There are only two reasons, I think, you would care about this phenomenal trend. One is your quality of life. The second is how to enhance your business, which is what I am going to talk about in this article.
The background you need to know to benefit your online business is that Google updated it’s analytics system, algorithm, in the Spring of this year. That system measures ALL page content on the web based on a host of variables that in turns produces a ranking system to measure web sites and blogs. The goal of the update, which is always ongoing, is to provide a Standard by which search engine results will more closely identify with and match with the search engine request made by you the web surfer.
Another way of saying that goal is thus, Google wants to reduce the number of sites being displayed at the top of search engine results that use “less than authentic” ways of promoting themselves. What are these not so acceptable methods? Well, one is “pay for click” visitors. This is where you pay someone to visit your web site so it looks like you have lots of visitor traffic. There are a few others but the idea remains the same - paying for something that brings visitors to your site.
But, let’s focus on the positive.
How do you gain a good web reputation with your online business?
It’s all about increasing traffic to your web site.
It’s all about improving your PageRank.
It’s all about creating a buzz about you around the web on different sites: local and national.
The acceptable method, which the new Google system can measure, is generating traffic to your site from what I call “organic” links.
The foundation of this lies in creating links to your site from sites that are reputable and have content relevant to your site. Here are some examples.
You own a cookie shop so you get the local Chamber of Commerce to link to you. The Chamber is a business directory so it’s relevant to you. The Chamber is local so this is a good “local” link. Then, placing a link to the web site that buys your cookies to use in their gift baskets, is an example of a more “national” link.
In that example you covered these three crucial aspects with your links in the search engines: 1) relevant content, 2) you are a local vendor, and 3) you are a national vendor. This example also shows how “organic” linking is accomplished. When links to your site are organic, not paid or purchased, they have the highest reputation according to search engine protocols.
Other examples of organic link building include articles that mention your business with stories relevant to your product/services, reviews that talk about your business, and submitting your web pages and blog pages to search engines and directories. The more organic links that connect to you from other sites, who hold a decent PageRank, the better your web reputation will become.
How do you measure your web reputation or another reputation of another site?
The optimum free method of measuring your web reputation is examining your PageRank. This can be done at this site for free: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php. Another free tool to understand your visitor traffic is Google Analytics.
Wikipedia says this about PageRank, PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, designed by the Google that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. Sounds ver official doesn't it?
PageRank assigns a number of 0-10 to your site, with 10 being the highest. If you have an “NA” it means your site has not been indexed yet. Until indexing is completed you will not be onboard to be measured. Tell your web person to do it or give me a call.
Right now, from the work I have seen, an average web site that is healthy has a PageRank of three or four. That means there is a sufficient number of organic links and the traffic is light to moderate.
I have seen high volume web sites with a PageRank of one and two. I have seen low volume web sites with significant organic links and light traffic at a PageRank of three. Facebook is an example of a 10; all those “thumbs” you see around the web - each one is an organic link back to the mothership.
Benefits of improving your web reputation
The benefit is more visibility in the search engines - plain and simple.
When someone searches Google for “best apple pie” the sites and blogs assigned the highest PageRank with relevant meta tag and page content matching “best apple pie” will be displayed first in the search engine results.
Summary
Building organic links is the foundation of any local or national campaign to improve your visibility in search engines. The easy and free method to gauge your web reputation is based on Google’s PageRank that comprises many variables. As your PageRank improves and you also hone your meta tag content in concert with your page content to specific marketing strategies, you will see your appearance in search engine results improving.
Steu Mann 541 210 4375
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Web reputation is what we are all after with our web sites and blogs. Great article and this one ties in nicely with the knowledge and connections. Knowledge and connections are essential to SEO.
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