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Google Pagerank Explained, Defined, Best Reference ResourcesIf you are serious about improving your Web site relevance on Google (and as a consequence on several other major search engines) you should understand quite well what Pagerank is and how it works. Pagerank is a an algorithm that Google utilizes to rank its search results in presence of multiple resources matching a certain query. In very simple words Pagerank evaluates and ranks Web sites according to a computed value determined by the number of other sites linking to them. The way the Pagerank value is computed makes Pagerank somewhat immune to artificial linking efforts. In order to provide the greatest understanding and to allow an exhaustive mini-guide to Pagerank understanding I have researched and listed here below the most interesting and valuable resource on this topic that are available online. Including the original Stanford paper from which the whole thing started. 1) The original PageRank paper by Google's founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/ google.html 2) What can you do with a Web in your Pocket by Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani, Larry Page und Terry Winograd 3) The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web by Lawrence Page, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani und Terry Winograd http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/ showDoc.Fulltext?lang=en&doc= 1999-66&format=pdf&compression= 4) Efficient Crawling Through URL Ordering by Junghoo Cho, Hector Garcia-Molina and Lawrence Page http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/ showDoc.Fulltext?lang=en&doc= 1998-51&format=pdf&compression= 5) Attack Resistant Trust Metrics Draft of PhD thesis in compact formatting by Raph Levien http://www.levien.com/thesis/compact.pdf 6) United States Patent 6,285,999: Method for node ranking in a linked database 7) Google PageRank web site http://pr.efactory.de/ This Web site is devoted exclusively to Google Pagerank. Its sections are devoted to: Pagerank algorithm, Implementation, Inbound and Outbound Links, Number of Pages, Yahoo bonus, Additional Factors and more. It provides also a valuable guide on how to compute your Pagerank without using the Google toolbar. http://pr.efactory.de/ e-pagerank-implementation.shtml 8) Pagerank explained correctly and with examples http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/ 9) Pagerank. Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it http://www.webworkshop.net/ pagerank.html with Phil Craven's PageRank Calculator http://webworkshop.net/ pagerank_calculator.html 10) PageRank Explained PLUS Copywriting Case Study http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/ issue070.htm 11) PageRank Explained http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/ pagerank/index.php 12) Chris Ridings' "PageRank Explained" paper http://www.goodlookingcooking.co.uk/ PageRank.pdf 13) Mark Horrell's Web Site - PageRank Calculator http://www.markhorrell.com/tools/ pagerank.html 14) Google Pagerank http://www.googlerank.com/ranking/ pagerank.html 15) Pagerank for Sale http://www.pandia.com/features/ pagerank.html http://www.pandia.com/features/ pagerank2.html http://www.pandia.com/features/ pagerank3.html 16) The Handy Dandy Google Page Rank Figurin' Guide by Chris Raimondi http://www.searchnerd.com/pagerank/ 17) Online Discussion Forums on PageRank: MarketPositionTalk - PageRank updates http://www.marketpositiontalk.com/ forums/index.cfm?cfapp=11 SearchEngineForums - PR documents and calculator http://www.supportforums.org/pagerank/ WebmasterWorld - PR document and calculator http://www.webmasterworld.com/ Search Engine Forums - Google Forum The secret benefit of search engine optimisation: Increased usabilityA higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they don`t realise is that by optimising their site for the search engines, if done correctly, they can also optimise it for their site visitors. Ultimately this means more people finding your website and increased sales and lead generation. But are search engine optimisation and usability compatible? Aren`t there trade-offs that need to be made between giving search engines what they want and giving people what they want? Read on and find out (although I`m sure you can guess the answer!) 1. Keyword research carried outAdvert: Training coursesWant to learn more about about usability, accessibility or CSS? Why not come on one of our excellent training courses:
Courses are held every month in London and are taught by usability and accessibility professionals. Before you even begin building your website, you should carry out keyword research to identify which keyword phrases your site should target. Using publicly available tools such as Wordtracker, you can discover which keywords are searched for the most frequently and then specifically target those phrases. Doing keyword research is also crucial for your site`s usability. By using the same keywords in your website that web users are searching for in search engines, you`ll literally be speaking the same language as your site visitors. For example, you might decide to target the phrase, “sell toys”, as your website does in fact sell toys. Keyword research would undoubtedly show you that web users are actually searching for, “buy toys” (think about it - have you ever searched using the word, “sell”, when you want to buy something?). By placing the phrase, “buy toys” on to the pages on your website, you`ll be using the same words as your site visitors and they`ll be able to find what they`re looking for more easily. 2. 200 word minimum per pageQuite simply, search engines love content - the more content there is on a page the easier it is for search engines to work out what the page is actually about. Search engines may struggle to work out the point of a web page with less than 200 words, ultimately penalising that page in the search rankings. In terms of usability, it`s also good to avoid pages with very little content. A page with less than 200 words is unlikely to contain a large amount of information, so site visitors will undoubtedly need to click elsewhere to find more detailed information. Don`t be afraid to put a reasonably large amount of information on to a page. Web users generally don`t mind scrolling down anymore, and provided the page provides mechanisms to aid scanning (such as employing sub-headings - see point 6 below) it shouldn`t be too difficult for site visitors to locate the information that they`re after. 3. 100 kb maximum HMTL sizeIf 200 words is the minimum page content size, then 100 kb is the maximum, at least in terms of HMTL file size. Anything more than this and search engines may give up on the page as it`s simply too big for them. A 100 kb HMTL file will take 20 seconds to download on a 56k dial up modem, used by three in four UK web users as of March 2004 (source: UK government). Add on the time it takes for all the other parts of the page to download, such as images and JavaScript files, and you`re looking at a highly un-user-friendly download time! 4. CSS used for layoutThe website of Juicy Studio saw a six-fold increase in site visitors after switching from a table-based layout to a CSS layout. Search engines prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:
Using CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for usability, as it leads to significantly faster download times. 5. Meaningful page titleIf you know anything about search engine optimisation you`ll know that search engines place more importance on the page title than any other attribute on the page. If the title adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about. A meaningful page title also helps site visitors work out where they are, both within the site and the web as a whole. The page title is the first thing that loads up, often quite a few seconds before the content, so a descriptive, keyword-rich page title can be a real aid to help users orientate themselves. 6. Headings and sub-headings usedSearch engines assume that the text contained in heading tags is more important
than the rest of the document text, as headings (in theory at least) summarise the
content immediately below them. Search engines assign the most importance to
Headings are also incredibly useful for your human site visitors, as they greatly aid scanning. Generally speaking, we don`t read on the web, we scan, looking for the information that we`re after. By breaking up page sections with sub-headings that effectively describe the content beneath them, scanning becomes significantly easier. Do be sure not to abuse heading tags though. The more text you have contained in heading tags within the page, the less importance search engines assign to them. 7. Opening paragraph describes page contentWe`ve already established that search engines love content, but they especially love the first 25 words or so on each page. By providing an opening paragraph that adequately describes the content of the rest of the page (or the site if it`s the homepage), you should be able to include your important keyword phrases in this crucial area. As web users, whenever we arrive at a web page the first thing we need to know is whether this page has the information that we`re after. A great way to find this out is to scan through the first paragraph, which, if it sufficiently describes the page content, should help us out. 8. Descriptive link textSearch engines place a lot of importance on link text. They assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and as such examine link text for all links pointing to any page. If all the links pointing to a page about widgets say ‘click here’, search engines can`t gain any information about that page without visiting it. If on the other hand, all the links say, ‘widgets’ then search engines can easily guess what that page is about. One of the best examples of this in action is for the search term, ‘miserable failure’. So many people have linked to George Bush`s bio using this phrase as the link text, that now when miserable failure is searched for in Google, George Bush`s bio appears top of the search rankings! As web users, we don`t generally read web pages word-for-word - we scan them looking for the information that we`re after. Compare the following two paragraphs: This is some text, lots and lots of lovely text. Now, here`s a sentence with a link in it. To read more about our widgets please click here. Following this, there is more text, lots and lots of lovely text. And one more sentence, containing yet more text to illustrate this point. This is some text, lots and lots of lovely text. Now, here`s a sentence with a link in it. Please read about our widgets whilst visiting our website. Following this, there is more text, lots and lots of lovely text. And one more sentence, containing yet more text to illustrate this point.The first paragraph isn`t so good as when you scan through it, you can`t take any meaning from the word ‘click here’. The second paragraph, with its link text that effectively describes its destination, is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words. 9. Frames avoidedFrames are quite an old-school technique, and although aren`t as commonplace as they once were, do still rear up their ugly head from time to time. Using frames is one of the worst possible things you could do for your search engine ranking, as most search engines can`t follow links between frames. Even if a search engine does index your pages and web users find you through a search engine, they`ll be taken to one of the pages within the frame. This page will probably be a content page with no navigation (navigation is normally contained in a separate frame) and therefore no way to navigate to any other page on the site! Frames are also disadvantageous for usability as they can cause problems with the back button, printing, history and bookmarking. Put simply, say no to frames! 10. Quality content providedThis may seem like a strange characteristic of a search engine optimised website, but it`s actually crucial. Search engines, in addition to looking at page content, look at the number of links pointing in to web pages. The more inbound links a website has, all other things being equal, the higher in the search rankings it will appear. By providing creative, unique and regularly updated content on your website, webmasters will want to link to you as doing so will add value to their site visitors. You will also be adding value to your site visitors. ConclusionOptimising your website for both search engines and people needn`t be a trade-off. With this much overlap between the two areas, you should easily be able to have a website that web users can find in the search engines, and when they do find it, they can find what they`re looking for quickly and efficiently. This article was written by Trenton Moss. Trenton`s crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. He knows an awful lot about the Disability Discrimination Act and spends much of his time doing DOM scripting & accessible JavaScript. What next?
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