How old the site is, how old individual web pages are, and how old links to a site are. In general, the older the site and the older a link is, the better. So don't wait unnecessarily before launching a new site, a new page or obtaining new links to your site

Put simply, to rank well on Google, you need to optimize your website for your best
keywords, get as many important and relevant sites to link to your site as you can,
make sure the text of those links contain your best keywords, and don't do anything
that looks "excessive", "unnatural", “manipulative” or “spammy” to Google. Keep it
looking natural and act as if the search engines didn’t exist.

Important: You should also read the Google Patent Papers. In them are additional
factors that Google may look at in determining rankings. For more information, see
Appendix C for the link.

So let’s continue by looking at the foundation of SEO in the next chapter – keyword
research, analysis, and selection.

Top Things Google Looks For

Although Google looks at over 100 different criteria (which can change in importance
over time) for ranking pages, here are the top aspects or elements that are currently
deemed a “must-do” if you are serious about a top ranking. Other elements will be
discussed later on that are also important. The following are listed in approximate
order of importance, with the first two items being more important than the others:

1. Keywords used in link text – both on your site and especially on other websites
   that point to your site. And the more links you have on other sites that point to
   your site and that contain your most important keywords, the better, all else being
   equal.

   This is extra important if you are targeting broad, generic or otherwise
   “competitive” search terms.

2. Keywords used in the title of your Web pages (between the <TITLE> tags).

3. Keywords used in headings (H1, H2) and in the body of your Web pages.

4. The PageRank (PR) of your web pages, which in turn is dependent on the
   number of links that point to your site from other sites. The importance of these
   incoming links in turn is dependent on the PageRank of the linking page, which in
   turn is dependent on the number of incoming links to that page, and so on.

5. Web pages that contain at least 200 words of relevant text content. The more
   web pages on the site, the better chance of ranking well for a larger number of
   keyword phrases.

6. How often the content on your site is updated. You should update your site once
   a month if possible.

7. How fast you are obtaining new links (too many links too fast is a bad thing).

matter – not all links are valued the same. Keep in mind that PageRank is but a single (albeit important) factor used in ranking

Sites that are highly optimized for on-page factors can outrank sites that are less
optimized but have higher PageRank.

PageRank value is assigned after comparing every page in the Google index against
one another. This is billions and billions of web pages.

Note that PageRank does NOT factor in keywords or phrases used on your site.

Off-Page Factors and Page Importance

Page importance is all about links - their quantity, quality, and strength, which we will
discuss later on. This part of the algorithm includes Google PageRank (PR).

Google looks for links that point to your site from other websites. Google believes a
link from website A to website B is a “vote” for the importance of website B. In this
way, other websites add votes for your website, which in turn helps increase a pages
PageRank value on your site. Each page on your site has a PR value. Usually the
PR value is the highest for the home page as most people will link to your home
page rather than another page on your site.

The more web pages that link to your site, and the more important in turn those
pages are, the more important Google thinks your site is and hence the higher your
PageRank value. Moreover, it is the quality, as well as the quantity, of links that

On-Page Factors and Page Relevance

Keywords are intrinsically related to search terms – words and phrases that people
enter into a search engine to find specific information. Most people enter 2 to 5-word
phrases in Google to find what they are looking for. Google in turn analyzes all pages
in its index and lists the pages which contain those search terms. Each web page
usually contains one or two keywords that are repeated more often than others
throughout the site. These keywords dictate the “theme” of a website.

In addition, Google analyzes other sites that contain links to your site. Specifically,
Google looks to see if the text of a link (the clickable portion) that points to your site
also contain those same keywords.

The Google algorithm can be broken down into two major groups of factors

On-page (keyword) factors. Keyword factors involve how, where and when
keywords are used. Meaning how well your website is optimized for your most
important keywords, and if those same keywords appear in your content and in links.
Keyword factors determine page relevance.

Off-page (link) factors. These include the quantity and quality of links that point to
your site. Link factors determine page importance and are related to Google
PageRank (PR). Links play a VERY important role in getting high rankings,
particularly for competitive markets.

Very simply put, Google finds pages in its index that are both relevant and important
to a search for a particular term or phrase, and then lists them in descending order
on search results pages.

How Google Ranks Pages

Google uses a sophisticated and proprietary algorithm for ranking Web sites that
uses over 100 different criteria in the calculation, each of which is given a specific
weighting which can change over time. Because the algorithm can change, specific
techniques that used to work well may no longer work as well over time. This is
important to remember when your site’s ranking seems to change for no apparent
reason. For this reason, optimizing your site should not be considered as a one-time
task. You should always try, test, and refine your efforts.