If you’ve been to as many Internet conferences as I have you’ll know that the biggest topic is “traffic”, for without traffic your website is dead. Of course one could “pay” for traffic. (advertise). But what about that free traffic offered by Google (and others)? You know, — what if you could get Google to rank you high up on page one for lots of pages on your site?
How good would that be?
I’ve been a full time Internet marketer since 1999. I run many of my own affiliate websites. I also run several sites devoted to publishing information about our industry: affiliate marketing. I teach people how to make money online.
Years ago I planted my flag on “natural search”. In this article I’ll share with you what I’ve learned about how Google (and the others) work.
First An Established Fact – Only Google Knows
I laugh when I hear some new “guru” claim he’s figured out the formula Google uses. Hey, I’m “all in” when it comes to inside knowledge that could get me top rankings. Fact is though, the Google algorithm is a carefully guarded secret.
Yes, over the years stuff leaked out, but one thing that has become clear is that when it comes to Google always expect change. What worked one month might not the next. Google is furiously working to always adapt to what they call “spam”, so unless you really understand their modus operandi forget about “cracking the code”.
Even if you did, unless your publishing what Google wants, you’re doomed.
Sometimes The Most Obvious Thing Is Well Hidden
I got my first Internet connection somewhere in the late 90′s. This was well before Google. Netscape was the big one then. And there were several others contending for popularity.
Most people use search engines without even thinking about what the “engine” is doing. Do you know? Well if not here’s a simple, obvious fact. They try to serve up a list of web pages that most accurately match the search query used.
If you typed in “the history of wooden rocking chairs”, you get a top to bottom listing of pages from various sites that IT thought were the most relevant.
They do this at warp speed because they have all that data in their index.
These sites are in their index because periodically the search engines send little robots (spiders) out onto the Net to bring back anything new. That gets added to their index. And a mathematical formula (algorithm) crunches the data in order to reshuffle the deck and make ready the most appropriate hierarchy of results based on innumerable, possible search terms.
They do this (and hope to get it right) so you keep using them. They want you to be a “regular” because they make money by serving up ads to the millions of eyeballs using their engine.
Google Took The Lead With A Novel Idea
Prior to Google (early 2000′s) the engines relied on analysis of the code of each page in their index to come up with some sort of “relevancy score”. Not sure if that’s the term they used but you get the idea. If “web surfers”, as they were called in those days, got results that were too “off topic” they’d go elsewhere.
What a breath of fresh air Google was because finally, one could rely on highly relevant and popular search results.
What Google did then (and they all do now) is not only factor in what was on the page but who was linking to that page. They realized that if 20 top ranking sites in their index were linking to a single page on someone else’s site – then that most probably meant that page was important.
So if two pages were equal in almost every respect as far as “content” was concerned, they’d give the higher ranking to the page with the quality “backlinks”. They thought of a link as a vote. The more votes you had, the more popular you were.
The search engines want to know two things about any page (or site) in its index. One: is it the most relevant based on this search term? And, two, is it the most popular based on the backlinks to it?
If your site is both relevant and popular you win. If not, you don’t.
About the Author
James Martell lives in White Rock, BC with his wife Arlene and their four children. James is a pioneer in the affiliate marketing industry and was successfully profiting with affiliate websites as early as 1999. Visit his website for the very latest in news and tips on how to make money online with affiliate programs.
Hi James,
“Sometimes the most obvious thing is well hidden.”
That’s so very true. It is funny that in our rush to find “the secret” we lose focus and don’t realize that the secret is right in front of us. As my mom always said, and I’m sure you’ve heard it many times yourself, “If it was a snake it would have bit you!”
What do the search engines want? They want to give their “web searchers” the best results possible! That is the clue, that is the big secret. Relevant quality content that people love. Or in the SEOers terms, keyword rich unique content that websites link to.
Hey, thanks for keeping it real and bringing us back to the simple basics. At times I think we all need the reminder.
Vincent Parker
Vincent Parker´s recent blog post ..Value – The Fuel For Your GDI Business
Vincent,
Well put. There’s just no magic bullet.
Also, if I read one more article about how you want high quality followed links from high authority sites, I’m gonna spew.
We all know that. Obtaining them brute force style is near impossible.
Doing that in some massive quantity is impossible. period.
Rob´s recent blog post ..Realtors- Leases and Reality
Twitter: shaxx
says:
it is a good thing the way Google keep on changing things. Now no one can simply just put some craps on the net and expect them to appear on the first page of a Google search… Hopefully sooner or later, we would be able to get some realy high quality stuffs from our searches..
papabear´s recent blog post ..Come & Meet d Cuppies crews
Using the term such as “popular” might be a bit misleading. “Authority” might be a better term. An example might be: Two pages with equal content. One of the pages has 100 links and the other page only has 25, but this page outranks the first page. Why? Those 25 links are more authoritative than the 100.
jenny´s recent blog post ..Press Release Announcing The New Site
Twitter: kirapermunian
says:
What Do Search Engines Want? This is my question also, although I work with search engine optimization following search engine requirements, doing white hat seo, reverse engineering and so on. I still not certain what really search engines want but still implementing the proven old folks of some best methods to make sites search engine friendly and I believe I’ve got it wisely. Thanks for the share.
kirapermunian´s recent blog post ..Are There Any Usability Standards for Blogging
Twitter: bdtechie
says:
Even if we get to know some secrets about Google, they eventually change their algorithm !
Nasif´s recent blog post ..5 Great Free Music Streaming Sites
Twitter: faissalhaithami
says:
awesome article !! i guess you are writing a peace of experience ^,^
but you now what? i like this part ( I laugh when I hear some new “guru” claim he’s figured out the formula Google uses ) I totally agree and nowadays there is alot!
Faissal´s recent blog post ..Facebook Advertising system Killed Google Adwords- here is why
Twitter: thatgirlisfunny
says:
James,
Thanks for speaking so plainly. You reminded me of something that our school teachers always wanted – answer the question! Whatever we say in our title, the words that follow must provide the answer. That helps Google sort out relevance and our readers to get what they need too.
thatgirlisfunny´s recent blog post ..MMA Fighters- Guess Who Got Her Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
IMO, search engines want a good user experience. Tricks and whatnot may work for a moment but if you want to rank well, you need to provide a benefit to the end user.
phildgeo11´s recent blog post ..Why Short Sale With A VA Home Buyer VS Foreclosure
Twitter: JamesMartell
says:
I attended Webmaster World’s “Pubcon” a few months back and sat in on the keynote by Matt Cutts. As usual he talked about the importance of creating quality content and gathering quality backlinks. No news there.
He did make an interesting point when he did say instead of chasing the algorithm try to figure out where Google is going and aim there. It’s a good point.
He talked at length about doing exactly that including some interesting tidbits on how Google may be looking to social media to help determine natural rankings. I did a podcast from the floor at Pubcon when his everything was still fresh. If you’d like you will find a recap here:
http://jamesmartell.com/affiliate-buzz/2010-pubcon-las-vegas-recap/
Twitter: jackdprovost
says:
SEO is not something you make a few changes and end up #1. It is a constant battle.
Make things basic and friendly for the search engines and you should do well better then the average JOE.
Rellevant information that is unique is a good start. Use meta tags even if some search engines do not use them anymore. Build sitemap.xml and sitemap.html. enter your sitemaps into your robots.txt as well
Twitter: JamesMartell
says:
Very well said “SEO is not something you make a few changes and end up #1″.
James Martell´s recent blog post ..To Go- Or Not To Go — My “Top 3″ List of Affiliate Marketing Conferences
Great post James. I too am puzzled by those so called “gurus” who every once in a while come up a with a new ebook claiming that they have finally cracked the code. Its just unbelievable how much money people are willing to spend to chase this so called secret, while there is not really any secret. I mean, Google has been saying it for years and it says so on their official blog, provide quality content for your users!
satrap´s recent blog post ..53 Ways to Make Money Online
Twitter: JamesMartell
says:
I agree. I have seen enough so called “secrets revealed” style ebooks to last me a life time. The real kicker is a lot of these ebooks are ghost written by someone else. I have found it’s not at all uncommon for many of them to spend more on their marketing materials than their ebook.
James Martell´s recent blog post ..To Go- Or Not To Go — My “Top 3″ List of Affiliate Marketing Conferences
Twitter: jackdprovost
says:
You are 100% correct, I in fact am one of those poor saps who fallen victim to purchasing some miracle e-book that turned out I could get for free just by doing a little bit of research
Jack Daniel Provost´s recent blog post ..How to Drive Traffic to My website updated Sun Mar 6 2011 12-18 am CST
Nice article. I agree with you about the Google algorithm is a carefully guarded secret. It’s impossible if there is someone claim that he/she knows about Google algorithm. Thank you so much about your tips to get quality search engine.
Proxyland´s recent blog post ..iPhone game- Square Smasher – Free game of the day
Nice article. I agree with you about the Google algorithm is a carefully guarded secret. It’s impossible if there is someone claim that he/she knows about Google algorithm. Thank you so much about your tips to get quality search engine.
Proxyland´s recent blog post ..Al-Maisan Android 22 Froyo Arabic ROM
Twitter: elliedidit
says:
More traffic, please. Doesn’t asking nicely work? No? Damn. Look, I’m good at writing and attracting people. Isn’t that enough?!
ellie´s recent blog post ..Meet Boyd
Twitter: jackdprovost
says:
LOL I wish!
Jack Daniel Provost´s recent blog post ..How to Drive Traffic to My website updated Sun Mar 6 2011 12-18 am CST
Twitter: Tech2Hack4U
says:
Google always take care of spam so we never beat them..
Thanks
Ankit Saini´s recent blog post ..Most Common SEO Search Engine Optimization Mistakes
Google’s battle cry “we can’t be spammed” is continued to this day ever since they entered into this search world. And this is the secret behind Google. In this continuation, Google have already started demoting sites with low quality content. I believe in what JamesMartell has already said, apart from relevance and quality backlinks, Google may also use social media signals for natural rankings.
Twitter: JamesMartell
says:
I agree that “Google may also use social media signals for natural rankings.” I heard Matt Cutts discuss this a few months back at Pubcon in Las Vegas. He gave a great talk. He did indicate that they may be looking to social media in the future to help determine rankings.
James Martell´s recent blog post ..To Go- Or Not To Go — My “Top 3″ List of Affiliate Marketing Conferences
Twitter: jackdprovost
says:
Hello Adrien,
I have to agree with the “we cannot be spammed” deal.. Who wants a search engine that is complete spam? Not me.. Nor the other people who work hard on our blogs and websites. I have several. Some are affiliate sites some are blogs I built from scratch. But my friend Adrien I do agree with you quality content is what separates us from the spam
Twitter: jackdprovost
says:
I forgot to add.. just because people have content does not mean it is quality if it is on 30 other blogs :/
Quality content is self written content that has not appeared on another site
The thing that annoys me about Google is they say sit tight and let links grow naturally, yet your competition is out there building links every day one way or another. Yet site owners are not meant to have a hand in manually building links, surely G knows this is not reality?
Twitter: junevaa
says:
it is sometime a very strange to know what google want, I prefer to skip it. And at least I know Google is still the king..
macist´s recent blog post ..Philadelphia 76ers at Indiana Pacers preview and prediction in NBA Tuesday
That is really a question which Internet marketers would like to know the answer. It was a great read. Thanks for sharing.
shree´s recent blog post ..Google Doodle Celebrating 100th Anniversary Of International Women’s Day 2011
Nice facts, its hard to imagine a world without Google
but yet it did, and it was Ok, but now, I dont think google will loose its position as the top search engine, no matter how many new ones pop-up, the domain itself is the term defining the word “search” 
Great post, got it printed out
yammate´s recent blog post ..Stars without eyebrows – Who is who 30 Pictures
Very good article. To my knowledge links are the most important think
Twitter: JamesMartell
says:
Yes quality links are the “most important”. Quality content is the other major consideration.
Twitter: yuliawan
says:
Thanks for this useful article. Hopefully, every day I am given the opportunity to come here
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Twitter: janesheeba
says:
Yes, I am totally with you when you say that no “guru” can expose the secret. If the secret is exposed it will no longer be the secret and I am sure Google will find a way.
The specialty of Google also lies in this secret and ever changing aspect.
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane | Find All Answers´s recent blog post ..Overcoming Procrastination To Achieve Your Goals
Twitter: rileyhar
says:
Being a complete seo newbie, I am puzzled how Bing can put my website on page 1 and google places it on page 23. I would have thought that their algorithms would produce similar results.
Riley
Riley Harrison´s recent blog post ..GOAL SETTING THAT WORKS part 7
Twitter: wineclubguy
says:
I think part of the entire conversation needs to include one factor which everyone leaves out, time. We all want quick results, but those shouldn’t be possible in competitive niche’s if Google is doing it’s job well. New sites and companies need to spend time getting their name out there before climbing search rankings, spamming sites should only lead to a short run on page 1.
markswineclubs´s recent blog post ..JC Penny has been a Bad Boy
Twitter: mainstreethost
says:
Any SEO company that isn’t in a constant state of research and development is doing a disservice to their customers. Google loves to mix it up.
mainstreethost´s recent blog post ..Why You Need SEO Content Now More Than Ever