Call Us Toll Free
The Latest Innovation in Search Engine Algorithms . . . User
Popularity Promotion and Marketing
For years, the search engines have continued to introduce new factors into
their algorithms to make their search results more relevant and to keep savvy
search engine marketers from "cracking the system."
We've seen many ranking factors come and go in importance. For example, years
ago, META tags were the key to success, or so we thought. Stick in META tags
that were loaded with your keyword phrases, and you were sure to achieve top
rankings.
Then, we had keyword weight as a ranking factor. We struggled to determine
the keyword weight of our competitors' pages, then duplicate that weight in all
of the various areas of our pages.
Along came link popularity, and with it, the massive link farms and link
exchange programs. Web site owners joined as many as they could in an effort to
boost the sheer number of incoming links pointing to their sites.
In the midst of these evolving ranking factors came changes to page
components like the title tag. Put your keyword at the beginning of the tag for
maximum ranking potential. Oops. Things have changed. Put your keyword as the
3rd and 4th words in the title tag. Wait - let's try the 2nd and 3rd words.
These are just a few of the ranking factors that have come into play over the
last several years.
Can you see the potential for problems here?
After all, including keywords in your META tags doesn't mean that the page is
more relevant for those keywords. Just because you have 12,792 worthless links
pointing to your site doesn't mean your site is relevant for your keyword
phrase.
Now, we're in the middle of another "link popularity" or "link reputation"
surge. But the rules have changed. Now, we want sites that are related in
content to our site, or authoritative, popular sites in our focus area.
Okay! Now we're beginning to get on the right track! After all, if an
important, authoritative site in a particular topic area links to your site, it
must mean that your site is important and popular for that subject too. Or, if
other sites in your subject area link to you, it must mean that your site is
truly about that subject as well.
Equally important, or even more so, comes the "link reputation" factor. If
enough popular sites in your topic area use your important keyword phrase when
linking to you, it's telling the search engines that your site is relevant for
that keyword phrase. After all, the Web community has deemed to describe your
site using that keyword phrase, which is a vote of confidence to the search
engines.
Makes sense, except for one small problem. I can have a site that's devoted
to wireless Internet connections, and you can have a site that's devoted to
kitchen utilities. I can link to your site from mine and use the keyword phrase
"kitchen utilities" in the link text. Some of the engines appear to use the link
text as the determining factor when deciding link reputation, not the contents
of the page pointing to the site. So, two sites that aren't related in content
whatsoever could potentially help boost the link reputation of each other's
sites. We may see the engines consider other factors in the near future, such as
the contents of the title tag on the page containing the link, which will help
solve this potential problem to some degree.
However, when looking at all of the factors listed here so far, do any of
them truly prove that the page is relevant to a particular keyword phrase?
With relevancy comes a much more stable, trustworthy search engine. When you
search for a particular topic, you're assured of getting search results that
contain pages with good, solid content related to that keyword phrase.
After all, most people venture onto the Internet looking for information. If
we can provide that information in content-rich, valuable pages, we've done the
search engines, the users, and ourselves a big favor.
With all of these various ranking factors, what is the one area that is
sorely missing?
How about a site ranking algorithm based on a combination of content
relevancy and user popularity data?
"Content" relevancy and "user popularity" aren't as easy to manipulate as
link popularity, link reputation, or even keyword placement, so the search
engine results should certainly be more relevant. After all, anyone who is
concerned about relevancy in search engine rankings should want the most
relevant pages and sites to rise to the top of the rankings. If our pages aren't
the most relevant, we have some work to do!
Introducing an Innovative Search Engine Ranking Algorithm
I just learned of a new search engine that actually uses a combination of
content relevancy and user popularity to determine rankings. It's called
ExactSeek.com.
How does ExactSeek measure user popularity? The engine has teamed up with
Alexa, which offers a toolbar that measures activity on the Web. By measuring
the surfing activity of millions of Alexa users, ExactSeek is able to determine
the user popularity and relevancy of Web sites in its index. User popularity is
a far more reliable indicator of where Web sites should rank and gives users
some input on the search results they see.
Mel Strocen, CEO of Jayde Online, which is the parent company of ExactSeek,
says,
"Alexa traffic data will be a strong
factor in the ExactSeek ranking algorithm but not the dominant factor, that
being page content. Essentially, we've opted to emphasize user popularity over
link popularity."
In fact, in an effort to make the results even more relevant, ExactSeek.com
will be in flux for the next week or two as they work to determine how much
weight to give Alexa traffic data in ranking search results.
The beauty of ExactSeek.com is that the harder you work toward increasing
traffic to your Web site by adding new, relevant content, paying for SEO,
advertising in various publications, investing in a PPC campaign, etc., the
better your rankings will be in ExactSeek.com.
Can User Popularity be Manipulated?
I think a better question would be, what search engine results can't be
manipulated? The key is to consider relevancy and valuable content, which is
something that ExactSeek.com has wisely chosen to focus on.
It's true that not everyone uses the Alexa toolbar. However, it does provide
results based on an excellent sampling of users on the Web. Plus, user
popularity will be more difficult to manipulate than other factors, because it
is certainly more difficult to manipulate the surfing public than it is to
manipulate the search engines.
Give ExactSeek.com a Try!
ExactSeek.com is innovative in more ways than the way it determines rankings.
For example, you can check your site's rankings in the ExactSeek database from a
link on the main page of the engine. How convenient!
In Conclusion . . .
As the search engine industry evolves, we'll begin to see more and more
innovations geared toward arriving at relevant search results that aren't as
easily manipulated as some of the ranking methods in the past. One of those
innovations is being put into place now at ExactSeek.com: user popularity
combined with content relevancy.
About The Author
Karin Neitzel is an Account Manager for Brandblast, a leading provider of professional grade internet services
including website development, search engine optimization, business consulting,
and hosting. Call today to and speak with an Account Manager about your needs.
Contact 877.881.7214 (Ohio, Cincinnati, and US) or
Email Us
Back to Home Page
