted to a particular query.

Consider using a keyword phrase instead of just one keyword. Visitors to search engines use phrases to narrow their searches. For example, instead of using a keyword like "horse" that would return too many responses, use a more specific keyword phrase like "Alabama Quarter horse."

Brainstorm a good list of list of keywords. Tap into other people - a fresh perspective can help uncover words you may have missed. This keyword analysis article offers some useful tips on brainstorming.

Don't just guess at which keywords are popular, get quantitative feedback using the Keyword Popularity tool included in Search Engine Power Pack. Remember, if you pick the wrong keywords, all your optimization will be wasted. See story on Keyword Selection.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

PageRank Facts

PageRank Facts
Every page when created has some PR
All pages start with same PR
Links spread PR
Links never decreases PR
PR is always positive, it can’t be negative

How does Google decide a Web Page Rank?


Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are links pointing
to your website from another website. The more back links you have
the higher your PR will be.
In short a Link is a “vote”, by all the other pages on the Web, about
how important a page is. A link to a page counts as a vote of support.
If there’s no link there’s no support.
Links from and to high quality and related sites have an impact on
Page Rank. If pages linking to you have a high Page Rank then your
page gains some part of their reputation.
While assigning PageRank, Google considers site age, back link
relevancy and back link duration.
Page Rank does not rank web sites as a whole, but is determined for
each page individually.
Multiple votes to one link from the same page cost as much as a single
vote.
Bad incoming links have negative impact on Page Rank.
Each inbound link is important to the overall total. Except from
banned sites, which harm.



Link Master

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Google Page Rank

Google Page Rank

What is PageRank?

Page Rank is one of the mathematical methods Google uses to determine a web page’s relevancy or importance. In other words, it determines the probability of finding a page by randomly surfing the web. Actually it is numeric value of importance of a web page between 0 and more than 2 billion.

Difference between ‘Real’ PR and Toolbar PR

The Google Toolbar displays an exponential approximation of real PR.

Each move up on the Toolbar PR means Ten times increase in Actual PR which is decided by Google internally and is never disclosed.

Toolbar PR

Actual PR

0

0 – 0.25

1

0.25 – 2.5

2

2.5 – 25

3

25 - 250

4

250 – 2500

And so on….

We don’t need to know ‘Real’ PR

PR is a competition.

We need more than our competitors.

This way, even ‘Real’ PR is relative.

PageRank Formula

PR(u) = (1-d) + d* SUM(PR(v)/N(v)))

u = Linked Page

v = Linking Page

N(v) = Number of outbound link on v

d = Damping factor, normally set to 0.85

Continue….