Internet Business

Search Engine Ranking Factors

January 21, 2008

This post started out as a response to a comment left to my post:
Don't give a Hoot about Google Page Rank.

The comment didn't make sense to me, and the more I wrote in my response to the commenter, the more I felt like my response needed to be a post of its own.

Here's the comment "Jim" left.

Now keep in mind, that my post:
Don't give a Hoot about Google Page Rank says that Google PR has very little weight on how Google ranks sites. So, I'm not sure if Jim is James, or one of his minions. See my post on Unethical Polarization. Nor, can I tell what he is trying to say. Is he saying I'm right or wrong? Is he saying James is right or wrong? Is he saying something else entirely?

I'm very familiar with James Brausch. I've used a lot of his products. I was a Magical Email address customer for a while (that's his coaching service). I've stopped using most of his products except for Artemis Pro (article submission software) and Muvar (multivariant sales page optimization script). I've learned a lot from James. Before Christmas I sent him a note saying so. I ended my Magical Email address coaching subscription as a lot of others do: very frustrated. I sent him a note saying even though we ended that subscription with frustration, the DVD product my wife and I created would not have been possible without what I'd learned from his blog. I mean that. I really do. However, I've grown very frustrated with James' blogging and his behavior and will no longer recommend his products and services. What follows is my experience with his Ranking Factors course and his Rasof product which uses the Ranking Factors data to score web pages.

Jim refers to James as a Search Engine Expert. James is NOT a Search Engine Expert. James claims to be a statistical analysis expert and he probably is. For his Ranking Factors data and Rasof product, he uses statistical analysis to reverse engineer the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) to try and determine which on page factors make a difference to search engine ranking.

I have James' Ranking Factors data; in addition I was a subscriber to his Rasof membership site (for a while) that gives a numerical score to your page based on the Ranking Factors data. I do not believe or recall Google PR being part of his data. It's been a while since I watched the video that came with it, perhaps he mentions Google PR somewhere in there, I don't remember.

I don't use his Ranking Factors data to optimize my pages and sites. On his blog, on more than one occasion, he has inferred that I do. My blog currently, as of this writing, ranks higher than his for the term "Internet Business" (with or without the quotes). In fact, my blog has ranked #1 or #2 for that term for quite a while. When I did try using Rasof and/or his Ranking Factors data, my rankings went so far south it was a joke.

In the data files that come with the Ranking Factors course, you can see if the measured result is statistically significant or not. In other words, if such and such modification (like the keyword being in the first H1 tag) had a large measured impact (either negative or positive) but the number of sites that had that attribute was very small, then the measurement is statistically insignificant. As I said, with his actual data you can see this figure, with his Rasof scoring site, you cannot: it adds up the measurement no matter if it's statistically significant or not (as best I can tell). What this means is that you can optimize your site using Rasof and get a great score in Rasof, but Google looks at it and buries it. That was my experience. Plus Rasof is currently $100 per month (it was $1000 per month at one time - guess not too many people kept paying $1000 per month to ruin their web site ranking).

Why does Rasof not work? Because the biggest factor that search engines look at is the links back to your site from other sites and the text used in and around those links. The algorithms used by search engines to rank sites are very complex and contain a lot of inputs. I'm sure that PR plays a part, as does some of the on page factors that Rasof looks at, but they're small in weight compared to inbound links. Unless you're going to build your own search engine crawlers and crawl the entire internet, then you don't have access to how various sites link together, even then you still wouldn't know exactly how Google, or any other search engine weighs them. You can certainly get the number of links to a site from Google or Yahoo (as shown in the data below), but that's only a number, it does not tell you the value of the inbound link as weighted by Google (or Yahoo, or MSN, etc.). So, in my opinion, trying to use statistical analysis like James does is only measuring the tip of the iceberg so to speak and ignores the rest of the iceberg that we all know is under the surface.

What does work?
Building inbound links:

1. Writing quality content and posts so that people naturally link to your site.


2. Writing and submitting articles,


3. Submitting your posts to blog carnivals (www.BlogCarnival.com),


4. Building relationships with other blogs and bloggers and mentioning their blog articles occasionally (they'll probably reciprocate at some point and mention your posts on their blog).


5. Using a service such as Jonathan Legers' 3WayLinks.net (affiliate link) - it works.

What about the normal Search Engine Optimization that people preach?
For example, keyword density and keyword count? Meta Tags? Link Placement? Shoving all the text first and the menu and links at the end of the page (as far as the HTML is concerned). It's not all that important. Look at the data presented below. The keyword counts are all over the place. If it was important, then they'd be more uniform. I consistently see sites in SERPs that do not even contain the keyword phrase that was searched on. The most important thing with keyword count is: don't over do it. Don't saturate your page. I like to look at the top 10 or 20 sites for a phrase I'm trying to rank for and then make sure that I'm in line with the keyword counts they have and possibly a few below. In other words if most of the sites in the top 10 have 10 or 12 for the keyword count, I like to be around 8 to 10.

Look at the data below for more justification of what I've said.
Do you want to be able to generate reports like the data below with the click of a button? I thought so. I'm polishing the tool I created to do this and will be releasing it as a product soon. Sign up to my subscriber list using the form below (beside my photo) to receive announcements when I post or have new products. I don't release products very often, but when I do, I usually have a special price for my subscriber list.

How to read the data below:
Below are two analysis. One for the phrase "Make Money Online" and then one for "Internet Business". The first section in each report lists the top 20 sites for the keyword phrase as found on Google. Beside the site URL are the keyword counts for the whole keyword phrase: t=total, h=keyword count in head section, and b=keyword count in body section. Following that are counts for the individual words (breakout) that make up the keyword phrase.
The next section lists the Google PR, back links (links to the site) as reported by Google, back links as reported by Yahoo, and finally Alexa Ranking and Links in as reported by Alexa.
(The Links in as reported by Google and Alexa are not really valuable figures because they're not updated often. They can be used for comparison but don't really contain accurate numbers.)
I will post more info in the future about the other features of this tool (it's main function is to track my sites and competitors sites).

DATA
Top 20 Analysis for "Make Money Online" from Google

1: www.carlocab.com: T=17 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Make T=37 H=10 B=0 Money T=39 H=9 B=0 Online T=26 H=5 B=0

2: moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com: T=23 H=4 B=2,
BreakOut: Make T=143 H=8 B=7 Money T=170 H=8 B=8 Online T=49 H=4 B=3

3: www.bidvertiser.com: T=4 H=2 B=2,
BreakOut: Make T=10 H=5 B=5 Money T=11 H=5 B=6 Online T=12 H=5 B=7

4: www.successwithauctions.com: T=20 H=2 B=18,
BreakOut: Make T=75 H=5 B=70 Money T=76 H=6 B=70 Online T=34 H=4 B=30

5: entrepreneurs.about.com
/od/homebasedbusiness/a/makemoneyonline.htm: T=7 H=2 B=5, BreakOut: Make T=21 H=2 B=18 Money T=33 H=4 B=27 Online T=21 H=3 B=17

6: www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com: T=51 H=2 B=49,
BreakOut: Make T=403 H=43 B=360 Money T=426 H=43 B=383 Online T=420 H=43 B=377

7: www.squidoo.com/supermom_in_ny: T=46 H=11 B=35,
BreakOut: Make T=136 H=22 B=114 Money T=205 H=26 B=179 Online T=89 H=14 B=75

8: makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com: T=19 H=4 B=15,
BreakOut: Make T=237 H=6 B=231 Money T=246 H=6 B=240 Online T=32 H=4 B=28

9: ez-onlinemoney.com: T=7 H=2 B=5,
BreakOut: Make T=26 H=7 B=19 Money T=74 H=7 B=67 Online T=69 H=4 B=65

10: myagloconetwork.blogspot.com: T=36 H=2 B=34,
BreakOut: Make T=121 H=3 B=118 Money T=147 H=3 B=144 Online T=76 H=3 B=73

11: www.justmakemoneyonline.com: T=26 H=2 B=24,
BreakOut: Make T=216 H=22 B=194 Money T=264 H=22 B=242 Online T=276 H=22 B=254

12: www.pcmoneymaker.net: T=17 H=2 B=15,
BreakOut: Make T=166 H=23 B=143 Money T=172 H=25 B=147 Online T=67 H=4 B=63

13: webworkerdaily.com /2007/02/22/10-new-ways-to-make-money-online: T=109 H=1 B=108, BreakOut: Make T=282 H=2 B=280 Money T=379 H=2 B=377 Online T=298 H=2 B=296

14: www.plrpro.com: T=3 H=3 B=0,
BreakOut: Make T=7 H=3 B=4 Money T=6 H=3 B=3 Online T=9 H=3 B=6

15: rsstoblog.com: T=2 H=1 B=1,
BreakOut: Make T=24 H=1 B=23 Money T=19 H=1 B=18 Online T=3 H=1 B=2

16: spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com: T=37 H=4 B=33,
BreakOut: Make T=89 H=4 B=85 Money T=121 H=4 B=117 Online T=76 H=4 B=72

17: www.doshdosh.com: T=5 H=2 B=3,
BreakOut: Make T=14 H=3 B=11 Money T=21 H=4 B=17 Online T=13 H=4 B=9

18: make-money-from.blogspot.com: T=16 H=5 B=11,
BreakOut: Make T=194 H=8 B=186 Money T=220 H=14 B=206 Online T=33 H=9 B=24

19: www.team-schuman.com: T=14 H=3 B=11,
BreakOut: Make T=71 H=15 B=56 Money T=83 H=15 B=68 Online T=24 H=3 B=21

20: mashable.com/2007/07/30/make-money-online: T=57 H=1 B=56,
BreakOut: Make T=127 H=3 B=124 Money T=206 H=2 B=204 Online T=186 H=2 B=184

Google PR:
www.carlocab.com: 3
moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com: 3
www.bidvertiser.com: 6
www.successwithauctions.com: 4
entrepreneurs.about.com: 6
www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com: 4
www.squidoo.com: 7
makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com: 4
ez-onlinemoney.com: 4
myagloconetwork.blogspot.com: 4
www.justmakemoneyonline.com: 5
www.pcmoneymaker.net: 4
webworkerdaily.com: 4
www.plrpro.com: 3
rsstoblog.com: 5
spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com: 0
www.doshdosh.com: 6
make-money-from.blogspot.com: 4
www.team-schuman.com: 3
mashable.com: 7

Google Back Link Count:
www.carlocab.com: 1180
moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com: 624
www.bidvertiser.com: 46900
www.successwithauctions.com: 322
entrepreneurs.about.com: 1410
www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com: 1550
www.squidoo.com: 16000
makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com: 182
ez-onlinemoney.com: 1160
myagloconetwork.blogspot.com: 632
www.justmakemoneyonline.com: 2700
www.pcmoneymaker.net: 162
webworkerdaily.com: 9100
www.plrpro.com: 776
rsstoblog.com: 479
spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com: 308
www.doshdosh.com: 13100
make-money-from.blogspot.com: 458
www.team-schuman.com: 3640
mashable.com: 35100

Yahoo! Back Link Count:
www.carlocab.com: 28900
moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com: 12500
www.bidvertiser.com: 3070000
www.successwithauctions.com: 11600
entrepreneurs.about.com: 43400
www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com: 39600
www.squidoo.com: 259000
makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com: 3570
ez-onlinemoney.com: 31900
myagloconetwork.blogspot.com: 21100
www.justmakemoneyonline.com: 42200
www.pcmoneymaker.net: 3570
webworkerdaily.com: 224000
www.plrpro.com: 20600
rsstoblog.com: 36100
spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com: 4210
www.doshdosh.com: 511000
make-money-from.blogspot.com: 13500
www.team-schuman.com: 16200
mashable.com: 655000

Alexa Ranking & Count:
(r = ranking, l=links in)
www.carlocab.com: r=34,338 l=No Data
moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com: r=88,763 l=59
www.bidvertiser.com: r=4,015 l=4,372
www.successwithauctions.com: r=230,993 l=48
entrepreneurs.about.com: r=140 l=743
www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com: r=120,783 l=83
www.squidoo.com: r=732 l=3,420
makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com: r=94,392 l=80,298
ez-onlinemoney.com: r=69,415 l=21
myagloconetwork.blogspot.com: r=526,726 l=80,298
www.justmakemoneyonline.com: r=124,646 l=182
www.pcmoneymaker.net: r=348,107 l=2
webworkerdaily.com: r=28,314 l=250
www.plrpro.com: r=14,710 l=35
rsstoblog.com: r=83,726 l=914
spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com: r=492,121 l=80,298
www.doshdosh.com: r=8,409 l=No Data
make-money-from.blogspot.com: r=424,970 l=80,298
www.team-schuman.com: r=189,056 l=993
mashable.com: r=1,502 l=1,752

Top 20 Analysis for "Internet Business" from Google
(note: www.HomeNotion.com is giving a 404 error tonight - that's why it shows 0 for the word counters)

1: www.way2miracle.com: T=3 H=2 B=1,
BreakOut: Internet T=54 H=13 B=41 Business T=58 H=13 B=45

2: www.pqinternet.com: T=9 H=3 B=6,
BreakOut: Internet T=311 H=39 B=272 Business T=43 H=8 B=35

3: www.homenotion.com: T=0 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=0 H=0 B=0 Business T=0 H=0 B=0

4: onlinebusiness.about.com/od/startingup/a/needidea.htm: T=5 H=3 B=2,
BreakOut: Internet T=12 H=3 B=9 Business T=56 H=5 B=47

5: www.terrydean.org: T=11 H=2 B=9,
BreakOut: Internet T=28 H=2 B=26 Business T=123 H=2 B=121

6: www.jamesbrausch.com: T=37 H=8 B=29,
BreakOut: Internet T=54 H=9 B=45 Business T=62 H=9 B=53

7: internet-biz.blogspot.com: T=12 H=4 B=8,
BreakOut: Internet T=208 H=6 B=202 Business T=126 H=4 B=122

8: www.loc.gov/rr/business/ecommerce: T=3 H=0 B=3,
BreakOut: Internet T=34 H=2 B=32 Business T=55 H=8 B=47

9: www.internetnews.com: T=0 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=213 H=9 B=204 Business T=36 H=2 B=34

10: www.chriscrompton.com: T=14 H=3 B=11,
BreakOut: Internet T=33 H=4 B=29 Business T=46 H=3 B=43

11: www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com: T=17 H=4 B=13,
BreakOut: Internet T=137 H=24 B=113 Business T=145 H=27 B=118

12: richardlee.com: T=10 H=2 B=8,
BreakOut: Internet T=13 H=2 B=11 Business T=29 H=2 B=27

13: www.smallbusinesshowto.com: T=0 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=0 H=0 B=0 Business T=0 H=0 B=0

14: www.businessknowhow.com/internet: T=3 H=0 B=3,
BreakOut: Internet T=63 H=3 B=60 Business T=198 H=2 B=196

15: biznetsolutionsinc.com: T=19 H=3 B=16,
BreakOut: Internet T=34 H=3 B=31 Business T=41 H=5 B=36

16: www.stat-usa.gov: T=0 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=9 H=4 B=5 Business T=3 H=1 B=2

17: www.interbiznet.com: T=1 H=1 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=1 H=1 B=0 Business T=1 H=1 B=0

18: www.cyns-home-biz.com: T=34 H=8 B=26,
BreakOut: Internet T=120 H=21 B=99 Business T=223 H=33 B=190

19: www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/bus00.00.00: T=0 H=0 B=0,
BreakOut: Internet T=11 H=4 B=7 Business T=74 H=2 B=72

20: www.internet-based-business-mastery.com: T=20 H=5 B=15,
BreakOut: Internet T=282 H=42 B=240 Business T=303 H=43 B=260

Google PR:
www.way2miracle.com: 3
www.pqinternet.com: 3
www.homenotion.com: 3
onlinebusiness.about.com: 6
www.terrydean.org: 4
www.jamesbrausch.com: 5
internet-biz.blogspot.com: 4
www.loc.gov: 9
www.internetnews.com: 4
www.chriscrompton.com: 3
www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com: 4
richardlee.com: 0
www.smallbusinesshowto.com: 3
www.businessknowhow.com: 5
biznetsolutionsinc.com: 2
www.stat-usa.gov: 7
www.interbiznet.com: 6
www.cyns-home-biz.com: 5
www.ipl.org: 7
www.internet-based-business-mastery.com: 5

Google Back Link Count:
www.way2miracle.com: 240
www.pqinternet.com: 215
www.homenotion.com: 68
onlinebusiness.about.com: 388
www.terrydean.org: 513
www.jamesbrausch.com: 755
internet-biz.blogspot.com: 76
www.loc.gov: 26500
www.internetnews.com: 65300
www.chriscrompton.com: 394
www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com: 24
richardlee.com: 249
www.smallbusinesshowto.com: 138
www.businessknowhow.com: 1280
biznetsolutionsinc.com: 7
www.stat-usa.gov: 3480
www.interbiznet.com: 1180
www.cyns-home-biz.com: 332
www.ipl.org: 7590
www.internet-based-business-mastery.com: 366

Yahoo! Back Link Count:
www.way2miracle.com: 8460
www.pqinternet.com: 4730
www.homenotion.com: 2120
onlinebusiness.about.com: 8170
www.terrydean.org: 5920
www.jamesbrausch.com: 8840
internet-biz.blogspot.com: 2830
www.loc.gov: 1370000
www.internetnews.com: 4320000
www.chriscrompton.com: 10400
www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com: 662
richardlee.com: 611
www.smallbusinesshowto.com: 4450
www.businessknowhow.com: 31200
biznetsolutionsinc.com: 335
www.stat-usa.gov: 82000
www.interbiznet.com: 11500
www.cyns-home-biz.com: 8590
www.ipl.org: 189000
www.internet-based-business-mastery.com: 2530

Alexa Ranking & Count:
(r = ranking, l=links in)
www.way2miracle.com: r=561,273 l=163
www.pqinternet.com: r=298,568 l=4
www.homenotion.com: r=338,180 l=210
onlinebusiness.about.com: r=140 l=303
www.terrydean.org: r=100,143 l=2
www.jamesbrausch.com: r=28,754 l=116
internet-biz.blogspot.com: r=1,243,930 l=21
www.loc.gov: r=5,300 l=18,533
www.internetnews.com: r=28,888 l=7,402
www.chriscrompton.com: r=129,990 l=No Data
www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com: r=2,133,980 l=57
richardlee.com: r=101,998 l=4
www.smallbusinesshowto.com: r=630,445 l=240
www.businessknowhow.com: r=47,698 l=1,088
biznetsolutionsinc.com: r=3,464,881 l=4
www.stat-usa.gov: r=543,013 l=1,618
www.interbiznet.com: r=231,662 l=687
www.cyns-home-biz.com: r=406,209 l=185
www.ipl.org: r=42,978 l=10,560
www.internet-based-business-mastery.com: r=332,038 l=27

Until next time,
Fred Black

About the Author Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.

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