How Do Search Engines Rank Websites
© 2009, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.
Search engine ranking involves a combination of proprietary secrets and public knowledge.
For instance, search engine marketing specialists know that each search engine company has its own algorithm. These algorithms are basically a way to automatically evaluate and rank websites based on a set of pre-defined criteria.
What are these pre-defined criteria, you ask?
Well, now we're getting into the proprietary part of all this. Obviously, search engines companies do not want their competitors to know how they develop their algorithms. Nor do they want SEO companies to know these secrets.
But with all that said, there's plenty of public knowledge about how to make a website more visible and better ranked. Let me caution you on something though. Don't ever do anything just for the search engines. That's a bad habit to develop.
Always put people before search engines. Make website improvements for your readers and customers first, and for the search engines second. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, here are some of the basic criteria that can improve search engine rankings.
1. Keyword usage / relevance - Let's say there are two websites about San Diego real estate. They are equal in all regards except one. Website 'A' uses the phrases "San Diego real estate" throughout key locations on the site. But website 'B' hardly uses the full phrase at all, often dropping the city name and mentioning plain old "real estate" instead. Because of this fundamental difference in key phrase usage, website 'A' will outrank website 'B' for San Diego real estate phrases.
2. Age of domain - How old a website is also plays a role in how well it ranks. This is especially true with Google, since the number-one search engine tends to favor older, well-established sites (too much, in my opinion). So let's assume that our two San Diego real estate websites websites are the same size and have similar, keyword-rich content. But this time, website 'A' is 8 years old and website 'B' is 14 months old. Chances are, website 'A' will outrank the younger website.
3. Size of website - In this scenario, our two real estate websites are the exact same age, have similar keyword-rich content, and are similar in most other regards. But this time, website 'A' has 45 pages of content, and website 'B' only has five pages of content. Website 'A' will likely outrank the smaller website 'B' in the search engines. More importantly, it will be able to appear in more searches for a broader range of search phrases, since it has all that content to work with.
4. Link popularity - This refers to the quantity and quality of inbound links (hyperlinks from other websites leading to your website). There's a lot to "link building," as it's known. But for this introduction, suffice it to say that inbound links build link popularity, and link popularity increases search engine ranking. So if our two real estate websites are equal in most regards, but website 'A' has three times as many links coming in as website 'B' ... website 'A' will once again ranking higher than website 'B.'
Learn More
If you would like a more exact plan for better search engine ranking, check out my latest book, Top Ten Agent.
For instance, search engine marketing specialists know that each search engine company has its own algorithm. These algorithms are basically a way to automatically evaluate and rank websites based on a set of pre-defined criteria.
What are these pre-defined criteria, you ask?
Well, now we're getting into the proprietary part of all this. Obviously, search engines companies do not want their competitors to know how they develop their algorithms. Nor do they want SEO companies to know these secrets.
But with all that said, there's plenty of public knowledge about how to make a website more visible and better ranked. Let me caution you on something though. Don't ever do anything just for the search engines. That's a bad habit to develop.
Always put people before search engines. Make website improvements for your readers and customers first, and for the search engines second. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, here are some of the basic criteria that can improve search engine rankings.
1. Keyword usage / relevance - Let's say there are two websites about San Diego real estate. They are equal in all regards except one. Website 'A' uses the phrases "San Diego real estate" throughout key locations on the site. But website 'B' hardly uses the full phrase at all, often dropping the city name and mentioning plain old "real estate" instead. Because of this fundamental difference in key phrase usage, website 'A' will outrank website 'B' for San Diego real estate phrases.
2. Age of domain - How old a website is also plays a role in how well it ranks. This is especially true with Google, since the number-one search engine tends to favor older, well-established sites (too much, in my opinion). So let's assume that our two San Diego real estate websites websites are the same size and have similar, keyword-rich content. But this time, website 'A' is 8 years old and website 'B' is 14 months old. Chances are, website 'A' will outrank the younger website.
3. Size of website - In this scenario, our two real estate websites are the exact same age, have similar keyword-rich content, and are similar in most other regards. But this time, website 'A' has 45 pages of content, and website 'B' only has five pages of content. Website 'A' will likely outrank the smaller website 'B' in the search engines. More importantly, it will be able to appear in more searches for a broader range of search phrases, since it has all that content to work with.
4. Link popularity - This refers to the quantity and quality of inbound links (hyperlinks from other websites leading to your website). There's a lot to "link building," as it's known. But for this introduction, suffice it to say that inbound links build link popularity, and link popularity increases search engine ranking. So if our two real estate websites are equal in most regards, but website 'A' has three times as many links coming in as website 'B' ... website 'A' will once again ranking higher than website 'B.'
Learn More
If you would like a more exact plan for better search engine ranking, check out my latest book, Top Ten Agent.
Labels: Real Estate SEO
posted by Brandon at
7:36 AM
