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.