Google's patent shows secrets!

Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. The title of the patent is "Information retrieval based on historical data" and it confirms the existence of the Google sandbox and that it can apply to all web pages.

In this article, we're trying to find out what this means to your web site and what you have to do to optimize your web pages so that you get high rankings on Google.

Part 1: How your web page changes influence your rankings on Google

The patent specification revealed a lot of information about possible ways Google might use your web page changes to determine the ranking of your site.

In addition to web page content, the ranking of web pages is influenced by the frequency of page or site updates. Google measures content changes to determine how fresh or how stale a web page is. Google tries to distinguish between real and superfluous content changes.

This doesn't mean that it is always advisable to regularly change the content of your web pages. Google says that stale results might be desirable for information that doesn't need updating while fresh content is good for results that require it.

For example, seasonal results might go up and down in the result pages based on the time of the year.

Google possibly records the following web page changes:

• the frequency of changes
• the amount of changes (substantial or shallow changes)
• the change in keyword density
• the number of new web pages that link to a web page
• the changes in anchor texts (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• the number of links to low trust web sites (for example too many affiliate links on one web page)

Google might use the results of this analysis to specify the ranking of a web page in addition to its content.

Section 0128 in the patent filing reveals that you shouldn't change the focus of too many documents at once:

"A significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no longer reliable.

Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate spam. For example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a 'stable' period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with the document, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a 'doorway' document.

Another indication may include the disappearance of the original topics associated with the document. If one or more of these situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the relative score of such documents and/or the links, anchor text, or other data associated the document."

This means that the Google sandbox phenomenon may apply to your web site if you change your web pages.

What does this mean to your website?

First of all, you should make sure that your web page content is optimized for Google. If your web page content is not optimized, all other ranking factors won't help you much.

Try to find out if the keywords you target on search engines require static or fresh search results and update your web site content accordingly. Make sure that you don't change too much at once so that your web site won't be put in the sandbox.

In upcoming newsletter issues, we'll discuss other important factors that can influence your ranking on Google and that are mentioned in the patent specification..

Continued...

Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. The title of the patent is "Information retrieval based on historical data" and it reveals details of algorithms that Google uses in addition to its main ranking algorithms.

In this article, we're trying to find out what this means to your web site and what you have to do to optimize your web pages so that you get high rankings on Google.

Part 2: How your domain name can influence your rankings on Google

The patent specification revealed a lot of information about possible ways Google might use your domain name to determine the ranking of your site.

Google mentions specific types of information relating to how a document is hosted within a computer network that can influence the ranking of a web site. For example, Google tries to determine the legitimacy of a domain name.

According to Google, valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance while doorway or throwaway domains are rarely used for more than a year. To determine the value of a domain, Google records the following information:

• the length of the domain registration (one year <-> several years)
• the address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
• the stability of data and host company
• the number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)

Google claims that they have a list of known bad contact information, name servers and IP addresses that helps them to find out whether a spammer is running a domain.

In addition, the patent specification claims that Google might check the information of a name server in several ways. For example, good name servers might have a mix of different domain names from different registrars.

Bad name servers might host mainly adult or doorway domains, bulk-domains from a single registrar or domains with many commercial words.

What does this mean to your website?

First of all, you should make sure that your web page content is optimized for Google. If your web page content is not optimized, all other ranking factors won't help you much.

You might want to register the main domain name for your web site several years in advance to show Google that you are serious about your site. Make sure that your web site is hosted by a reputable hosting company.

If your web site is hosted by a company that mainly hosts the web sites of spammers, it might be difficult to get good rankings for your site.

Continued...

Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. The title of the patent is "Information retrieval based on historical data" and it reveals details of algorithms that Google uses in addition to its main ranking algorithms.

In this article, we're trying to find out what this means to your web site and what you have to do to optimize your web pages so that you get high rankings on Google.

Part 3: How the links to your site can influence your rankings on Google

As you know, Google heavily relies on links when it comes to specify the ranking of a web site. In addition to the sheer number of links and their anchor texts, the patent specification shows possible ways how Google might use historical information to further specify the value of links.

For example, Google might record the discovery date of a link and the link changes over time. Google might also record the life span of a link and the speed at which a new web site gets links.

The patent specification indicates that Google might track the following information:

• The anchor text and the discovery date of links are recorded.
• Google might monitor the appearance and disappearance of a link over time.
• Google might monitor the growth rates of links as well as the link growth of independent peer documents.
• Google might monitor the changes in the anchor texts over a given period of time.
• Google might monitor the rate at which new links to a web page appear and disappear.
• Google might record a distribution rating for the age of all links.
• Links with a long life span might get a higher rating than links with a short life span.
• Links from fresh pages might be considered more important.
• If a stale document continues to get incoming links, it will be considered fresh.
• Google doesn't expect that new web sites have a large number of links.
• If a new web site gets many new links, this will be tolerated if some of the links are from authorative sites.
• Google indicates that it is better if link growth remains constant and slow.
• Google indicates that anchor texts should be varied as much as possible.
• Google indicates that burst link growth may be a strong indicator of search engine spam.

What does this mean to your web site?

When it comes to linking, you shouldn't go for one-shot quick solutions. If you participate in quick link exchange schemes or buy links to your web site so that you get many links at once, changes are that Google will see this as a spamming attempt.

When you exchange links with other web sites, do it slowly and constantly. ARELIS is the perfect tool that can help you to do this. Invest some time every week to build the links to your site and vary the texts that point to your site. Of course, the links to your site should contain keywords that are related to your site.

Make sure that your web page content is optimized for Google. If your web page content is not optimized, all other ranking factors won't help you much.