Ranking Algorithms and Their Mysterious Metrics

Search Engine Endeavours 

Like a librarian puts the best book forward on topic, search engines like to put the most matching answer to the query...and this is their bread and butter. But in case of search engines there is a catch they like to put forward the best answer in a smooth and efficient way. As a matter of fact they put forward more than one matching answer the second one and onward being a near miss.   

The first answer nearly always gets the most clicks by virtue of it being seemingly loaded with information the visitor is searching. The response to click on first link is universal and is attributed to human nature curious as always with firm belief in the leader.  The others get clicks more on the virtue of their title and meta description which show what the page promises. There are other information pieces on the SERPs nowadays but they are not the matter of discussion here. The browser landscape keeps on changing anyway. On one page the number of results shown is ten and users rarely cross this threshold.  

Like the best book creates reputation for the library most apt answer does so for the search engines. Thus there is a die hard quest among the engines to produce the best results and instantly. This is content driven for sure but whence there is competition among the peer plethora metrics come into the picture.   

The search companies are always analysing the results that their algorithms produce and keep on with efforts to produce relevancy by analysing intent since one query may be having a different quest hence knowing the intent behind takes the search companies loser to what is being sought. 

Algorithmic History

It was just keywords that ruled the SERPs but being easily manipulated the importance of meta information was diluted. The keywords were also manipulated in the website content which resulted in changing algorithms to punish content with keywords beyond normal. Now the stress is on LSI or semantic indexing in which case the relation between the words leads to better understanding of the topic. This also addresses write ups written purely for the engines. Now stress is on writing naturally keeping the visitor in the mind.    

The links ruled the roost for some time but soon they were quantified on basis of being genuine and of quality. Thus cheap links which use to pummel an undeserving site up on the ranks were ousted.  Use Google Disvow tool to remove bad links else they will diminish ranking.

Links are a valuable for ranking provided they are authoritative, natural or subject to editorial scrutiny. Nofollow links are not that important but of late they are said to deliver hints to the ranking algorithms. Repetition of anchor text is punishable now hence use natural or long tails anchor texts sparsely along with few matching phrases. Anchor text are very informative as keyword updates to algorithms and help draw an accurate picture about the page. Off page optimization thus becomes an imperative for better performance on SERPs and increase traffic. Content wrapped links also create referrals besides increase domain authority and push up ranking . 

Speed of download is very important and responsive sites follow this metric, one among the web core vitals the download time of major element is most to impact the sites performance. The other web core vitals are the stability of onsite elements and smooth interactivity besides proper coding, safe browsing without any hindrance especially from malicious elements and scripts.          

Features like bounce rate are dependant upon contents, download time, on page attributes like videos, images and info-graphs. But content dominates on page, and if it is a perfect answer to the visitors query low bounce rate will  result. Search engines like Google are said to have inculcated over two hundred ranking metrics many of which we will never come to know. Hence the best guesswork is add relevant content, build mobile friendly website for fast download and add attributes. 

Read Google Webmaster Guidelines on the company blog or published elsewhere for guidance. The major SE Company is quite vocal about quality buildup and page experience which encompass most of the metrics.       

Best way to compete on SERPs is to make your website or portal better and better. On page experience counts so fine tune the vital elements of your website. Do not spam or find short cuts to success. No black hat Seo Techniques should be used.   

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About Author

Uday provides affordable search engine optimization or SEO Services and Contents for Digital Marketing. 

He also teaches Internet Marketing in summers in Jabalpur in India his hometown. 

Uday is a freelance Naturalist and birder and mixes all vocations to make a living, 

He can be contacted at:

pateluday90@hotmail.com

9755089323

Understanding Core Web Vitals

User Experience 

User experience is vital to search engines and it begins with response to the query. SE's seek apt answer to the user's query since that is what the visitor desires the most. But there is much more to it as the search engines have begin to realize and so have the webmasters or seo.  

Though visitors seek answers on the web they usually have a short attention span. This means delivery becomes as important as the accuracy of the answer. No one wishes to wait for eternity for website to download or image to appear or video to play. All this has to be in a rapid succession of few milliseconds else your website will experience a high bounce rate and drop down from rankings.  

Also known as ranking metrics search engines measure the performance of the website along with content to place it higher on the SERPS. These performance gradients are vital for online success and the ones that matter the most are termed as core web vitals. These comprise of important elements on site and the performance. These performance attributes can be measured using tools and Google Search Console.  

In simply terms contents and attributes that add to content matter the most. Delivery now becomes as important. This is the new facet of search engine optimization and those webmasters sticking to link building and on site basics have to understand site performance and how to tune it for the better. This also means that technical seo is being integrated at a fast pace and calls for team work a collaboration between, content writers, content and technical webmasters and coders. A combined delivery can yield better results in the future as newer metrics are inculcated. 

Some basics that we all understand are:

Fast Website

Mobile Friendliness

Unique Content

But core web vitals move a shade deeper and look into micro performance yardsticks better. There is an inclination amongst site owners and webmasters to keep a matters small this as we say in Hindi "Chalta Hai" is not going to work. 

The core web vitals become extremely important as the website or portal becomes larger. They are easily  manageable in case of small websites using the Seo skills and technical help from the web designers associated with the property.            

Introduction to Core Web Vitals & Seo

John Mueller         

First of the CWV mentioned here is regards to loading. 

LCP or Largest Content Paintful   (Loading)

For best performance LCP should occur withing 2.5 sec as soon as the page starts loading. This means how quickly the web attributes load and are visible to the users. This primarily refers to content on page but also to videos, images and infographic the quicker they load the better. This would also reduce bounce rate as measured by Google and other search engines.      

Unlike the previous speed index or first content paintful LCP looks at the largest and perhaps the heaviest element on the page and measures how fast it is downloaded. 

FID or First Input Delay (Interactivity) 

Deals with interactivity that means all action buttons, links and script activators should respond instantly. Unresponsive pages are found as disgusting to users who will abandon the forever perhaps. Links not working is one such example. The first interaction is like a first impression and hence very important. The  speed of downloading (FCP) and design aesthetics arr important as first impression but interactivity is like the last nail in the coffin.   

The time taken during the processing of interactive element and event handler should be in less than 100 milliseconds. Complete failure means abject frustration and you not what that means. This can happen due to faulty coding or something like a large Java Script that keeps the browser busy neglecting all other tasks. In this case the browser thread fails to activate the event listener. Only the delay in event processing is taken into account here and the the time taken to complete the process.   

CLS or Cumulative Layout Shift (Stability) 

Definitely you would wish to come across a site with unstable shifting elements. Good user experience accrues whence a site maintains a CLS of less than 0.1. Anything that moves suddenly just when you are going through the page or interacting leads to lot of disappointment if that happens time and again to leave the site. Hence the CLS score should be less than 0.1 for good experience.      

When a visible element changes its position from one rendered frame to next it is known as a layout shift.  

For More Reading Core Web Vitals 

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About Author

Uday provides affordable search engine optimization or SEO Services and Contents for Digital Marketing. 

He also teaches Internet Marketing in summers in Jabalpur in India his hometown. 

Uday is a freelance Naturalist and birder and mixes all vocations to make a living, 

He can be contacted at:

pateluday90@hotmail.com

9755089323

Content Marketing Going Digital

Content Marketing 

The interplay of words, phrases and quotes has become the buzz in content marketing. This creativity was earlier limited in website promotion on SERPs using SEO techniques, this has much expanded with the advent of digital platforms. 

Blogs, Social Networking Sites, Forums, UGC Sites all now promote websites using finely written, appealing and unique information rich contents. In the past for webmasters extensive write ups were indispensable and they have become a greater imperative now but with a difference. The stress is more on creativity. For instance the purpose may be to create a strong backlink, it may be to augur a brand reputation or conversion. Hence the sales funnel and graph have become as important as ranking. Simultaneously ranking factors have become diverse as well which the written words can influence. You can create captivating contents to minimize bounce rate but this can be achieved by adding attributes as well.  Now both go hand in hand changing the whole paradigm that affects ranking. In fact SEO has become more comprehensive but the written words still rule.     

Earlier contents were published on articles sites and blogs for winning on the SERPs. Now the interplay of words fortfies websites on many metrics that search engines use to index and rank. But just not this, contents in varied forms are used online on many platforms to promote brands and create a reputation besides SEO. 

It is not only articles any more, hence the collection of words as quotes, captions, phrases and logos all are part of digital marketing along with infographics, videos and images. The glib counts very much.  

In short it is content that drives the message through the attributes mentioned above...the better you are the greater is the result. 

New Content Creators

The writers are gearing up for creating diverse set of contents suitable on equally diverse social platforms. For example you will not impress with a wordy article on twitter, the two liners should deliver the desired message in order to grab attention, and hence create a repute for future conversions. 

The blogs should express authentic information, knowledge and deliver product description or professional inputs in anecdotal form. This to create a following and impress visitors online in a niche community that you have managed to assemble. Without hard labour conversions will not occur...you have to write for a purpose and really well. Now I hope the meaning on mind boggling becomes evident.    

It is important now to understand content creation from the search engine point of view as well as  understanding them for your readers. The hardest part for newcomers is amalgamation of both the aspects during content creation.  This is essential for search engine optimization and digital marketing. 

Although SEO is part of digital marketing separation in write ups (here) imparts greater explanation. SEO can be delivered with minimal digital marketing as well as a stand alone entity. But integration is unavoidable. You have to be good in both.

Although technical aspect of optimization cannot be neglected, it still constitutes a small fraction of the campaign. Hence greater attention should be paid to developing the art of writing in various formats by newcomers...than the technical aspects which anyway can be executed by coders or programmer in the team. Same applies for responsive website and UX but you should know the basics.

You can develop ability and gain direction by participating on UGC platform and articles sites with editorial scrutiny and constantly gauge your performance. This is an uphill task but indispensable.   

Another important issue for digital marketer is understanding each and every platform in depth. Virtual mastery is required and this is time bound. How best to utilize a platform is essential step to win the digital game.   

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Uday provides SEO Service and Website Contents

He also teaches Internet Marketing in Jabalpur during Summer.

He loves to blog on many topics as a writer. 

Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

09755089323

SEO & Algorithmic Conundrum

Uday provide search engine optimization service and Digital Marketing. He is a writer and writes on websites and blogs for clients. He is experienced and affordable. Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Mob: 09755089323

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Indexing & Ranking

They keep changing, the Google Algorithms, new features are added and additions and changes are a constant evolutionary feature. Not all changes or additions are directly for indexing or ranking some like Penguin update act as filters in order to stem the rot or remove low quality content. Hence with introduction of Penguin Filter link schemes, low quality links, keyword stuffing all went for a toss into the oblivion. The disvow tool will help you if you have been engaging in cheap link building.

It all started with simple response to a query...keywords in tons where effective and profuse link building led to higher ranking. All this is past and quality and relevance counts more and more. No more keyword stuffing no more cheap repetitive contents in mass.   

Like a librarian which aims at delivering the best and most relevant book to member the search algorithms do that as well to the visitor. They answer queries with most relevant and apt answer. So search engines keep updating their programs that index and rank. In recent times Rank Brain aims to offer a better return to long queries hence the a land mark in natural human language processing by machines.  

Besides quality and relevancy control search algorithms consider many metrics especially from social media for ranking. This has given rise to active participation in social media by search engine optimizer for better ranking on SERPs as well as for effective digital marketing. More likes, more comments, more traffic, more followers or members and wider presence for better web saturation matters a lot. So start building bases and enhance your performance in LinkedIn, Instagram, Face Book, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, UGC content sites, blogs article publication forums and so on... 

Websites with relevant attributes like videos and photos, polls, comment features, search facilities all perform better on the search engine result pages.   

Only quality links matter now especially those on reputed sites and the ones with editorial scrutiny. Cheap link building techniques and keyword stuffing can lead to penalty as well as low performance on SERPs.  

In short algos will keep on changing and you as an SEO will have to be on your toes. For example mobile or smart phone search has been accorded priority hence you should advise the web designer to make a responsive website or portal. This applies to blogs as well. 

Though technical SEO does play a part in the whole process, it is contents that matter the most hence put all your energy in writing and take help of programmers or techie web designers to perfect the on site features for higher speed and better crawl etc. Be thorough with meta tags and the parameters. Have a good command over search console and analytics. 

Many on site actions by visitors helps the SEs in gouging the performance of websites and hence the visitors liking. Keep in touch with your web page speed and bounce rate. Stay away  from duplicate or thin contents, low authority websites, content farms, directories into mass Ads, and all things bad. 

If you follow ethical and qualitative practises your client websites are less likely to be affected by algorithm changes. Sleep Well!  

SEO: Ranking Factors & Rationale

SEO: Ranking 

Bounce rate, speed and link architecture also determine your success on the SERP. Gone are the days when big concerns could hire a large team of web buzzers and make links using articles and directory submissions. Forums were also in this game but there the admins were more strict so the former two gamed the algorithms no end.  

I worked in an IT concern which was much into gaming the system using my articles they could make cheap copies and get massive links...it worked. But before leaving I told them it will not work in future and it did not. Similarly with directories I could write title and description which was than manipulated by the team and submitted to thousands of directories. Then this too stopped working as I had warned...but they would not listen and the site was sent to the gallows. Anchor repetition also failed. 

Link building still works, directory submission still work, forums still work but in all the cases aesthetics have changed. No spam is tolerated by any search engines. Moreover a large number of metrics have come into picture to index and rank a website on a keyword. 

Quality link building or authoritative links means a great deal of success. if your site gathers natural links nothing like that...here people link your site because they find it useful information or action wise. If your award winning company website is linked with authoritative site offering the awards on that field you have made it. This is an example.

But this will not be the case all the time hence do build links not to game the system but to get referrals. If your site follows the SE guidelines it will not be penalized since referrals lead to web saturation that is essential for websites.  

Many of the metrics are not known by the webmasters and they may never know. But aesthetics will work...always...make the website that delivers good user experience, repeat visitors will stand as testimony.

Why would any one visit a website again and again using a keyword or set of phrases regularly until unless they are finding something useful. Even one time visitor if they stay for a reasonable time and there is an action then the website has scored a point to the search engines. One time visit with good enough time spent on it and or action is there...the purpose is solved in one go.  If you understand this you will also understand the role social media plays in ranking and building an online reputation or authority....that does count.   

By some mechanism search engines are able to make out reputation or authority of the site! Domain age is certainly one of them, hosting period and hosting stability also matters. Social media performance also matters. 

Speed is something which makes a user explore the website, a slow download is a turn off...nobody wants to wait for a site to load. A reasonable good downloading time hence is a must. It need not necessarily be the fastest.

A good architecture means a quick pathway to the targeted page without crazy maneuvers. Hence good link architecture means easy access to important pages and the action page. If you observe the funnel you will discover the pathway that a visitor or visitors take to reach a particular goal. For search engines this would also mean a good directory structure...make use of silos if necessary.  A good site map and well configured robot.txt file all are important.

Contents are foremost as far as good user experience is concerned. Hire a good content writer or be one yourself. Be it website contents, blog contents, article contents, content in user generated sites all matter...  

Contents with videos, infographics and relevant images enhance user experience tremendously. Forget about search engines if your website satisfies the user criteria it will always be the winner. There are many places on Earth that do not spend a penny in advertising but are yet successful, only because of their delivery ...news travels fast.   

A responsive website is mobile friendly which is important since quick search is most of the time taking place on smartphones. Browser compatibility, platform compatibility, content size, readability , optimized graphics and images, contrast between back ground and text, all matter. 

If you can guess all that would matter regarding the user satisfaction inculcate in your design and content without hesitation. If you can be a winner without getting into the mad race of the SERPs you have made it.     

Like reputed libraries which search for a great book by a great author search engines also seek a great website by a great owner.   

Last but least there are no cheap or quick solutions, if you are a cheapster and do not have patient... hang your portal!

Uday offers SEO Services and Website Contents in English. 

He also teaches Internet Marketing in Jabalpur.

Content: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Mobile: 9755089323

SEO: Why Sudden Traffic Fall?

Why does your rankings and subsequently the traffic fizzle down one fine day? 

Well for search engine optimizers this is a big set back and lot of questions asked by the client has to be answered. 

Well if this happens firsts inspect the whole site do you find some elements missing especially the title tag and the meta? Is the content missing from some pages? Subsequently check the whole ranking chart in order to find in which terms you have rolled down. A major error could mean downslide in very large number of terms. 

Then move to the search console to find out the number of pages and which one have gone out of index. Inspect the Crawling through the attribute and use Fetch as function for each and every page.

Check pages for noindex meta if wrongly inserted. Also check the robot.txt file if wrong command is present...this can happen during the edits or can be a mistake made by the web designer. Discuss with him.  And yes check that Google Analytic Code is inserted properly in each and every page if the rankings seem to be unstable.

I hope you have been frequently taking care of broken links and 404s! 

Major changes to the site during redesigning can occur by error or by intent. Keep title, meta and content stable in the new format and see that the link architecture remains stable as well. As a regulatory measure site changes, migration etc should happen under your supervision strictly!   

Unprecedented errors can creep in the designing and coding, aspects that are being handled by web designer...which is most likely to be. Also go through the site to check for proper search terms being in the alt tags. Keep checking the download speed of your pages and the mobile friendliness.

Also keep in reckoning the performance of your web host....has the website had a stable performance due to good hosting. Also check for malware using a good anti-malware and antivirus.

Another crucial aspect is to check for ads above the fold. In their greed clients often insert Ads above the fold which is going to invite a sure shot penalty.

Also recheck if all the aspect of the website are following the search engine guidelines I mean the current ones. This is done to be assured of penalties that the bots can subject your site to and also check for manual penalty...often Google will inform you if that has taken place. 

Check you link profile thoroughly and use Disvow tool to remove any suspected external linking.  In case of a major drop do send a reconsideration request to the admins. Keep in mind link building in the present context is driven by quality and not quantity. Cheap links are a disaster for SEO practices there is no doubt about this anymore. 

Sometimes authoritative external backlinks may go missing if the provider has placed your link in archive or simply removed it and the content associated with it...as a matter of policy. You can request reinsertion but it is better to keep building qualitative links as a SEO measure. Do not be dependent upon few links.

Check always for duplicate content and all you pages being on site. Sometime site owners having many sites can insert pages from one site to another meaning the same page is within the architecture of each site. Each page on a website should be unique the solution is very simple. 

Sometimes due to some arrangement with a vendor or an agent your site content could be placed on his or her site with the know of the webmaster. In this case if the bots construe the content on the agents/vendors site as original you are doomed. Do not place your content on another site come what may. Ask your content writer to keep busy and churn contents for placement elsewhere.       

Complacency sets in whence you begin generating high traffic for your client site. This is one step close to disaster to frequent SEO audit or check to remain stable.

Find out if major algorithm changes have been brought about by search engines. If so learn to enhance your SEO technique accordingly.

Ranking and Traffic is never stable so as a webmaster always be on alert.

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Uday provides optimized contents in English for websites. 

He provides Digital Marketing Services(SEO).

He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Mob: 09755089323  

Search Engine Optimisation A Common Sense Approach

It is a never ending ball play search engine optimisation is an exercise to rank websites on SERPs on first page. Day by day as search engines and their algorithms evolve the going goes harder or often obfuscated.    

Webmaster seek quickfire solution to rank their client website and get impressive traffic. The going is not easy anymore since the algorithms have become more cryptic so to say. In order to decipher them and be in tandem with guidelines set by the search engines is becoming a riddle and a task difficult. 

In earlier times spamming was easy and one could get away with easily. Not all webmasters where spammers but activities were more effective especially with link building in mass. With the induction of Panda and Penguin a paradigm shift has taken place. It is no longer easy to spam the search engines with content farms and ineffective link building. 

Though link building is still effective a word has been added to the whole process and that is authoritative. Making large scale authoritative links those with strict editorial scrutiny is good but it is no more the panacea for viral results. Nowadays even brand mentions, online reputation and community participation can make the site popular hence one should utilise social media effectively.    

In recent times plethora of metrics have been put into calculation for indexing and ranking. On page factors, technical seo inputs and sound link architecture along with unique contents and snippets have come into prominence. Page speed is slowly gaining importance as mobile search volume increases along with voice search. 

User Query & Intent 

Most of the principle of search engine optimisation remain in place albeit diluted to a varying degree. It is now a sum total of all. But the buck does not stop here as websites are ranked primarily on basis of user query relevancy. Until unless there are gross anomalies or spamming websites with answer to user query will always surface on top. The rest of the metrics will come into picture to decide between competitors answering the query as desired.    

The evolution of algorithms has been carried out keeping user satisfaction in mind. A product with high demand is placed in a prominent eye catching position in a department store. So is the website that seems most suitable to provide an answer to the query is placed high on the SERPs. 

Determination of user intent has come out by implementing methods to measure click through and bounce rate. This is the way to analyse user preference time and over a clear picture is emerging as to what online visitors seek. User intent is now gauged effectively hence if you type "Amazon" out pops links to the eCommerce company and not to the river in South America. Visitors overwhelmingly are seeking this company all over the Globe.         

Hence all factors being equal it is important to understand user intent before optimising a website. For example say you are optimising a website on a hotel. Whence a visitor types "hotels in Jabalpur" he will find well known portals offering details of various hotels in the town. The websites of individual hotels will be ranked well below. This is often misconstrued as brand preference favoured by the search engines. Well it is the user intent and search volume measured over the years that is in play. 

Search engines will always match  sites that seem to answer the user query effectively. Those which do not receive impressive click through and maintain a high bounce rate will be pushed back in spite of various metrics that are efficiently entrenched.        

Hence while creating a website write contents that satisfy queries within the topic that are most often typed on the SERPs.  Try to figure out how you will beat the contenders on page one. Make the site mobile friendly and offer good user experience and yes quality hosting with minimum outages will also help. Add preferred elements like videos, optimised graphics, photos and internal/outgoing links that could further the information. Add a company blog which is essential to keep the contents pouring in. 

Add effective titles, meta and snippets to help search engines come to a correct conclusion what your site is all about. Keep building links as well but maintain quality else your site could be penalised.     

         

Search Engine Optimisation : Changing Paradigm

Since the inception of Internet sites and blogs descended upon us. A veritable media gift it transgressed all boundaries that limited search and increased accessibility to information.   The search engines evolved continuously in order to perfect the delivery. In this case it was to put forth the right solution/answer to the query. Not to mention Google took the lead with algorithms that deliver much better results. 

With the plethora of  websites and blogs online a hoard was initiated to rank better by the owners. This lead to tips and tricks being worked out. The search engines wanted the best sites for a query to surface. So guidelines were made public which enumerated salient features of a good website that was nearer to the preferences set by the the search engines.

Then the experts realised the value of external links pointing to the website. These links made the website rise up the SERPs since these were votes that indicated popularity. This was the assistance accepted by the indexing and ranking programs and the website was place higher.           

Leading from these development search engine optimisation came into picture. The webmaster provided the expertise to the clients in order to make a career. 

Was this the end? Well no!

The SE companies soon realised the spam that had started, and webmasters who could trick the system ruled the roost. This lead to websites ranking high on SERPs even if they did not provide a satisfactory answer to the query, had poor architecture and contents.  Those who could manipulate were happy. At last a lucrative career.  

But constantly the algorithms were evolving - the main goal was to root out spam. Hence constant updates and filters changed the algorithms and they still do. 

The Result!

• No more cheap link building. 
• No more keyword stuffing. 
• A pluralistic keyword or anchor text profile/
• Ouster of improper, low information content. 
• Weight on onpage factors that added to sound user experience. 
• Mobile friendliness became important as mobile search increased.       
• Dilution of on page tags H1, H2 etc.??
• Slow devaluation of keywords in domain name. 
• Title is like a house name plate so will remain important. 
• Description is now used as such and has lost much of the SEO value.
• Keyword tags have nearly become redundant. 
• Proper placement of relevant contents is a must. 
• Internal links are less important but can assist in site architecture and UX.  
• Images, videos, sound all provide interactivity hence relevant to SEO. 
• Fresh contents may not be possible on websites hence add a blog and keep writing usefully.
• Use of parameters, tags and of technologies that assist in proper indexing.  
• Creating snippets using structured metadata. 

These changes eventually resulted in better results. And companies like Google assist in search engine optimisation by publishing guidelines. Hence SEO is a two way street, and webmasters will always remain active and valuable to the SE firms. 

Links & Keywords

Much more is going on but high valued links are still required. Since the algorithms could not be the sole judge of websites popularity. Keywords are still required in a semantic manner with less reliance on percentage.   

Site Architecture & Contents

Good fluent architecture takes the cake so does user friendly and relevant contents. The latter has become imperative and will remain so since user experience is much enhanced by contents especially of interactive and anecdotal nature. Domain age and authority spells success coupled with all enhancing factors. 

Social Media & Online Reputation 

Another means of judging a popularity of site is the online reputation. Hence social media has come into picture, the extent is not known but nevertheless popularity on networking sites is essential for SEO which is the main element of Internet or Digital Marketing.  

Activity on social media sites also means marketing and this is the chief mode of online marketing. Hence you get two benefits with one activity.     

Webmasters

The paradigm has changed and further evolving. Some aspects have become important:

Content Writing:  This is of great importance to webmasters - write good or perish. 

Technical Seo: Understanding technicalities are important, content writer may not be able to implement on website but they can always take assistance from web designers and programmers.  

Architecture & Content Creation: Understanding these elements are of utmost importance since they are implemented at white board stage and should lead to user friendliness.  

Discouraging Factors

Intervention By Search Engines,.

Brand preference on SERPs to what is already known and the names are on the lips.  This has prevented or discouraged deeper search since the SERPs are being overwhelmed by popular brand leaders. Unique information or finding the less known has become difficult as few visitors go beyond the first or second page.  Visitor love mystery and esoteric findings. 

Devaluation of tags. Well this is assumed but if true it will be discouraging for proper formatting of contents and interactive elements due to the fear being penalised. 

Indexing & Ranking

There are more than two hundred metrics which enable indexing and ranking this is bad news for spammers. Hence search engine optimisation calls for a pluralistic approach. A wide mix of activities are necessary. Avoid Spam!

Online Ads

Though out of the SEO exercise they are valuable means of keeping the site afloat and get seasonal or opportune business. Since the cost is high the Ads require a proper strategy.  But they should be mixed with the campaign depending upon the budget.  

Page Rank What it is?

Contrary to belief PageRank does not refer to the web page it is named after Larry Page the co-founder of Google Inc.  along with Sergey Brin.  

PageRank is analysis of links pointing to a website the value is derived from the weight of set of documents that contain the link.  It is a complex algorithm which contains many other factors as well. The links on the WWW pointing to a webpage are seen as votes for that page. Hence if a link from page A points to a page B it is passing a vote to it. But the whole webgraph comes into the picture when according a rank.

The PageRank metrics of all pages that link to a webpage are taken into consideration. The pages are ranked from 0 to 10 of which the highest rank 10 is assigned to the most authoritative site. It is believed that page rank does not influence the position on the SERPs since ranking on SERPs depends upon the response to the query. What  that means that how relevant is the webpage for the query. 

The rank is how Google looks at the webpage or website. It is also a value system on the WWW especially for those seeking backlinks and those interested in a link exchange scheme. To the average visitor this ranking system is unknown but for some it creates trust and authority.  The actual ranking system has not been disclosed. 

The PageRank is subject to manipulation this can happen by participating in dubious link schemes and paid text links.  Being a trade secret it is difficult to know how the leading search company determines to penalize as website.

The rank as shown by the Google Toolbar is only a rough guide to what the search company actually has determined. Google updates the rank of the website only few times a year. For greater information read the Google Web Master Central Blog.  One of the blog entry advises web master not to look at this ranking system as sole mertic for the success of a website. 

In short this system is just one of the factors in rankings on SERPs. One need not be much concerned with it. I use this system more as a yardstick in order to create a more authoritative website. What matters on the search side is relevance.