Ranking your website
highly on one of the “big three” search
engines (Google, Yahoo or MSN) is a
daunting task let alone ranking your
website highly on all three. Three
engines, three algorithms, three
different sets of rules - and yet there
are websites out there that have first
page rankings across them all – how do
they do it?
While all of the major search engines use
different algorithms the end goal of all three is the
same: to provide the searcher with the most relevant
results available. It is this one common thread that
makes it possible for an SEO to rank a website highly
across all the major engines. While there are a variety
of factors at play and an even wider variation in the
weight each of these factors are given – the possible
variations that can produce relevant results are
limited.
For example, if inbound links are given
0% weight then insignificant sites will rank highly for
high-competition phrases. Many reputable companies such
as Microsoft could lose rankings for their own names so
links must and will always hold value. On the other
hand, if links were to hold 100% weight then sp@mming
the search engines would be a simple matter and so there
are a limited number of possible variables in between
these extremes that this factor can have, no matter
which engine we are optimizing for.
That said, there are still three main
engines with three distinct algorithms despite common
requirements. To clarify how to optimize for all of them
it's easiest to discuss them individually first. Due to
the way their algorithms work one is best to expect
rankings on MSN first, followed by Yahoo! and finally
Google (I am assuming that the phrase is of at least
moderate competition). For this reason we will discuss
them individually in that order.
SEO For MSN
Proper SEO for MSN requires that a site
be structured well with a distinct theme throughout and
many inbound links. The advantage an SEO has while
optimizing a site for MSN is that MSN tends to pick up
and credit new content and inbound links very quickly.
That means that with the right tactics in place one can
rank a website relatively quickly on this important
engine.
While MSN has the lowest number of
searches performed on it, ComScore's report back in July
revealed that MSN searchers were also 48% more likely to
purchase a product or service online than the average
Internet user. A very important statistic for website
owners that sell online.
To rank highly on MSN one needs to build
a solid sized site (exactly how large will depend on
your industry – look at the size of your competitor's
sites for an idea), a relevant theme throughout the site
that focuses on your primary keywords and a good number
of links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an aging
delay on links such as the one employed by both Google
and Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links
can be picked up very quickly and with good SEO efforts
one can rank well within a few months on MSN for
competitive phrases.
SEO For Yahoo!
Until recently Yahoo! acted very much
like MSN, now it's leaning a bit more towards Google.
Ranking a website well on Yahoo! requires a solid-sized
site with unique content and a very good number of
links.
While PageRank is a Google factor, Yahoo!
does have some type of page value factor at play. Many
moons ago Yahoo! was playing with a PageRank-like
calculation called WebRank. They even went so far as to
put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates that
there is a factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm
similar to Google's PageRank – they just don't advertise
what a specific page's value is.
Yahoo! is placing a large amount of
emphasis on the age of links though not in the same way
that Google is. We will get to Google shortly however to
understand what to expect from Yahoo! one must
understand that when you get a link to your website it
won't hold it's full value for a number of months. While
the exact number of months in unknown it appears to be
around 8 before it hold it's full weight though it will
hold some from day one and this weight will increase as
time passes.
To rank well on Yahoo! you much optimize
your site similar to what you would do for MSN and you
must build a large number of inbound links and have
patience as these links age. You will not see a sudden
spike 2 weeks after a large link-building campaign, you
will likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any
significant effect.
SEO For Google
Virtually every webmaster and website
owner is primarily concerned about attaining Google
rankings due to the significantly higher number of
searchers using it. Provided that you are building your
website following the best practices of SEO (i.e. unique
content, a sizable amount of content, and a good number
of incoming links) then your rankings are sure to
follow, however due to their aging delay it will likely
take longer than on MSN or Yahoo! Google considers the
age of your links, your domain and even the individual
page to be a factor and the longer your page has been
online the better.
Essentially, ranking a site on Google
requires that you take the same actions as for the other
two, continue your link building efforts on an ongoing
basis to insure that you end up with more-and-more
links, and that you update your content and add content
on a fairly regular basis (though the addition of a blog
for example).
Tying It Together
The logical process for a new website or
one at the first stages of SEO is to first target MSN.
At this point you can focus your attention on continuing
to build high-quality, relevant links to and content on
your site which will continue to increase your value on
Yahoo! and Google.
Analysis will be required to determine
exactly what weight you will be giving to different
areas. For example, if your onsite factors are optimized
for MSN then you know that you will need to make up for
this in the offsite factors for Yahoo! and Google. If
you figured you would need 100 links to rank on Google
then you will now need to up that number to account for
the fact that you have optimized your site itself for a
different engine.
During the analysis process you will
likely want to use a tool to speed up the process of
keyword density analysis and competitor link analysis.
At Beanstalk we use a tool called
Total Optimizer
Pro though there are others out there (note: I have
yet to find one that does what this one does as quickly
and easily).
Conclusion
I am hoping that none of you read the
title and were expecting to rank on the first page of
all three major engines next week. Ranking highly on all
three major engines takes time, patience and a good few
rounds of tweaking to get the perfect balance of onsite
and offsite optimization. Of course, as you can gather,
done properly it's well worth the effort.
About The Author
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk
Search Engine Positioning, Inc. Dave writes with years
of expreience in
SEO and optimization
tactics. Watch Beanstalk's
SEO news
blog for details on the publication of a 4-part
series on ranking your website highly accross the "big
three engines" in January of 2006. Dave would like to
thank TopNet Solutions for the development of Total
Optimizer Pro - a comprehensive
SEO
tool that provides a blueprint of how
the top 10 got there so you can too.
