GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 10 - Sept 2009

56 GPWA Times :: Algorithmic elements that affect ranking Beyond theobviouson-pageconsiderations, different searches will deliver (in most cases)adifferentsetof results.Theresults can differ greatly depending on several considerations: The IPof theend-user Theserver locationof theWebsite Anygeographically targetedsettings in WebmasterCentral Therelationshipbetween thesearch filtersand theresultingWebpages (i.e.,Did theysearch for Pages from [region]orPages in[language] ? If theend-user issearchinganextension that isdifferent from thedefaulted engine (theymanuallyenterGoogle.com searching forU.S.orEnglishresults ina non-U.S. region) Theother elements thatwill affect rankingswill beback links: Are the links fromaTLD thatmatches thedestinationURL (i.e., .nl linking toa .nlWebsite)? Is the IP linkingWebsite located in the sameregionas the linkedURL? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. Pagerank, linkinganchor text, additionaloutbound linkson thepage linking toyou On-pagerelevancy Language-basedmeta-tags Everything in theabove5 itemsrelating to the linkingWebsite/page Soanyoneof theseelements cangiveyou a serious edgeover your competition. Searching any of Google’s (non-U.S.) datasets will generally return a variety of Web sites when no language or location filterisselected.Thesecanincludeinternal pages inaWeb site, subdirectories (www. yoursite.com/french),subdomains(www. french.yoursite.com) and various TLDs (top-level domains such as .com and .nl). All 11 of the above factors are present in theautomatic algorithm. The problem is that no one really knows which approach is best, or which algo- rithmic attribute is themost effective, so what canwedowith this? What we want to do is to look at the existing resultsusing theavailable search filters, and the existingWeb sites that are ranking high and determinewhich is the best strategy foryourWeb site.This takes deep-pageanalysisof your competitors. The important thing to note is that there is a hierarchy between one and the other in terms of which is the best solution. Every Web site has its own individual solution based on its demographics, site mechanics and available resources. Questions to consider are: Your targetmarket? Ifyouneedordon’tneedgeographical targeting? Ifyouneed language-basedsubdomains orsubdirectories? Shouldyoumovehosting? Canyouafford todo itall? Howandwhen touse geographical targeting Here’swhat todo if youwish to: Geographically target aregion? Createasubdomainorasubdirectory in thenative languageanduseWebmaster Central togeographically target it Host thesubdomainonaserver in the 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. nativeregionandusegeographical targeting Buildback links fromsimilarTLDs Target aspecific language? Createasubdirectory in thenative language (i.e.,www.yoursite.com/nl/) Buildback links fromsame-language Websites Donotusegeographical targeting The reason that you do not want to use geographical targeting along with a language-basedstrategy is that if theend- user searches in the native language on Google.com, a site using content in that language will be stronger than the same site with geographical targeting in place. (This isn’t dependent on whether you use subdirectories or subdomains unless you hosted the subdomain in the target region.) Theanswer forme is that Iwant it all...and NOW!! I’ve recently had subdomains rank with geographical targeting turned on and in the native language rank top 10 in 6 weeks. I’vehadbrand-newWebsiteswith theappropriateTLDs(i.e., .nl, .deand .es) showup in8weeks. I’ve evenhad a .com hosted in the U.S. without geographical targeting showup in the top 10 results for “Hollywood” terms when they had never been in results in theU.K. You can start with subdomains. Look at your logfiles to determine where the current traffic is coming from to tell you what todofirst.Bounce rates canalso tell youa lot. For example, if your secondary traffic source is Germany and you have a high bounce rate, start with a language- based subdirectory, then maybe move on to creating a subdomain, hosting it in Germany, and then setting the geographical targeting to Germany in Webmaster Central. Then go back and start all over again. 3. 1. 2. 3. MEETGARYBEAL GaryR.Beal is theMDofVanguardSEO inLeeds has been in the Search Engine Optimization field for 12 years. He specializes in SEO for su- percompetitivemarkets, primarily in the Gam- ing, Dating, Travel, Insurance and Financial In- dustries.Hehas spoken atmany SES, SMX ,CAP, AAC, EiG, G2E, AiG, GPWA, CAC and A4UExpo conferences around Europe and has also been ondozensofexpertSEOpanels.Recentlyhehas partneredwithEuropartners andwill be speak- ingon theirbehalf inBudapestat theupcoming conference, as well as offering free 1-on-1 ses- sions toanyaffiliateduring theconference.