Friday, April 10th, 2009 by Joe Hall

13

The Google Ranking Algorithm: Keep On Dancing, SEOs!

Lego Dancing Are you an SEO that knows how to dance? If not, you better learn because for some, the name of the game is the algorithm-two-step. Since the beginning of SEO we have been constantly predicting and strategizing around an ever-evolving set of technical rules known to many as search ranking algorithms. In a way these ranking algorithms are the beat and tempo to our often times clumsy and awkward dance moves!

Some SEOs have made a real science into tracking and understanding these ranking algorithms. While others dance blindly into the night to be forgotten and lost forever. Rand Fishkin has been doing the SEO dance for quite some time now. Rand has recently posted his thoughts on some of the changes that the Google algorithm has taken over the years. Rand’s analysis seems to be dead-on with everything that we have seen and read over the years.

Rand Fishkin's Google Algorithm Analysis

While Rand does an awesome job at dissecting the search algorithm melody, I can’t help asking myself, should we be dancing in the first place? From my perspective if all you are a master at is the algorithm-two-step then before long you turn into that annoying guy at the party that knows all the dance moves but can’t hold a quality conversation.

So here’s my advice at being the star of the SEO party:

  • Learn the algorithm-two-step but don’t obsess over it.
  • Add to the conversation with high quality content.
  • Dress to impress with clean SEO friendly HTML and URLs.
  • Meet new people and build organic relationships/links.

If you can be successful at all of the above then the algorithm-two-step will come naturally and you will be an all star SEO dancer in no time.


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13 comments on “The Google Ranking Algorithm: Keep On Dancing, SEOs!”

  1. Jason T Says:

    April 10th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    Nice to know that the Trust / Authority is one of the dominant factors in the algoritm.

  2. David Leonhardt Says:

    April 10th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    Interesting about the trust and authority of a domain. One of the implications is that getting NoFollow links from high-trust domains can count, because even if PageRank is not passed along, trust is.

    David Leonhardt’s last blog post..Ethical SEO or SEO Spam

  3. Glen Says:

    April 10th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    Wow…this gives me great insight about what I’ve done in the past, what I’m currently doing and what I should be doing! Thanks for the tips! :)

  4. Wess Stewart Says:

    April 11th, 2009 at 1:16 am

    I absolutely suck at SEO. Somehow my blog made PR4, but then automagically dropped to PR2. I’m still missing the high paying sponsored posts…lol.

    Wess Stewart’s last blog post..PTC Sites are a Total Waste of Time

  5. Bob Williams Says:

    April 11th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    I tend to agree with Rand’s observations based on a some recent observations of domains I watch as well as one that own. I guess the question now is what builds Trust / Authority of a domain? Certainly I think the other three criteria in Rand’s post are part of what builds the trust and authority. But beyond anchor text, keywords, and page ranking are there other contributing factors? Do the number of indexed pages on a site or the length of time they have been indexed factor into the equation?

    Bob Williams’s last blog post..Don’t paralyze your customers

  6. Suja Says:

    April 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    Meanwhile we have to evaluate our site and make analysis for knowing google rank and index

    Suja’s last blog post..What Qualities to Look for in an Image Consultant

  7. Marius Says:

    April 12th, 2009 at 9:16 pm

    nothing to worry about the new pagerank system

  8. mylotnovice.com Says:

    April 13th, 2009 at 4:42 am

    The stuff Authority/Host domain is just another word for Monopolistic advantage. You don’t need an algorithm for that. Content should be king not Monopoly.

  9. basmin Says:

    April 13th, 2009 at 7:07 am

    not easy to apply 4 above method for beginner like me, thanks for the tips

    basmin’s last blog post..Kampanye Damai Pemilu Indonesia 2009

  10. Search Engine Marketing News - April 13, 2009 | SageRock Digital Marketing Blog Says:

    April 13th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    [...] The Google Ranking Algorithm: Keep On Dancing, SEOs! [There is an interesting chart here by Rand Fishkin charting the changes in importance factors.] [...]

  11. memurlar Says:

    April 13th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    Many thanks for the tip, but since the years, I can not pagerank eisnschätzen sometimes the pagerank kurvet so quickly.

    memurlar’s last blog post..Bingöl Üniversitesi Öğretim Elemanı Alım İlanı

  12. Organic SEO Says:

    April 16th, 2009 at 5:36 am

    That’s right Google algorithms are not same all the time and are also not fully disclosed. As you said we are dancing on these algorithms and we have to balance to be on top rank. That is not very difficult to do but yes its only possible with hard work and constant work.

  13. Chris Says:

    April 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 am

    Is it true that Google is planning to change their algorithms again since the recent spammy websites with the ford campaigns?thank you