The Click Depot Blog

I knew you’d ask. I knew it. The million dollar question, it is. I wish I could tell you I know exactly Search engines (SE) look for when they rank pages for specific keywords. The truth is noone except the Ph.D’s at Google, Yahoo and MSN headquarters that are paid big bucks to create and maintain this algorithm know this.

I have a friend who worked at Ask.com and now works at Yahoo Search and even he does not know the specifics of the ranking algorithm. Why? Well, if that information were to get leaked out, I really think the Internet will be a crazy place and search engines will not be nearly as effective as they are today. SE results will be a lot less relevant since people with manipulate them with ease instead of letting the SE’s determine true relevance. There is already enough black hat SEO stuff out there without people being sure about how and what exactly SE’s look at.

The other point to remember is the SE algorithms are constantly changing. The algorithms are tweaked to increase the relevance of search results and make search engine marketing more lucrative for pay-per-click customers. They are also tweaked to make it harder for people to manipulate their sites to inappropriately display higher on search results.

That being said, if I don’t know the answer to this question, then what is this whole deal about SEO? Well, based on research, experimentation and emperical testing, it is process to read into the SE algorithm. At least somewhat. And that’s what SEO’s have done over the years.

So. let me give you my version of the truth. The factors are listed in the order of importance according to me.

1. Number of quality backlinks pointing to your page

So what are quality backlinks? I am going to have to write a separate post about that. But in essence, backlinks form high page rank, relevant, aged pages, preferably containing your keyword in their anchor text are quality backlinks. I know that leaves you asking for more evidence and explanation which is why a separate post is in order.

2. Your keyword in your page’s Title tag.

This is more important than most people realize. Your title needs to be carefully crafted to include 2-3 of your keywords but at the same time sound relevant and enticing to your human readers. I spend over 3-4 hours per month figuring out the right Title for my most important pages.

3. Age of your page/domain

Exact extent of this is hard to gauge because the older pages also usually have more “optimization” done on them over time naturally. But it is much easier to rank higher for pages on domains that are old.

4. Your Keywords in your URL

Search engines used to give a lot more importance to this a few years ago than they do now, but this still ranks among the top 10 ranking factors in my list.

5. Age of the backlinks pointing to the page

This is a factor that was almost not important at all 5 years ago but today, is gaining importance steadily as more and more websites buy “Temporary” links. So those temporary links will be rendered ineffective as a result of this rule since SE’s will not consider newly formed links for ranking pages. A generaly rule of thumb is to have links that are over 90 days old but again, that’s not set in stone at all. Just based on experience.

There are several sources for more information on this topic.

1. SEOmoz search engine ranking factors is exhaustive but too general.

2. Here’s a good discussion about the number one ranking factor on Google

Several other sites talk about this. And there’s too much information out there in fact. The crux of SEO, like in life, is FOCUS. Focus on the top 5 factors. Don’t get overwhelmed by the whole thing. Just one SEO technique applied right can sometimes make a HUGE difference. If you have even thought about optimizing your page for search engines, you are ahead of 75% sites out there. If you have spent 5 minutes on it, then you are perhaps ahead of 90% sites.

So you’ve decided to create your website and drive traffic to it! And you’ve heard these terms tossed around - SEO, SEM, SEF etc. They all seem the same to you. They are not.

I was like you too, until recently. I can shamelessly admit that it was after I had done a few website optimization assignments that I actually figured the difference between these words. Let me cut the c@ap and get to the point.

Let’s start with what we think you’ll already know.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization:

Wikipedia Definition: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic“) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

In essence, SEO is the process of increasing a site’s ranking for organic search results on Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

SEM: Search Engine Marketing

This is where the confusion begins. Most people use SEO and SEM interchangeably and they might even justify it. In fact, the Wikipedia definition of the term SEM actually includes SEO. That’s strange.

But I can tell you that if you are one of them, the pros are gonna laugh at you behing your back :). So, regardless of where you stand on the chicken-egg debate, it might be a good idea to know what SEO experts think the difference is.

SEM is the process of marketing a website via paid/sponsored search engine listings. In other words, Google Adwords Marketing, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter advertising all qualify under SEM. So, to me, the major differentiating factor is that in SEM you are paying money directly to the Search Engines for sponsored listings. It is a more direct form of advertisement than Search Engine Optimization where you are actually trying to naturally/organically rank higher for your target key phrases.
SEO usually takes longer and more creative techniques to implement. Your rankings on search engines depend on a variety of factors. I will cover these in a separate post.

SEF - Search Engine Friendly

This phrase is usually used in the context of Search Engine Friendly URL’s. So, SEF is not a process or a technique. It is an adjective used to describe certain elements of  website such as URL, Title, Footer, Design, Code, Etc. that are designed to make it easier for search engines to crawl and rank them for relevant key phrases. Making a site SEF is one part of the SEO process. Makes more sense now?
Any debate about these definitions is welcome..

Whether you do SEO for your one website or manage an entire portfolio, you know two things. 1 - Quality backlinks are the number 1 way to achieve a higher search engine rank. 2 - You need tools to quickly identify quality backlinks and rapidly implement your link building campaign.

Now there are hundreds of SEO tools out there. I am not going to try and cover everything, just the top five seo tools that will get you everything you need to get started on a link building campaign without spending a penny.

5. Mike’s Free Search Engine Rankings Tool

If you don’t have a tool yet, please get one. It is way too time consuming to keep going back the the search interface and search for where your site shows up on the results. There are several free and paid tools out there that can make your life easier. This is one thing in which the paid professional tools do seem to offer much better functionality than the free ones. The paid ones like IBP 9 and Web CEO provide the ability to run the rankings at one shot for over a hundred key phrases and then compare today’s results with results from the past. This is very useful. Mike’s rankings tool does offer limited ‘memory’. It remembers your last 20 key phrases and their rankings. Anything beyond 20 is forgotten. Also, the memory comes from cookies. If you clear your cookies, the history is lost. Despite that, this tool provides the best of the free ones. I usually take snapshots of the results using SnagIT and so I can compare with results from the past.

4. Onlywire.com

Social Media sites are THE in thing these days. Between social networking sites (like myspace.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.orkut.com, http://www.linkedin.com) and social bookmarking sites (like http://digg.com, http://del.icio.us, http://stumbleupon.com, etc.) that’s where people hang out. For most niches, you will benefit immensely by participating in these networks and intelligently using them to your advantage. Onlywire.com allows you to submit to 15-20 of these sites at once. That saves you a ton of time and is a really useful handy tool that comes for free. Hats off to them. They have been able to scale as well. The tool has been on for months now and still performs, each and every time.

3. Brad Callen’s Article Submitter and Directory Submitter

Brad Callen is almost a celebrity SEO consultant. He has been around for almost 5 years now. His products are widely used. His paid tool SEO Elite is ranked as one of the best SEO tools around. His free tools, however, Article Submiter and Directory Submitter, make it into my list. Article Submitter allows you to submit your article to hundreds of article directories and directory submitter submits your sites to link directories. These can help you get much needed backlinks to prep up your page rank. However, remember that the overuse of this technique can actually hurt your SEO campaign. Only about 10-20% of your total backlinks should be from Article and lInk directories.

2. Yahoo SIte Explorer

This is a great tool, period. Google is a great company. But one thing I don’t like about them is that they don’ reveal search stats to you as openly as Yahoo does. This site basically shows you the number of backlinks pointing to a specific website. A great way to gauge the progress your link building campaign and to see whether your link building campaign is getting results.

1. Aaron Wall’s Backlink Analyzer Tool

This is my #1 seo tool. This is a brand new tool and it’s totally crazy that it is available for free. It allows you to look at the backlinks pointing to a site, and then look at their anchor text. You can also enter a keyword and get all the top sites for that keyword and then appraoch them for backlinks or link exchanges. A great great tool that you should be using.

At http://www.theClickDepot.com, we use all these tools and several other paid tools to optimize your campaign for you.