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In today's complex world of search engines and Internet marketing, it's easy to be overwhelmed with all the knowledge available out there on the Internet. If you're relatively new to online or haven't had much time to study up, there's a whole world behind the world you see when looking at websites. Here are some things that are important for any website owner interested in getting ahead online.
What is Page Rank? Is it important? - You may have heard about Page Rank before, but do you know what it really is? Do you understand its importance when it comes to Internet marketing and ranking in search engines? If not, we have a quick rundown of the things you need to know about Page Rank.- Directory Submissions and You - Should you submit your website to a link directory? If you've ever asked yourself that before (and moreso if you haven't), this is a quick summary of directory submissions and why they're so important to your online marketing efforts.
- Quick Guide to Alexa Rating - If you've ever wondered about your Alexa Rank - what it means, how it's calculated, and how it effects your website, we have info for you. From the way Alexa Rank is calculated to its significance, we have the info you need.
- How the Age of Your Domain Affects Search Engine Ranking - Did you know that websites, like fine wines, are better when aged? Well, at least their domains. Read more about the age of domains and how they influence your ranking in search engines.
- The Importance of Quality Back Links - If you think the more the merrier when it comes to back links, you need to keep reading. Read more about the importance of getting quality back links and why quality is more important than quantity.
- Can the Quality of Hosting Affect Search Engine Rankings? - How having a good quality web host that dsplays your page 100% of the time can influence your search engine rankings.
What is Page Rank? Is it important?
Page Rank has two different meanings depending on who you ask. On the one hand there's the true page rank of your page according to Google. There's also what's referred to as Toolbar Page Rank, a very simplified version of Page Rank that assigns your site a value from 1 to 10 based on a number of factors.
This leads us to the second half of the question - is Page Rank important? It's important, but since you only have access to the toolbar Page Rank, it's not as important as you might think. It can be a good indicator of a website and how it stands with Google, but it's not the be all and end all for determining the value of a website.
That said, there are some things that Page Rank is useful for when it comes to looking at websites. If a website has zero Page Rank, there may be two things happening. If it's a white bar, it just means the website hasn't been indexed by Google yet. If it has a greyed out bar for its Page Rank, though, it may indicate that the website has been penalized or is having other problems. The key word there is "may."
Page Rank isn't the best or only way to rate a website, but it's one small way that you can estimate the strength and value of a website.
Directory Submissions and You
Is submitting your website to a link directory important? Yes, it is. As with most things that deal with Internet marketing, it's not a miracle cure that will instantly catapult your websites to the top of the search engines, but it's an easy (and sometimes free) way to get links for your website and also attract real visitors that are looking for information that your website offers.
There are many things to consider after you've decided to submit your website to a link directory. For one, you should know whether the links from the directory will be "follow" or "no-follow" links. The latter type don't pass Page Rank to your website. No-follow directories aren't necessarily a bad thing, though. If it's a good directory that gets a lot of human traffic, being listed (even if you don't get any Google juice) is a good thing because it can drive targeted traffic to your website.
Another thing to keep in mind is the difference between free and paid directory listings. While there are some great free directories out there, if a directory charges even a minimal amount to list with them, the chances are higher that the directories won't be filled with junk websites from bad neighborhoods that will negatively affect your own website. That said, not all paid directories are good for your website. The best thing to do is to do your research and look at some of the other listings in the directory.
If you do your research, submitting your website to a quality link directory is a smart move that will help you with links to your website and also targeted traffic clicking your listing to come to your website.
Quick Guide to Alexa Rating
Alexa (now owned by Amazon.com) is a website that ranks your website (the lower the number the better.) Not having access to your websites stats, the way they do this is to calculate how many people visit your website and how many pages they visit while using the Alexa toolbar on their browser. This doesn't give 100% accurate results, but it is a good indicator of how your website compares to other websites.
Alexa takes three months of aggregated traffic data from Internet surfers who have the Alexa toolbar installed. All this data (for the entire web) is calculated on a daily basis. The Alexa Rank is based on the geometric mean of both the reach and number of page views for a website averaged over time. Therefore, the Alexa Rank is a look at both the number of visitors who come to a site and how many pages they visit.
This is different than the way Google Page Rank is calculated, but that doesn't mean it's better or worse. As with most online statistics, it's all in how you use the numbers and don't fall prey to the numbers, concentrating on them more than your actual website visitors.
The significance of your Alexa Rank is that it shows you how you compare to other websites on the Internet. In general, if your Alexa Rank is below 100,000, you're doing good.
How the Age of Your Domain Affects Search Engine Ranking
Websites are definitely like fine wines. That is, the older the domain they're associated with, the more valuable they are to Google and other search engines. There are many reasons for this, but one of the biggest is that if your website has been around for two or more years, it's more likely to be an established website and not a fly-by-night cookie-cutter website just meant to pollute the Internet.
There are, of course, other factors that go into ranking your website, but the age of your domain is one of the bigger ones because it's not as easy to fake. Sure, you can buy an old domain or catch a dropped domain using a domain backorder service and put your own content on it, but that doesn't always work. Buying a domain, putting content on it, and letting it age is one of the best ways to build up credibility with Google and other search engines.
All that said, you should still try to keep your website fresh and add new content to it throughout its lifespan. The age of domain is important, but it's just one factor that goes into ranking your website in the search engines. If you have a domain three or more years older, your job is going to be a lot easier, though.
The Importance of Quality Back Links
You may not know this, but Google originally had another name. It was called Back Rub before the Google name came about. This was because the very earliest Google algorythmns were based primarily on how many other websites linked to your website. At the time, this was a unique way to rank websites. Now, though, most search engines use this data in some way or another when ranking your website.
As time progressed and more and more people created websites with the knowledge that back links to a website were important, there was a lot of "gaming" going on with people buying, trading and doing whatever it took to get links. Over the last few years it's become more about the quality of the back link moreso than the raw number of sites linking to your website.
For example, you can have 100 or more low quality websites linking to you that won't do as much good as one or two solid .edu or .gov links. Don't get me wrong, getting links to your site is a good thing, but these days you want to be really careful about the quality of the links you're getting to your website. Remember, when it comes to back links, quality is much more important than quantity these days and any good SEO company knows this. To help get quality back links for your website it's vital to compare SEO quote so you can get the most impact for your money and know that you are going to get quality backlinks to your site.
Can the Quality of Hosting Affect Search Engine Rankings?
Search engines work endlessly to deliver high quality resources to its clients for whatever they are searching. In their quest to deliver relevant information quickly poor quality resources are displayed lower in the search results than websites that are highly relevant, reliable and offer a user friendly experience.
If you opt to host your website with a company that can't display your website 100% of the time or your website is constantly going offline it can become apparent to Google - as they crawl your website regularly - that you aren't working to provide a quality experience to your end users. It makes sense, given the above summary, that search engines will begin to rank your site lower in the search results than those that are similarly relevant and provide a better user experience.
Read more on in our article What is the most important aspect of web hosting search?