SEOmoz's Biennial Page Ranking Factors 2009 Released - part 1

SEOmoz's biennial Search Engine Ranking Factors is finally launched. Every two years, SEOmoz survey 100 of the industry's top SEO minds. In 2009, 72 SEOs participated in the data gathering process, answering survey questions that consumed hours of time. The resulting document is an amazing aggregation of data about how search engines rank documents and, at least in my opinion, should be read by anyone serious about practicing search engine optimization.

Table of Contents

* On-Page (keyword-specific) Ranking Factors
* On-Page (non-keyword) Ranking Factors
* Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors
* Site-Wide Link-Based Ranking Factors
* Site-wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors
* Social Media/Social Graph Based Ranking Factors
* Usage Data Ranking Factors
* Negative Ranking Factors
* Factors Negatively Affecting the Value of External Links
* Geo-Targeting Factors

1-On-Page (keyword-specific) Ranking Factors

1. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag (66% very high importance).
2. Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag (63% high importance).
3. Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com -60% high importance).
4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag (49% moderate importance).
5. Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page (47% moderate importance).
6. Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page (46% moderate importance).
7. Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag (45% moderate importance).
8. Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page (45% moderate importance).
9. Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name (e.g. keyword.seomoz.org - 42% low importance).
10. Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g. seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html - 38% low importance).
11. Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g. seomoz.org/keyword/page.html -37% low importance).
12. Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (35% low importance).
13. Keyword Use in Image Alt Text ( 33% minimal importance).
14. Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page (33% minimal importance).
15. Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page (e.g. keyword.jpg - 33% minimal importance).
16. Keyword Use in or Tags (26% minimal importance).
17. Keyword Density Formula (# of Keyword Uses ÷ Total # of Terms on the Page)
(25% minimal importance).
18. Keyword Use in List Items (23% very minimal importance).
19. Keyword Use in the Page’s Query Parameters (e.g. seomoz.org/page.html?keyword)
(22% very minimal importance).
20. Keyword Use in or Tags (21% very minimal importance).
21. Keyword Use in the Meta Description Tag (19% very minimal importance).
22. Keyword Use in the Page’s File Extension (e.g. seomoz.org/page.keyword)
(12% very minimal importance).
23. Keyword Use in Comment Tags in the HTML (6% very minimal importance).
24. Keyword Use in the Meta Keywords Tag (5% very minimal importance).

Comments on On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors:

Andy Beal : Keyword use in external link anchor text is one of the top SEO factors overall. I’ve seen sites rank for competitive keywords—without even mentioning the keyword on-page—simply because of external link text.

Andy Beard – Keyword Use in the Meta Keywords Tag – ignore them unless using a blogging platform which can use the same keywords as tags. Google ignores them.

Christine Churchill – Taking the time to create a good title tag has the biggest payoff of any on-page criteria. Just do it!

Duncan Morris – It’s worth pointing out that even though having keywords in the meta description doesn’t impact rankings they can play a significant role in the sites click through rate from the SERPs.

Peter Wailes – Domain name keyword usage gains most of its strength through what anchor text people are then likely to link to you with, not so much from inherent value, which is lower in my opinion.

Wait for part 2 (On-Page (Non-Keyword) Ranking Factors).
Source: Seomoz

Analysis For Incoming Traffic From Search Queries Is A Gold Mine

Commenting on the previous post: search queries with 8+ words continue to rise
I decided to analyze my search quires because it drew my attention that any of the visits that I receive are a result of four-word search quires or more.
The visits on my blog (e-marketing strategies) were analyzed last week and noticed that my blog appears as a result of the search with the following quires:
1- Google EG : “Retail Statistics Egypt”.
2- Google SA : “Blogsphere.jeeran.com” (check my article: Egyptian Bloggers Full Statistics - Part 1)

There are more than three-word search quires such as:
Google NL : “marketing penetration middle east.” The result of this search is this article: MIDDLE EAST vs GLOBAL INTERNET PENETRATION


Of course that is so far from what the visitor desired to find; as he wanted data about marketing in the Middle East and therefore he didn't stay on the blog for more than a minute. That gave me the idea to improve the content of the articles, since it appeared in the results of that search term. More attention is required for the articles concerned with "marketing in the middle east"; especially after the economic crisis and the need to search for markets all over the world.

More examples of the search quires are:
1-Google UK : “facebooks e-marketing strategies.”
2-Google USA : “e-marketer objections.”

The search quire that contained eight-words is:
Google EG: “statistics about number of internet bloggers in Egypt ”

To sum all that we may say that since the search quires increase, then the visitor needs more specified information, and needs more specified and regional articles than before. That is the reason of using four or eight words per search quire.
The visitor might not find his quest in your article this time, but definitely he will find it next time he visits your blog because you now know the requirements of your reader. It is your job now to use the chance and introduce the content that the reader seeks, especially that you come up in the results under the search terms he uses.

Last week, I analyzed the search quires and found that the field of marketing in Egypt and the Middle East is so vague (especially to foreigners). More information is required about that field, and hence I will concentrate my efforts on articles, statistics and presumptive figures about marketing in Egypt and applying it online.
One of the reasons that infused this idea is that my article (Egyptian bloggers full statistics) is read more than any of my other articles. That article was written in Arabic and was based on a research from the Centre of Decision Making - the Cabinet of Ministers. This article is highly read because of the lack of information about blogging in Egypt and the Middle East.
The bottom line is: analyze your Keywords and create a new content according to the search quires that your article appears in its results.

Indirect Promotion, Black Hat SEO Tactics

While I was searching the ultimate source of SEJ I found this useful articles by Ann Smarty,
You should check Ann Smarty's articles because its’ full of a useful backlinks & also useful comments so you will find a full resourses for the thing she is disccusing.
This Article is about ; Black Hat SEO : Indirect Promotion

She talks about how black-hats take advantage of trusted domains to promote their websites. Here is a quick example: #4 for [viagra] in Google (!).

The technique is really easy to follow:
• comment at a relevant blogspot post;
• promote your comment page with hundreds of inlinks.
A deep page hosted at a trusted domain ensures that you are not put under radar; and you will promote it free of fear of being caught as a spammer. The ‘nofollowed’ link from a trusted domain won’t give you any ‘link juice’ but it will result in a flow of ‘indirect’ search traffic for a really competitive term.
• Make use of indirect promotion: grow the power of pages linking to your site - by doing this you will not only indirectly promote your site but also strengthen your positions. Besides, with this method you are free to experiment without the risk to lose your main website.
• Take advantage of free hosted services (especially the ones owned by Google). Create several supporting blogs and sites hosted on free trusted domains and servers to steadily grow your power.
Both the tactics have several important advantages:
• they are comparatively risk-free;
• you are able to control the link juice you own;
• they are mostly free (all you need is hard work);
• they are hard to catch.

I particuraly liked this comment on Ann Samrty’s article :
rishil
lol Ann stop giving away tricks ;) Although I am not a black hat (nor Grey) in my early stages of learning SEO I used this technique to help some friends push up their sites - Although I didnt go as far as to hack into an authority site to host the end content. Before the use of nofollow, this was an excellent way to get content out of supplemental indexes - funny thing was between my friends and I, we sat down and thought out the comments, made them relevant and useful. That in itself earned major bonus points where many of the blog owners added us to their blogroll, links which still exist and grow in value 2 years
For twitter users - I think the same skill can be used there - add links to a profile set up for a product or by keyword - with the link to site you want to push… With a site like twitter, it shouldn’t be too hard to push certain searches – for example try searching for some brand names that promote their twitter profiles – mashable for instance – their twitter profile page is on the top of serps for “mashable”.
At the same time a similar tactic can be used to increase the incident of non search traffic - just run more comments across a number of relevant blogs… infact quite a few adsense publishers use that tactic. And with the commentluv plugin being taken up quite quickly by bloggers on WP – you have the advantage of double promotion…

You can check the whole commenst on :
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/black-hat-seo-lessons-indirect-promotion/6872/