In Pittsburgh Internet Marketing: Understanding How Google Ranks Websites Parts II and III, a number of factors that Google uses to rank your website were discussed in chronological order according to what the search engine "sees" when it visits your site. This included the domain age and ownership status, the specific domain name, and the website's structure and content. All of these items essentially "occur" on your website, but the following metrics are measured off-site and should be accounted for in your Pittsburgh internet marketing strategies:
1.) Backlinks
Backlinks are possibly one of the most debated subjects in the search engine and internet marketing communities today. The worth of PR0 backlinks, whether No-Follow links offer any value – these and other arguments make it difficult to know the precise role that every backlink will play. However, one thing is certain: backlinks are critical for the ranking of your website.
Backlinks can be built in a number of ways:
*Link exchanges
*Purchased links – WARNING – purchased links are against Google's TOS – this is a serious violation
*Article syndication
*Press release syndication
*Blogging
*Blog commenting
*Forum posting
*Video syndication
*Private blog networks
*Social media
*Document sharing sites
*Online versions of print publications
*Directory listings
*RSS feeds
There are many different ways to build each type of backlink, but the principle to follow is to ensure that the content related to the backlink is high quality and offers real value, and that the resulting backlink pointing to your site comes from a high authority, contextually relevant site or web page. However, while these are the most valuable type of links, virtually any link can add some value to a site.
Backlinks that point to your site should feature a variety of anchor text. For instance, this article – which targets Pittsburgh Internet Marketing, should be balanced with other links that might say:
Internet marketing in PA
Best Pittsburgh internet marketing
Here's a link to a PA IM company
And so on. Because Google essentially views each backlink as a "vote" for your website, the anchor text associated with the link should come in a diverse spread because this is how links are created in a natural state.
2.) Social Influence
Social influence can be summarized fairly easily: the more people interact with your site and share your content, the more Google will notice and rank your site's pages accordingly. Because social media plays such an important role on the web, it can be used to measure a site's "popularity" and value to the communities it serves both online and offline.
Social influence can come from sites like Facebook, or it can occur directly on your site when visitors interact with or comment on/share your content.
3.) Trust
Trust is measured using many metrics, but in most cases what it boils down to is analytics. The primary question Google asks is this:
When visitors come to your site, do they find what they are looking for?
This can be measured with some basic analytics such as the amount of time spent on a site, the bounce rate of a term, query, page or site, and the overall level of interaction a person has when they visit your site. All of the factors discussed until this point will impact the overall level of trust imparted to your site.
The more trustworthy your site is deemed to be, the higher you'll rank for your key terms.
While it is extremely beneficial to understand how Google ranks your website, the fact of the matter is that ensuring that your site hits all of these points is extremely difficult, and for mid to large-sized businesses can require a full time staff. If you need these benefits for your site, we can implement a comprehensive solution for a fraction of the price that you might be thinking. To find out for yourself, call the number at the top of your screen for a free, confidential consultation. Search rankings take time, so the sooner you get started, the sooner you'll lead your markets.
