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This question has been floating around the web for years and the myth still looms quite large.  Does a high page rank help me get a high search engine ranking?

The simple answer is a big, fat NO!  But it gets much more complicated.  A high page rank could be representative of many other high quality backlinks or it could just be one not-so-good high page rank backlink.

Here was a post on DigitalPoint which hammers home this point.

Tried everything to improve google ranking but didn’t work

I have heard of online rep management but have not really had a reason to experience it first-hand until now.  I Googled my name “Jay Granofsky” and found a couple of first page results that I did not particularly like.

First off (in the number 9 position):

I started this G rated site about 6 years ago, it had a quiz on it where you had to guess who’s famous butt was in the picture (fully clothed of course).  I have not owned this site in about 4 years so I have no idea why this old info is still floating around.  In the meanwhile I contacted Alexa and told them that I am no longer the owner and would like my name deleted from the owners information.

Next up (in position 10) is someone that I reported on in my SEO scam section, I caught him selling search engine submissions as part of his ‘SEO’ services.  He apparently did not like the fact that I outed him so he went on some relevant blog and made a horribly phrased retort.  Now most people reading his comment will realize this person is just a vengeful scammer but it still does not look that great on the first page of results for my name.

I also replied to him but the comment is waiting approval, maybe the owner of the blog will realize that both comments are way off-topic and delete them?  On second thought I will contact the blog owner and make that exact request.  Furthermore I decided I would manage my reputation by creating a few blog posts about my favorite hobby, photography and build a few backlinks to each post in hopes they will outrank those bottom of first page ones and will actually represent me in a more true light.  If you are interested in following this case study I will post the results in the case studies section of this site at a later date.

Here is a quick update, 4 hours later this post and another have moved the two offending results off the front page!!  That was some speedy rep management but is probably only short-term due to the extra juice Google gives fresh news.  For the longer term solution I hope the points I touched on in the above blog come into effect.

April 23, 2009 update - Just got an email back from Alexa saying they would delete my name from the ownership of the site and I should see the search result gone in the next week or so.  Great!

April 29, 2009 - The Alexa listing has been gone for a few days and the other silly listing has now been pushed to 2nd spot on page 3 which is amazingly quick!  If I can get it to the bottom of page 3 I will be satisfied because although it is negative it is really just a bad SEO’s ’sour grapes’ about me calling him out on being flakey.

The biggest search industry buzz for the past year has been mobile search.  No doubt because the mobile market is growing at phenomenal rates there will be a huge opportunity for the search industry to cash in on it.  As most assumed Google has entrenched itself quite quickly in the mobile search market and professionals like me are watching (and testing) what they are doing very closely, lest we be left behind.

Thus far it appears Google mobile search results are almost identical to their bigger brother’s.  We have been testing many search terms and have found very similar first page results, rank-wise.  With the only differences seeming to be in the descriptions and sometimes a blog post or piece of news seems to sneak its way in (this could also be because of the various data centers but we are still testing this out).  It appears all data is taken from the same cache snapshots and it does not appear that any tld (like .mobi) nor any specific pages made for mobile viewing have an advantage in the SERP’s.  I should point out that I use an iPhone and that is where almost all my testing has been done so far.

I will have some of the others here test on their own phones, Blackberry’s etc… and post the results shortly.  Considering how much resources Google has invested into their search algorythm I would expect the mobile search to always follow similar ranking rules with maybe a few tweaks.  I am not sure Google will ever give preference to mobile optimized sites because most sites seem to show up just fine and it would be too easy to open that door for folks to manipulate the search engines and gain an unfair advantage.  Google has fought spam too hard to let it back into their mobile results.

My conclusion as an SEO expert is that if you want to rank well in Google mobile then you need to stick to the tested and proven SEO methods that already work.  Don’t run out and buy a buch of .mobi’s and don’t create mirror sites for mobile use only.  Instead spend your time build rank and trust and you will continue to thrive in the rankings.

Recently Yahoo! launched a complete re-design of its mobile web search and it is really good with great functionality.  Saying it is a web search page is not doing it any justice, I would say it is more of a complete information portal.  Yahoo! has been able to seamlessly incorporate OneSearch, OnePlace, and OneConnect togther offering a positive end-user starting point for mobile search .  The best experience for Yahoo! mobile search because of the infinite customization options (and hence very long starting page) happen on the iPhone with its ‘easy scrolling’ ability.  But the Yahoo! mobile offering for java based smart phones looks very nice too.

Mobile search, is said by some industry observers to be a ’second chance’ for second tier engines to recapture their glory, but my guess is that will only happen if Google somehow makes a massive mistake.  With Googles seemingly infinite monetary and human resources I doubt that will be the case.  My feeling is that Google will own a similar percentage of mobile search as it does in traditional search.

Around a year and a half ago Google unleashed its’ wrath on general web directories.  With bolts of lightning (not quite but just as painful to the directory owners) it struck down the page rank of some of the best know directories for buying links.  Let’s see how they have faired 18 months later.

http://www.ewebpages.org/ still sitting at page rank 0

http://cdhnow.com/ stuck on page rank 0

http://www.dirspace.com/ zero it is

http://www.linkforever.net/ zero page rank bar love

and it goes on and on….it seems that almost all of these directories have remained in Google’s ‘bad’ list and in addition to having their page rank stipped they also don’t rank for their domain names.

One in the list that stands out and seems to have found a way to get back into Googles graces is http://www.avivadirectory.com/ they have a page rank four and also rank for their domain name, with site links no-less.  I know from reading the webmaster boards that the owner of avivadirectory put in a ton of time trying to rectify the problems that landed them in hot water with Google and it looks like they found the magic formula (perhaps an ebook is in the works).

This myth has been around for as long as I have been involved with SEO, so about 8 years.  I recently replied to a thread on DigitalPoint forums concerning this myth.  The original poster mentioned that they recently bought a domain name and a hosting package and the hosting company was offering them a fantastic deal of 50% off search engine submission.  The offer read something like this:

For a limited time receive 50% off the regular price of search engine submission for SEO, we submit to 13 of the top search engines to get  your website indexed quickly.  Regular price is $99.99 - sale price is only $49.99.

My response was that not only is search engine submission unnecessary but I think it is a ‘red flag’ for a company that does not have a clue what SEO actually is.  It seems Rand over at SEOmoz agree because he is redoing Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization over there and he states:

Since 2001-2, search engine submission has not only not been required, but is actually virtually useless. The engines have all publicly noted that they rarely use the “submission” URL lists, and that the best practice is to earn links from other sites, as this will expose the engines to your content naturally.

So be careful and don’t waste you money on useless services.

well, really bad…

Here is some content I found that was written exclusively for the search engines - it uses the keyword multiple times but sounds absolutely terrible.

The photographs can be something useful in making us able to get the certain memories stay in our mind. Without using the photographs we might not be able to recognize some moments in our life. And this is something that works on people too. It means that through the photographs, we can have someone stays in our memory forever.

The amount of misinformation floating around the web as it relates to search engine optimization is staggering.  It seems that 9 out of every 10 posts I read contains blatantly wrong advice.  I am begininning to think that some very sneaky SEO pro’s are spreading incorrect info on purpose.

Here is a thread I came across today over at DevShed Forums - the poster is asking the following question:

Hi all,

I’m based in Australia, and looking around for a VPS host. It’s down to 2 options, local or US hosting. I’m told that if my host is in Australia, that will help my Australian search ranking, but that if my host is in the US, it will help my US ranking. Is this really true? Why would it be so? Is it some kind of algorithm that assumes added relevance if the host is local?

Some of the responses (as quoted below) were quite interesting and only added to the confusion.

“yes it is true, but it is not necessary that you need to host in particular country.”

“Server location affects the ranking in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) but not always”

“It depends on what and where you are targeting rather than the server location”

“this is one of the factor among 1000 which affect your ranking”

“Constant work on the website will improve the website ranking on Google dot com too”

It seems like the object of the above replies was to keep the original poster as confused as possible!!

I receive quite a few inquiries asking if I can match or beat some very low (and I mean looooowwww) prices of some overseas folks that offer SEO (and I use the term loosely here) services.  I often explain that most of these companies are just making free directory submissions or spamming blog comments and nobody can do quality SEO for those prices, even in India.

I recently came across a post on DigitalPoint forums that really gets this point across - the thread is titled: Why peopel donut trust indian submisin services ? if the title does not give you enough info then you can check-it-out yourself here.

Like a good wine or a wise-man, proper SEO takes time to achieve fruition.  One of the most challenging things I have had to accept as a professional SEO is the time it can take to see the fruit of my hard labour.  And over at SEOMoz.org they hit this nail squarely on the head.

The engines need time to re-crawl your site. For a lucky few, this might take only days or a couple weeks, but for many large sites and even for smaller sites that aren’t terrificly high on Google’s “must crawl” list, we’ve seen as much as 3-4 months pass before a site’s pages are fully updated.

The engines have to crawl all your link partners, too! If you’ve recently launched some great widgets or viral material or a new content licensing system, it’s going to be a solid wait before you experience the full impact of that work.

The algorithms reward patience. Even if the engines start to see those links right away, it might be a few weeks or months before the algorithm rewards the full weight and heft of their existence. Why? Because search engines learned years ago that manipulative link building is often temporary, while high quality links stand the test of time. This issue is particularly true of new domains (or newly moved domains), so be aware that you might have to earn some trust over time before you feel all the positive ranking impacts of links.

It takes time to attract links. Last, but not least, on our list of reasons is the growth of links themselves. If you’ve just started new content, design and promotion strategies to attract links, you not only need time for those campaigns to reach their targets, you need to wait for the links to start rolling in (and then get counted by the engines). This can be a long, tough slog, and understandably, a lot of site owners and SEOs give up without ever getting the full benefit of their work.

Convincing a client that SEO results take time and that time can vary from a 2 or 3 months to as long as 4-6 months is tough but if done properly SEO results can be well worth the wait!