Google
has recently filed a patent that
details many points that Google uses
to rank web pages. The title of the
patent is "Information retrieval
based on historical data" and
it confirms the existence of the
Google sandbox and that it can apply
to all web pages.
In this article, we're trying
to find out what this means to
your web site and what you have
to do to optimize your web pages
so that you get high rankings on
Google.
Part 1: How your web page changes
influence your rankings on Google
The patent specification revealed
a lot of information about possible
ways Google might use your web
page changes to determine the ranking
of your site.
In addition to web page content,
the ranking of web pages is influenced
by the frequency of page or site
updates. Google measures content
changes to determine how fresh
or how stale a web page is. Google
tries to distinguish between real
and superfluous content changes.
This doesn't mean that it is always
advisable to regularly change the
content of your web pages. Google
says that stale results might be
desirable for information that
doesn't need updating while fresh
content is good for results that
require it.
For example, seasonal results
might go up and down in the result
pages based on the time of the
year.
Google possibly records the following
web page changes:
- the frequency of changes
- the amount of changes (substantial
or shallow changes)
- the change in keyword density
- the number of new web pages
that link to a web page
- the changes in anchor texts
(the text that is used to link
to a web page)
- the number of links to low
trust web sites (for example
too many affiliate links on one
web page)
Google might use the results of
this analysis to specify the ranking
of a web page in addition to its
content.
Section 0128 in the patent filing
reveals that you shouldn't change
the focus of too many documents
at once:
"A significant change
over time in the set of topics
associated with a document
may indicate that the document
has changed owners and previous
document indicators, such as
score, anchor text, etc., are
no longer reliable.
Similarly, a spike in the
number of topics could indicate
spam. For example, if a particular
document is associated with
a set of one or more topics
over what may be considered
a 'stable' period of time and
then a (sudden) spike occurs
in the number of topics associated
with the document, this may
be an indication that the document
has been taken over as a 'doorway'
document.
Another indication may include
the disappearance of the original
topics associated with the
document. If one or more of
these situations are detected,
then [Google] may reduce the
relative score of such documents
and/or the links, anchor text,
or other data associated the
document."
This means that the Google
sandbox phenomenon may apply
to your web site if you change
your web pages.
What does this mean to your
web site?
First of all, you should make
sure that your web page content
is optimized
for Google. If your web page
content is not optimized, all other
ranking factors won't help you
much.
Try to find out if the keywords
you target on search engines require
static or fresh search results
and update your web site content
accordingly. Make sure that you
don't change too much at once so
that your web site won't be put
in the sandbox.
In upcoming newsletter issues,
we'll discuss other important factors
that can influence your ranking
on Google and that are mentioned
in the patent specification..
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