Article written by Steve Wiideman, an OC SEO Expert based in Orange County, California. Get to know the Googlebot and his complicated algorithm, so your website will rank higher in the search engine results pages. Read more below.
Googlebot’s Algorithm
Its you against all of your competitors in the fight for higher search engine rankings. The battleground in this story is Google.com and the weapon of choice is Search Engine Optimization. Allow me, your personal OC SEO Expert to teach you the terrain and how to leverage SEO to win this critical battle for search engine popularity on Google.
First and foremost, don’t waste your time with a calculator or math. The Googlebot has an ever-changing algorithm that would drive you nuts trying to keep up with. But there is a formula you can use to help you cover all the bases with no math required. Here it is:
Quality Incoming Links + SEO Best Practices = Higher PageRank
Quality incoming links, which we’ll define in a moment, are more important to the Googlebot, then to MSN or Yahoo! I can do some SEO work on a website with ZERO incoming links, submit it to MSN and hold the #1 spot for months. Google on the other hand is another story.
So What is a Quality Incoming Link?
Here are some criteria you should consider when developing incoming links:
- Does the page with your link have a PR4+?
- Does the linking page have your keywords in the title? (It should)
- Is the linking page legitimate or a link farm?
- How many outgoing links are the page? (Fewer is better)
- Will the linking page use your keywords in the link text?
- How long will the link stay on the page before dropping? (Aging)
These are just a few considerations to keep in mind when developing quality links. How many links do you need to compete with your competitors? I like to use SEO Elite to peek over the fence and see how many incoming links my competitors have and where they are coming from. It also lets me look at the criteria above (which is awesome). You can download a free trial of SEO Elite here.
SEO Best Practices
If you haven’t picked up a copy of my new eBook entitled The Four Layers of the SEO Model: How to Rank Higher in the Search Engines, you’re missing out on all the SEO Best Practices I know of. These techniques in alignment with quality link development may drastically improve your ability to appease the Googlebot and beat your competitors in the fight for higher search engine rankings!
For more information on the Googlebot’s Algorithm, visit Google.com.
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