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A group of
Google employees have recently filed a patent application (#20050071741)
with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which gives
insight into how to optimize one's website to do well in the Google
rankings. The filing of the patent gives verification that Google
uses or intends to use historical data in its ranking algorithm.
This patent also gives credence to the Google Sandbox Theory for
new websites.
Under the
Google Sandbox Theory, new websites are placed in a sort of holding
tank for observation for a period of time (6 - 9 months at present)
until the website has proved that it's not a fly-by-night operation.
Once the Sandbox period is over, then new websites will climb
rapidly in the rankings. The Google Sandbox Theory is an unofficial
theory based on observation and anecdotal evidence from those
within the search engine optimization industry.
Based on
the new Google patent here are the top 5 suggestions to better
optimize a website for Google:
1. Build
links slowly to your website. Websites that put up a bunch links
quickly send up a red flag that links are being added in order
to boost rankings. According to Google, natural links happen slowly
over time, so one's link-building strategy also needs to include
link-building slowly over time.
2. The anchor text in the back links to a website also need to
be natural as well. If a website has lots of great content of
interest to visitors, other Webmasters will naturally link to
the website. Content is still king when it comes to building natural
links. In fact, having great content is the best natural linking
strategy.
3. If content is king, then fresh content is prince. Google thrives
on websites that are constantly adding fresh content. Websites
with stale content erode in value over time.
4. When adding fresh content, make sure it is substantial. According
to the patent, Google measures substantial versus insubstantial
content that is being added to a website. Don't try to trick the
search engines with lots of minor content updates.
5. Outbound links to trusted, authority sites help in the rankings.
As a reputable online business, it makes good business sense to
refer customers to other reputable businesses as well. Referring
customers to disreputable websites only hurt a business's reputation
and credibility and Google takes this into account when deciding
how to rank websites.
There are
more insights to be gained from the patent application, but these
are the highlights that will help Webmasters and SEO's focusing
on Google to achieve higher rankings. Many of these ideas have
been stated before as theory and now the patent application verifies
these theories. Historical data has always been thought to play
a significant role in the Google rankings. So now that it has
been confirmed, taking action seems to be the next logical step.
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