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Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks so I have not had much time to post. I did want to take this time to let everyone know that Rand Fishkin and the team over at SEOmoz have released their 2009 report on the top search engine ranking factors based on a research survey/interviews that they have completed with some folks from the Search industry.
Participants were asked to apply the ranking factors to Google’s search engine. Here is a look at some of the findings. It's a pretty extensive list and while we do not necessarily with all of the findings, we do concur with most.
Top 5 Ranking Factors
Anchor Text from External Links - this is one of the three components of improving your Inbound Linking (IBL) Quality Score. (With the other key elements being keyword in the title tag of the linking site and keywords in the copy of the page linking.) As Andy Beal states: "Keyword use in external link anchor text is one of the top SEO factors overall. I’ve seen sites rank for competitive keywords—without even mentioning the keyword on-page—simply because of external link text."
Keyword Use in Title Tag - a key factor in communicating to the engines as to what the page is about. While not a meta tag per se, the title tag serves the same purpose of "providing information about information". Keywords in the title tag helps the engines determine the relevancy of a page.
Raw Link Popularity - quantity/quality of external links. Keeping in mind that it is quality over quantity that will have the most impact.
Diversity of Linking Domains - links from many unique root domains; not having links from the same couple of domains but receiving links from various related resources thereby helping improve the relevancy of your page being linked to.
Keyword Use in Root Domain- this has especially been noticeable in the past 12-18 months as we have seen keyword-rich (not keyword-spammed) domains jump up in organic/algorithmic results.
Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)
Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag
Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page
Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page
Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page
Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag
Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g. seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html)
Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g. seomoz.org/keyword/page.html)
Top 5 On-Page Ranking Factors (Non-Keyword Related)
Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page
Recency (freshness) of Page Creation
Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this Domain (interlinking)
Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has been updated)
Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page
Top 5 Page Specific Link Popularity Factors
Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links
External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources)
Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity (PageRank)
Top 5 Site-Wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors
Site Architecture of the Domain (whether intelligent, useful hierarchies are employed)
Use of External Links to Reputable, Trustworthy Sites/Pages
Length of Domain Registration
Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed, etc.)
Server/Hosting Uptime
Top 5 Usage Data Ranking Factors
Historical Click-Through Rate from Search Results to the Exact Page/URL
Historical Click-Through Rate from Search Results to Pages on this Domain
Search Queries for the Domain Name or Associated Brand
Use of Query Refinement Post-Click on a Search Result
Average “Time on Page” Duration
Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors
Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent
Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers aka Buying Links
Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages
Cloaking by User Agent
Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility
Top 5 GEO-Targeting Factors
Country Code TLD of the Root Domain (e.g. .co.uk, .de, .fr, .com.au, etc.)
Language of the Content Used on the Site
Links from Other Domains Targeted to the Country/Region
Geographic Location of the Host IP Address of the Domain
Geo-Targeting Preference Set Inside Google Webmaster Tool
For more details on each of the criteria visit:
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
About the survey
Every two years, SEOmoz surveys top SEO experts in the field worldwide on their opinions of the algorithmic elements that comprise search engine rankings. This year features contributors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, the Ukraine, the Dominican Republic and many more.
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http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
