Google's Patent Application
contains a lot to read and reading it may take
some time, but if you own any type of website,
this is all information you need to know. It
also brings some interesting points up. While I
go over some of the important points, know that
no one knows which of these factors is given
more weight than the others.
Domain Name
Registration - Google is going to track when
a domain is registered among other things. An
older domain will get a higher ranking. No more
throw away domain names. No more jump to the top
of Google results in thirty days.
They will also be tracking
the length of renewal on the theory that a
person that renews for ten years will be more
likely to build a worthwhile site than someone
who only holds their domain for a year. Google
will also be keeping a blacklist of known sp@mmers
and will be using this list when checking dns
records of websites. So sp@mmers who make sure
to get their new throwaway domains with
different nameservers in order to throw Google
off may have to try something new.
Google Spyware? -
They are using "user behavior" to rank sites. In
my book, if spyware removers try to remove Alexa
every time I run it, then this function of the
Google toolbar can only be called spyware. Yes,
you may chëck the box on the terms of service
for the toolbar, but it still tracks your
internet browsing.
But, I think the theory
will make search engine results much better.
Google will be tracking
the number of times a document is selected from
the search engine results. This is a great idea.
It means you now have to write the titles of
your pages to grab the searcher's attention. And
since the search terms are highlighted in the
results, maybe placing them at the beginning of
sentences in your page may make them stand out
due to capitalization. But I also see a way that
this can be sp@mmed by a network of "search and
click" sp@mmers.
They will also be tracking
the amount of time a person spends on the page
that they find. I don't know about you, but I
have been around long enough to notice a sp@m
page and I am gone in two seconds. This may help
drop them out of legitïmate results.
Content Changes - I
think this comes down to just updating your
information the way it should be updated. If you
have a forum that hasn't been active in a week,
the one that is very active with new posts every
minute will definitely rank higher.
But the document also
mentions that some stale sites may not be ranked
lower, if not updated that much. For example, a
site on the Civil War would not be expected to
change as much as a news headlines site and an
older, more stable site may get the rank boost.
Query Analysis - A
search for "American Idol Wïnner" will produce
different results than it did last year, even if
a page on last year's wïnner has more links
pointing to it.
Google will be following
trends by the increase or decrease in the usage
of certain search terms or phrases. I am not
sure how this will be implemented. Will there be
a quicker ranking algorithm for new trends? Or
will sites that have a tendency to break new
topics get top billing for such terms?
The search engine will
also be sensitive to terms that could be used
for different subjects. When you search for
"Deep Throat" are you looking for Mark Felt or a
Linda Lovelace movie? Google will track what
searchers are actually looking for and changes
in searching trends.
A Google Browser? -
Google also says that they will attempt to track
bookmarks and favorites files along with cache
files to help determine the ranking of sites.
The only way I see this happening is through
their own browser and again, this brings up the
question of spyware.
Topics - Pages will
be tracked for the topics they cover. Maybe this
is what Site Flavored Search is all about.
Google says that changes in topic will be traced
for scoring. So a drastic change in a site may
drop it down in the search results. I think this
must already be in effect, just for some of the
things I have seen with my own sites.
Anchor Text -
Google says that links to pages from other sites
tend to have differing anchor text if they are
obtained naturally. Artificial linking campaigns
tend to produce anchor text that is the same.
Anchor text that changes when the page the link
is on changes will be counted as being more
relevant.
Anchor text that changes
with time may indicate a change in topic on the
site.
Anchor text that is no
longer relevant to the site linked to may be
discounted.
Traffïc - Google
will track traffïc to a page to determine if the
content is stale or not. This is a cue that
sites will no longer be create and forget.
Google will also factor in Advertising traffïc.
Linking - Google
says that legitïmate sites attract links back
slowly. Whether this is true or not depends on
the definition of "slowly". I know of sites like
stumbleupon.com, where users comment and rate
sites constantly and one site sent into the mix
can get hundreds of links to it within a day
just from comments posted about it.
Google also says that
exchanging links, purchasing links, or gaining
links from documents where there is no editorial
discretion are all forms of link sp@m. Does this
mean that if you link to someone and they link
to you, that is sp@m? Then a lot of bloggers out
there who aren't really trying to sp@m may get
accused of doing so.
They will also be
measuring the authority of the page that the
links are on, mentioning government documents
specifically. This smacks of information
control. Who assigns this authority and what
makes one person more of an authority than
another? If a political issue is searched for,
will a Democrat's or a Republican's page come up
first?
The freshness of the page
that the link is on will also help determine the
freshness of the linked-to page. This is a good
argument for using a blog and pinging after your
entries.
A page that is updated
while the link on that page remains the same is
a good
indicator of the relevancy of that link.
Ranking History -
Ranking change is another feature that Google
will use to detect sp@m. Not that all sites will
be flagged as sp@m sites if they see a huge jump
in ranking. Some of these sites could be
topical. The authors of the site may have caught
onto a new trend just as it was rising.
But Google also will
measure the change in a site's ranking to
determine if the content is becoming stale, i.e.
a drop in links to the site.
This must mean some sort
of balance and I hope they have leeway for
traditional SEO. For example, If you have
written new software and have created a PAD file
for it, you can literally get hundreds of new
links in a week. It only takes a second to
submit.
What about if you started
your own affïliate program. You can get a lot of
links quickly that way? Will Google see this as
sp@m? We will have to wait and see.
Finally Hope -
Competition always inspires a better product and
more options for internet users. Despite the
focus on Google in search engine forums and its
name being used to define "search for something
on the internet", i.e. I Googled him, Google's
hold on the market has actually dropped.
When once you could
optimize for Google and leave it that, now the
combined use of MSN and Yahoo is greater than
Google, with Yahoo nipping at Google's heels.
This leaves options for us
as search engine marketers and internet
searchers. If one search engine doesn't suit us,
at least we know that it isn't the only one we
have to choose.