10 Truths About Obtaining Better Google Rankings

Here's yet another article about gaining good Google rankings. Sound familiar?

With that, dear friends, I'm on vacation. I'll be back at it this weekend!

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Definitive?? List of Google Ranking Factors

I read two articles this morning, and while I'm not sure I agree with everything in them, they do represent A) SEO expert opinions and B) results of a 'study' on what influences Google's search engine rankings.

The first article: New Study on Google Ranking Factors does offer this disclaimer that is VERY important to keep in mind when reading these two articles:

I would not personally bank on either study by themselves but rather a combination of both with an emphasis on personal experience, trial/error and real world data analysis. There simply is no substitute for real world insights, practical experience and data.

The second list: Search Engine Ranking Factors V2, is much more in-depth and is commented by those SEO experts that participated in the survey. You'll note that there is some disagreement from the experts based on their own experience.

Important stuff here for all internet marketers and web site owners. If you're new to the game of SEO, I highly recommend reading both. If you've got that "real world insights and practical experience" these lists could validate what you've been doing, or help you clean up your act.

As a web designer/developer/marketer, I'll be sharing these with my client base. It can only help them to know why I make the suggestions about SEO that I do, without me having to rewrite the book on SEO myself.

Google's Link Snitch Program IS Evil

I'm a Google fan, I admit it. Not just because they're the biggest kid in the sandbox, in fact that's a valid reason NOT to like them. I like Google because I get the most relevant search results when I use it.

The Google motto has always been "Do No Evil". That's cool. But I guess "evil" is a relative term.

If you are at all concerned with doing business with Google, be it organic listings, analytics accounts or AdWords, you've got to read this article: 7 Reasons Google's Paid Link Snitch Plan Sucks.

I agreed wholeheartedly with the rants of Rich Ord on this one, especially #3 and #6. I mean, c'mon, Google sells AdWord ads (paid links, in case you're living under a rock-hey is there room in there for me?) all day long, yet wants to devalue all other "paid" links. Huh. Sounds kinda evil to me...

What do you make of this?

Year-End Lists

We all love a good year-end list, so here's one I ran across that's pertinent to web design and marketing. Pay attention, much of this will win in 2007 too.

Internet Winners In 2006

1. Google

Every year for Google has been a breakout year for the eight-
year-old company, but 2006 was a blockbuster. Besides adding
user-generated video phenom YouTube to its roster for $1.65
billion in stock, Google remained a favorite of Wall Street,
with stock catapulting over $500 per share. That spike was
more than enough to cover the cost of purchasing YouTube.

And then they moved in with NASA.

2. YouTube

If Google was a winner just for acquiring YouTube, then YouTube
founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, who created a site and
flipped it for major moolah in just a year and a half, without
even demonstrating how the site could turn a profit, are the
biggest table scrap winners of the year. They still run their
company and still got those stock certificates.

3. Broadband

Dialup Internet access has become akin to having outdoor
plumbing. In the US, broadband access hit nearly 80 percent
of the population. Because people no longer had to begin
downloading a large file and then go to dinner while it
finished, they spent more time actually enjoying video and
audio content on the Web.

4. Lawyers

Happy days are here again for the corporate attorney. As Internet
companies become Web giants, the window for lawsuit, valid or not,
frivolous or not, gets a lot bigger. Google settles with
advertisers angry over click fraud for $90 million - that's $60
million in advertising credit for the advertiser and $30 million
cash for the attorneys who won that case. Yahoo's lawyers are so
good, all they had to say was 'sorry about that' and write a
check for $5 million to the complainant's attorneys.

5. Social Media

For the end user it's been all about friends' lists, blogs,
wikis, amateur videos, vlogging, podcasting, and instant
messaging. From the consumer end, it's been a communication
bonanza and the official creation of the citizen media. Ideally,
the elite and powerful only provide the means by which the people
communicate, not control the communication itself, and the people
are eating up. And for the professional media, if we hear the
words "MySpace" or "YouTube" one more time...

6. Podcasting

The word "podcast" may have been Oxford's word of the year in
2005, but nobody really knew anything about it until 2006.
Now organizations of all types - newspapers, corporations,
educational institutions, radio stations, kids - have started
their own virtual radio stations. Though Apple made threats to
those audacious enough to use the term "podcast," a trademark
infringement Apple said, all it took was a tongue-in-cheek
one-dollar check to Apple head Steve Jobs to get official
approval to podcast at will.

7. The Man (Somebody give me ONE year when The Man DIDN'T win!)

In all his incarnations, in government, media, or corporate America,
The Man came out far ahead of the rest, even if he were scratched
and bruised on the way. The G-Man, and his DOJ minions, strong-
armed all the major search engines for their search data and got
it, even from Google. Phones were tapped, records were seized,
and online gambling, except that which is preferred by The Man,
was banned. In China, The Man again forced Google to alter its
search results to match the imposed cultural hegemony.

8. The Proletariat

However, The Man hasn't always won this year. Though the
telecommunications industry (one of The Man's most powerful front
organizations) had Congress wrapped around its green finger,
there were enough grass roots to forestall any legislation without
meaningful Net Neutrality protections. With a massive Republican
defeat in Washington, Net Neutrality has a fighting chance.

When AOL tried to impose the equivalent of an email tax, the people
revolted and AOL was forced to reconsider.

When Britain proposed a blogger code of conduct, again the
proletariat told The Man where to shove it.

When TV wasn't as entertaining, when news wasn't as neutral or
biased as it needed to be, when radio was too censored, and movies
were far too polished, the people took the media into their own
hands, which makes The Man very, very nervous.

That's going to do it for me this year. You've been a great audience, hope to see you back in 2007!

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