SEO is About Making Informed Guesses About Google’s Ranking Algorithms!
We’ve recently returned two professional conferences — SMX Advanced in Seattle and Local Search University in Austin, TX. Let IX Brand SEO Services Company put that new knowledge to work for your business. We help clients get better search engine rankings, improved online reviews, and more effective customer feedback and business operations. We serve clients throughout Southeast Texas including Houston, Sugar Land, Richmond, Fort Bend County, Wharton County, and Matagorda County and across the US. Call us at 281-343-3284 for a free review of your search engine rankings and online reputation.
The recent SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin featured a panel interview titled, “Dear Google & Bing: Help Me Rank Better.” Modertator of the panel was Danny Sullivan, Editor in Chief of Search Engine Land and with Danny were Duane Forrester, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Bing, and Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer and Head of the WebSPAM Team at Google. The panel discussion was recorded and is available at the SXSW Interactive website.
At one point in the discussion, Danny Sullivan mentioned the Search Engine Land Periodic Table of Ranking Factors, which lists 30 factors considered by the search enginesin determining a website’s ranking in search results. These ranking factors have been deduced by studying Google and the other search engines and essentially trying to reverse engineer how the search engines work. The Table is a useful guide to improving search rankings and Search Engine Land has done great work in developing it.
When Danny mentioned the Table listing 30 factors, the Bing engineer responded that there were really more than 1000 factors that Bing uses in determining where websites rank in search results. It is reasonable to assume that Google uses a similar number of factors to determine ranking. The lesson here is that national industry experts like Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Land haven’t been able to predict how search engines do their work. Deducing 30 factors is a long way from deducing 1000 factors.
So what does this mean for you as a small business owner?
- If an SEO consultant tells you that he or she can guarantee to make you #1 for all of your keyword phrases, you should be very skeptical. How can that SEO consultant know more about search engine ranking factors than Danny Sullivan and other national experts? Ask that consultant how many of the Bing ranking factors he or she can name?
- Successful SEO is based on a process of experimentation with social media and with your website and blog. Do more of what works and be willing to move away from what doesn’t work. If you don’t experiment and you expect to create a static website that works for you this year and for years to come, expect to be disappointed.
- Keep in mind that Google and Bing have often stated that they want to reward fresh Web content that’s relevant to Internet searchers. Those 1000 ranking factors have that as the goal! So your goal should be to develop fresh Web content that’s relevant to Internet searchers. If you do that, your efforts will be productive now, a year from now, and five years from now.
From time to time, some SEO consultants have been able to deduce tricks that work to move websites up in search engine rankings. Those tricks have a limited life and most of those SEO consultants are marketing the tricks long after they’ve lost their effectiveness. Don’t fall for the tricks! Develop a process for creating great Web content for your business and you’ll be rewarded with high search engine rankings and lots of Internet visitor traffic for years to come. Need help getting started? Please call us at 281-343-3284 or use the contact form to send us an email.
What are you doing now to move your website up in Google rankings?
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