Google have been busy shaking the sandy foundations on which the old school of SEO teachings were built. The Google Caffeine [see: Is Google Caffeine the SEO Killer?] and Vince algorithm updates look set to move the goalposts, whilst the unceremonious way in which PageRank was evicted from Webmaster Tools [see: Is PageRank Still Relevant], all indicate that the times may be a changing.
But despite the changes, has anything really changed? By abandoning PageRank Google simply reinforced a message that they had been telling the world for years – “don’t become preoccupied with PageRank, it’s not as important as you think!” Whilst Vince has been touted as a ‘brand’ orientated update, it simply isn’t in Google’s best interests to overhaul their entire rankings structure to appease the bigger companies.
More…
…For that matter, was PageRank ever relevant? After Google’s decision to remove the PageRank feature from its Webmaster Tools without warning, have we finally witnessed the death knell for the ever popular site strength tracker?
For some time Google have been telling the SEO and webmaster communities not to focus too heavily on PageRank; so perhaps this is their more explicit way of telling us all to forget about it. But whilst PageRank isn’t the only determining factor in how well a website has been optimised and will ultimately rank on SERPs, does it not still have some merit as an indicator, no matter how loose?
More…
Duplicate content is always a bit of a thorny issue in SEO. Whilst it’s fairly clear cut when a website copies text straight from a secondary source, there has been questions raised over the impact of having numerous domains for one site.
Whilst it has been widely accepted for some time that having individual URLs all leading to the same page may be harmful to your ranking, Google have now broken their silence and suggested quite the opposite. Although in true Google style they stopped short of saying anything too definitive.
More…
How are Search Engine Rankings Decided?
All search engines rankings are determined by a complex algorithm. Very few know the exact programming of the algorithm, but through testing and universally available information, SEO experts are able to put together strategies that will help improve a site’s rank.
Yahoo, Bing, Google and Ask will all have their own unique algorithm, which in turn means that their search results can differ. Whilst there are similarities across each search engine, the programming tweaks ensure that each has their own identifiable SERPs. This is why some people prefer to still use sites other than the standard industry favourite Google, and will continue to do so.
More…
Matt Cutts and the Webspam Team at Google have been hard at work in recent weeks. Invariably most of their ‘major’ announcements have coincided with news proliferating from other sources that is either detrimental towards Google, or positive about their rivals, notably Bing.
Late on yesterday evening, Matt Cutts posted a new blog article concerning the ongoing PageRank Sculpting controversy. In this, he essentially suggests that the nofollow rule is largely redundant apart from those sites that you really wouldn’t vouch for. Cutts suggests that building quality links and providing a website that is of a high enough standard to encourage users to link back, is the way forward.
More…
PageRank is a trademarked term of Google. This is a patented process with the patent assigned to Stanford University where the founders of Google developed their process.
It is a link analysis concept that assigns weight to web pages so that their relevance and importance can be scored.
Web pages are scored from 0 – 10 (though the true data goes much deeper than this) with 10 being the most popular and relevant.
