PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

Integrity
Google's complex, automated methods make human tampering with our results extremely difficult. And though we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality websites with information relevant to your search.
 

For those website owners who are new to the world of search engine optimization, I have something important to tell you. It is critical that you not only get lots of quality, one-way relevant links to your website, but that you carefully choose the text in those links. The text that is used in the hyperlinks on articles, blogs, forums and other pages is known as "anchor text".

This anchor text is used by Google and most other search engines in determining the relevance of your site content for any particular search term. You can spend hours a day getting backlinks from article directories, forums, blog posts and web directories. This should help your Google PageRank, but it will not bring you targeted search traffic unless you use anchor text that is relevant to your site content and to searches done by your target audience.

As a directory owner myself, I see it all the time. The most commonly used anchor text chosen by article authors is "click here". While this is useful for human visitors who can click the active hyperlink to enter your site, it does nothing to improve your page ranking in the search results. Instead of using this bland, generic anchor text, you can use a phrase that best describes your product or service. The phrase should also be something that a Google user is likely to enter in a search for your product/service.

Let's say you want to promote your home improvement blog, so you submit articles to free article directories. In the Author's Resource Box, you include a catchy promotional phrase along with three active links to your site. In one of these links you could use the anchor text "home improvement blog" to point to your home page. You could use the second and third links to promote important pages in your site like product sales pages. So you could use the anchor text "discount deck fasteners" and "bathroom vanities" to link to your product pages.

If you consistently use these three anchor text phrases, you will improve your ranking in the search engine results pages for these phrases. As you can imagine, there is a lot of competition out there for many hot phrases. Try to choose a phrase that fits the content of your site and that isn't too general (like "blog") or too specific (like "learn how to install your own swimming pool").

So now the question is, "What anchor text should I use for my site?" Google Webmaster Central has added excellent new statistics tools that let you see in detail what searches are performed, what keywords are used, your average position in searches, and much more. All of this is free once you sign up.

You can, and should, also use your own server statistics to see what searches people are using to get to your site. There are also third-party services such as WordTracker that estimate total daily searches for particular keywords and phrases. Once you have chosen your anchor text, it is important to monitor your position in the search rankings and also your site traffic to see what the changes are.

Now you know what anchor text is, and why it is vital in any website promotional campaign. By simply changing the text you use in your backlinks, you can have a considerable impact on your website traffic from search engines. By monitoring your rankings in the search engine results, you can fine-tune your anchor text and watch your site soar to the top of the rankings.


The exponential rise of blogging as part of the web 2.0 phenomenon has taken the Internet by storm. Smart online and offline marketers and business owners are now using blogs as an additional tool to generate leads, add credibility and improve their search engine rankings. Here are eight reasons why you should set up your own blog:

Blogging gives you products and services personality. People like to do business with people they like. By blogging you show your target market that there is a real person behind the company or product you represent. By reading you blog posts they get an idea of what you're all about - warts and all. The personal aspect of blogging is one of it's most powerful characteristics.

Blogging is entertaining. Yes, blogging can be great fun. Just open you posting window and go for it without the restrictions of corporate style guides and other impediments to creativity. Got something to say? Just say it. The other fun aspect of blogging is that people can post comments about your blog posts. You posts plus reader comments all become valuable food for the search engines.

Blogging encourages community. Bloggers love to talk online to other bloggers. If you join blogging communities and make a worthwhile contribution you will see your traffic skyrocket. It's all about content - fast, useful and entertaining content that people enjoy reading.

Driving traffic to blogs is easy You've probably heard about social bookmarking sites like digg.com and reddit.com ? A large proportion of submissions to these sites are blog entries. Want to promote you product? Write an honest review of your product on your blog then submit that blog entry to a social bookmarking site and see what happens.

Blogging is inexpensive. The most powerful blogging systems are free. Wordpress is one of the blogging standards and now comes bundled with many cheap web hosting packages. For less than $100 per year anyone can get their own domain with blogging included.

I wouldn't use one of the free blogging services unless you are really desperate. You can't be sure if they will always remain free and your posts will be building up someone else' asset rather than your own.

It's fast and easy. If you can use Microsoft Notepad you can blog. The user interface is very intuitive and allows you to add and edit, text, pictures, videos, whatever you want. Want to change the look and layout of your blog? There's literally hundreds of themes available that take less than a minute to upload and install.

Your blog site becomes another Internet asset. Some blog sites get thousands and thousands of readers each day. This traffic can be converted to hard, cold cash through Google Adsense advertising, affiliate programs and straight advertising space sale. Some people make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, from providing excellent content through their blogs. Once you blog increases it's Google PageRank, you also get the benefit of linking out from your blog site to other web sites you want to promote.

Search engines love blogs, I mean really love them. It is said in many SEO forums that Google staff are great bloggers and subsequently Google spiders and indexes blogs more frequently that normal web sites. This may just be a rumour, but I have found it to be true in my case. If you blog every day there's a good chance Google and the other major search engines will spider your blog every day looking for that new content. I have seen blog postings get spidered and indexed and ranking well in as little as 30 minutes. It seems the blog RSS feeds go straight into the search engines' data centres. Go to Google and do a search on Blue Nike Sneakers and you will see what I mean.

Convinced? Give blogging a try. There's stacks of free resources listed in article directories like this one that will help you get into blogging.

Improved search engine rank can lead to high listings in search engine indices. The major page rank measurement is the Google PageRank that you find on the Google toolbar, but many people are confused at the difference between PageRank and search engine rankings, or listing positions, in the indices for specific keywords.

Google PageRank is a measurement of the linking density and efficiency between websites. If your website has a high Google PageRank it indicates that you have succeeded in winning in the linking wars.

Internal Links are Important

The way that you improve your Google PageRank is to get as many sites as possible linking to your site, and reduce as far as you can the number of links you provide to other sites. This applies to internal as well as external sites. Yes, read that again! This applies equally to links between pages on your own website as it does between pages on your website and those on another website.

There are ways that you can design your own internal links to provide chosen pages on your site with significantly higher PageRank than on others. I would suggest, however, that the page you choose for the highest rank is your home, or index page.

The higher PageRank you have, it is said that the higher listing in the search engines you will have because your site will be considered more relevant or important than those of lower PageRank sites that have fewer sites linking to them. What you must consider, however, is whether or not you feel confident of attaining a large number (thousands) of links from other web pages.

Page Rank is not the same as Index Listing

On the other hand, others associate the term 'search engine rank' with 'search engine listing'. It is said that the way to get a high search engine listing for a keyword is to get as many links back to your site as possible, but what matters is the quality of these links, not the number of them. You don't need a PR 7 or 8 webpage to reach the top 10 in Google or any of the other major engines.

What you really need is good search engine optimization. Not just one or two changes to your website, such as using H1 tags and the like, but a major reconstruction to really make your site attractive to spiders. This takes knowledge to achieve, which is why so many people can work hard for months but never get their site listed, let alone in the top 10 results.

You also need good, well written content that is relevant to the keyword of the page and is written naturally. Google's LSI algorithm can distinguish between naturally written, useful content designed for interested readers and a page that has been written only for the search engine spiders.

Some find it Easy and Others find it Hard

A listing on a search engine such as Google can be difficult to achieve for some, yet effortless for others who know how to get their sites listed without even submitting them to search engines. If I got paid $100 for every site I got listed on Google within a day or two, as some SEO sites charge for achieving it in a week or two, then I too might be an internet guru.

All you need to have is the knowledge of how to do it, and therein lies the answer to speedy and high search engine listings: knowledge.