Click here to schedule your FREE consultation from Interactive Marketing

YOU ARE HERE: Home > Marketing Tips > Search Engine Optimization Terms

Search Engine Optimization Terms

Understanding how the search engines rank
websites so YOU can get top 10 rankings too.

95% of the battle of getting high rankings on the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your web site. Ever since Google entered the search engine market, all the major Search Engines have started using links as the primary way they rank websites. This is known as your web site’s "Link Popularity" or in Google’s case it’s called "PageRank" or "PR."

Understand the following search engine terms so you’ll know what it will take to rank for your keyword phrases…

Link Popularity
This term is used to describe the amount of website that link to your website. Link Popularity is one of the most important contributing factors that the Search Engines use to determine page rankings. The Internet is the ultimate democracy. Generally, the site with the most "votes" (links) wins the highest rankings. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN interpret a link from page A to page B as a "vote."

Link Popularity Strategy:
As a general rule you’ll want to strive to get more in-bound links than your competition. But, be aware that "allinanchor" ranking and TrustRank are also important and needs to be included in your seo linking strategy (see below)

"Backlinks" or "In-Bound Links " (IBLs)
This is the number of links that point to your website – also known as "backlinks" or in-bound links (IBLs). Use the 'link:' command on Yahoo! search engine to discover how many backlinks your website and your competitor’s sites have like this…

Link:http://www.yoursite.com

Backlink Strategy:
Get more backlinks than your competition, but to rank high in Google you should only acquire links from quality relevant sites in your industry, niche or topic.

Allinanchor Ranking
"Allinanchor Rank" is Google's ranking of a web page according to how many other web pages link to it and have the keyword in the actual link text. The text (words) within a link is called "anchor text" hence the name "allinanchor rank." This shows who has the most backlinks with the keyword phrase in the actual links pointing to their site.

This is the single most important measurement, since it takes into account not just the number of links to a web page, but how many links are relevant to the keyword. Use Google's 'allinanchor:' command to discover what your website and competitor website’s allinanchor ranking is like this…

allinanchor:keyword phrase

NOTICE: You can also use the 'allinanchor' command to see who's got links from pages with keyword in the PageTitle, Text and URL...

allinurl:keyword phrase
allintitle:keyword phrase
allintext:keyword phrase

Allinanchor Ranking Strategy:
Your job is to get the lowest allinanchor ranking as possible, with #1 meaning your site has the best "allinanchor ranking" for your keyword phrase.

Google PageRank (PR)
The heart of Google’s algorithm is PageRank, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.
Google's measure of a web page’s 'Importance' is called "PageRank" (PR) and is measured from 1 to 10. You can view any website’s PageRank by downloading the Google Toolbar here…

http://toolbar.google.com/

Here is what Google says about their "PageRank" web site ranking algorithm at their web site… http://www.google.com/technology/

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important.’

As Google explains, Links and PageRank are critical to ranking high in the search engines. In fact, inbound links and the text in and around those inbound links account for 95% of effective search engine optimization.

But, attaining optimal link popularity is not as easy as simply obtaining as many links as possible to your website. The quality and relevancy of the sites linking to your site holds more "weight" than the quantity of sites linking to your site (See "TrustRank" below). For example, since Yahoo is one of the most frequently visited site on the web, a link from Yahoo to your website carries far more "weight" than a link from a smaller, less visited "less important" site.

Here’s what Google Developer Matt Cutts has to say about links…

"Thematic incoming links from authority sites
carry more weight than on-page optimization."

Google PageRank Strategy:
Get more in-bound links (IBLs) from quality and relevant websites than your competition.

TrustRank
As outlined in the white paper titled "Combating Web Spam with TrustRank" (PDF) the term "TrustRank" is used to describe a method used to help ensure quality sites rank high in the search engines and SPAMMERS rank low.

Human editors can help search engine combat spam, but reviewing all websites and categorizing them as "trustworthy" or "spam" is impractical. "TrustRank" places a vote of "Trust" on quality sites which are reviewed and classified as "seed" sites. This trust is passed on to other sites when a trusted seed site links to another site.

TrustRank Strategy:
Acquire in-bound links from the most trusted, well established and highly visited websites in your organization's industry or "niche."

Reference:
For more information about TrustRank visit Aaron Wall's TrustRank article and Wikipedia's TrustRank description.

Unique Sites in Backlinks
This is the number of unique sites among the incoming links - as shown by Google's 'link:' command. This is a more important measurement than just the number of backlinks to your website, since it takes into account not just the number of links, but the number of different sites that link to it with "backlinks."

Unique Sites Strategy:
The more unique sites your getting links from the better… as long as they’re relevant sites from within your "community" – niche or industry.

How to Beat your competition and
Rank Higher in the Search Engines

To beat your competitors and get top 10 rankings, become equal to or better than them in all the above categories. For example...

Get more in-bound links and link popularity;
Strive for #1 Allinanchor Ranking;
Boost your Google PageRank to your competitor's level;
Increase your "TrustRank" by getting links from the
biggest, most trusted websites in your industry.

NOTICE: You can beat your competition with fewer links if your links are more relevant and focused on the keyword, and if you spread your links out among different websites.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs:

Q. I see some high ranked pages in the top 10 that have a Google PageRank of 0 (zero) or have very few backlinks. Why is this?

A. Google ranks new web pages briefly with top rankings. This phenomenon is known as "fresh bot bounce". These rankings are almost always temporary in nature with the new page falling out of the top 10 within a few days.

Q. My website meets or exceeds all my competitors in these areas , but my site is no where to be found. Why?!

A. If you're nowhere to be found, Chances are you have a penalty of some kind. You may want to hire an SEO consultant to help you remove any penalties.

A. If you're ranking, but not quite as high as you should be, you may just need links that are more relevant, and from better quality sites to boost your "TrustRank. "

Start Your SEO Linking Campaign Today:

Contact us now for a free price quote on our search engine optimization services by calling Matt Hockin at 866.279.5785 or by clicking here. Send us the keyword phrases you want to optimize for and we'll review your website and provide you with a strategy for improving your rankings and traffic.

Interactive Marketing, Inc.
61236 Brittle Brush Street • Bend, Oregon 97702
Toll Free: 866.279.5785
Tel: 503.246.1375
Fax: 503.336.5176

search engine optimization terms

Search Engine Optimization Terms

Understanding how the search engines rank websites so YOU can get top 10 rankings too.

How to Beat your competition and Rank Higher in the Search Engines

Understanding how the search engines rank
websites so YOU can get top 10 rankings too.

How to Beat your competition and
Rank Higher in the Search Engines