The Five Most Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- An internal source at Google leaked a ton of information about how Google’s automated search engine ranking algorithms work.
- Among the findings is that user clicks are more or less seen as votes about what content is most worth ranking.
- Linking is also, predictably, a big factor here, but a significant finding is that links that do not go to the target site can result in a bad ranking.
- Google will keep copies of every page that you can create, allowing it to track any changes that you may make to the page.
- A big determiner of success in SEO is whether you have managed to successfully build a brand presence, online and off. More notable brands get better rankings.
A Remarkable and Historical Document Leak
In the popular imagination, a document leak is mostly considered big-time if it exposes a government. Think, for instance, of the whole WikiLeaks saga. WikiLeaks a literal virtual ton of documents relating to the United States government’s handling of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
But still significant to many people are leaks of a more technical, admittedly nerdier and less eye-catching kind. A notable example being the recent leaking of information about Google’s search engine ranking algorithm.
This algorithm is one of the most important automated platforms on earth. It more or less determines what information pops up on an Internet user’s Google search engine results page (SERP).
Of much consequence, then, is a leak to SEO practitioners. This leak offers a peek into the mysterious rules that were once only guessed by outsiders to govern this algorithm.
Some of the findings are quite obvious, while others are somewhat juicy. We go over some of the key findings below.
The Centrality of Links
Yes, they indeed matter, and this has been common knowledge even pre-leak.
You need to first and foremost make sure that your links go to more notable or “prestigious” sources (e.g., linking to the Encyclopedia Britannica instead of Urban Dictionary when defining a phrase).
Reputation matters to the algorithm, even if you disagree about the centrality of sources in the popular imagination. And so, go with the “safest” links, such as well-recognized dictionaries.
You will also want to monitor for toxic links. These are the kinds of links that were paid for featuring in an article. If you paid for your site to be featured in one of those get-ranked-quick web sites, then that can have a negative impact on your SEO.
Clicks=Votes
So apparently users are treated something like voters for rankworthy content, and their clicks function more or less as their votes.
The longest click in a session gets stored by Google, according to a report by SEORoundtable.
Basically, the big takeaway here is that getting clicks on your site can be a good way to boost your ranking online.
Copies, Copies, and More Copies
Did you hear about the copying thing?
Apparently Google creates copies of every page created, including updated pages, so that it can track the changes that a site makes to its content.
This should lead us to do away with any illusion that editing a page is like making some change while the algorithm is looking away, and then when it looks back it only sees the changed document.
Instead, it is more like the algorithm is keeping tabs on all the changes that you make to content. Then, it considers the quality of our rewrites and attempts at refurbishing content.
The All-important Branding Conundrum
So here is another big finding: brand matters.
Like, really matters.
Your brand basically speaks to the level of click-worthiness that your web site has in the eyes of the algorithm.
So, a good brand will get good rankings.
Things get a bit frustratingly paradoxical if you really consider the issue here: to build a noteworthy brand online, you need to have a noteworthy brand.
Easy enough to do if you are already well-known outside of the internet, like a major auto manufacturer may be.
Ranking well in SEO as a small business is challenging, especially when starting out and aiming to build brand recognition.
The solution may be to consistently follow proven SEO methods to grow your online presence and become a notable brand.
And do all the work you can outside of Google to build your brand. Whether it is on social media or through physical-world advertising like billboards or flyers, building your brand can be the royal road to better ranking on Google’s search engine.
There is still so much more to get into about the search engine algorithm’s updates, and we are sure to dig into that in later articles.
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