Apart from blogging, I spend most of my time revealing the secrets of search engines. I have quite a lot of SEO customers who are willing to rank high on their desired keywords especially on Google.  I must admit, this is the most difficult challenge I have ever taken in my business life. Especially nowadays it is much more difficult than before to rank high on Google. Throughout the time I found a way to crack Google’s ranking algorithm, which is ever changing.

We know that Google uses about 200 ranking factors to determine the position of a web page in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). However, Google does not reveal the list of ranking factors and how exactly they are weighted.

Which factors are important to Google when ranking a web site?

Google revealed some factors that affect the position of a web page in Google’s search results in the past:

1. the presence of a keyword in the HTML title tag
2. the presence of a keyword in the HTML body copy
3. keywords in bold typeface
4. keywords in header tags
5. the presence of a keyword in anchor text in links to a page
6. the PageRank of a page (the actual PageRank, not the toolbar PageRank)
7. the PageRank of the entire domain
8. the loading speed of the web site

These eight factors are amongst the 200 factors that Google uses to rank a website. However, it does not make sense to add your search terms to every element on your website. It’s also important that the density or frequency of the search term in the web page elements is correct. If a search term appears in every possible element on a page, it is possible that Google will penalize the page.

How Can You Crack Google’s Ever-Changing Secret Ranking Algorithm?

Actually it is a lot easier then you might think. The web pages that are listed on Google’s first result page for your search terms obviously have all the ranking elements that are needed to get a top 10 position on Google for that search term. If you want to be listed for the same search term, it is better to analyze the top ranked pages. Here are some of the questions to be asked when analyzing those pages:

• In which page elements do they use the search term?
• How many links do the top ranked pages have?
• How many of these links contain the search term?
• How often should you use the search term in the different web page elements and the links?

Analyzing the top 10 pages will help you to greatly improve the rankings of your own web pages for your search terms. I use IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer to  analyze the top 10 ranked pages and my customers  web pages. IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer analyzes all elements of the top 10 ranked pages and it compares the results to your own web page. It will tell you exactly how to change your own pages so that they will be listed on Google’s first result page. Good luck!

What Is a Meta Description?

It is the text snippets of the webpage you see in search results. They used to be an important ranking factor until 2009. In 2009 both Google and Yahoo! officially announced they no longer used Meta-descriptions in their search algorithms. However, recent developments in Google’s search algorithm bring Meta description back to life as an important ranking factor.

Google did not make an announcement about the Meta descriptions. However your site’s meta description can now significantly affect your rankings. I will explain how it happens.

How Can Meta Descriptions Affect Your Rankings Again?

In Jan 2010 Google announced that they would be tailoring everyone’s search results based on their search history whether users are signed into Google or not. Actually Google has been customizing peoples SERPs (search engine results pages) for quite a while already, but until this year it only happened when you searched while signed into your Google account. This year, signed in or not everybody gets personal results.

Whether you’re signed in or not into Google account, all the searches you run on Google are stored in your browser cookies. This data is called  ‘Web History’ and Google uses it to customize your search results. If you’re not signed in, your Web History is stored for 180 days, then old data is deleted and replaced with new searches. If you’re signed in, there’s no time limit and you can easily manage your Web History.  The thing is either way the searches you run and sites you visit will affect your future search experience.

The sites you visit more often will be ranked higher in the search results on related queries. For example if you search for ‘problogger’ and visit www.searchforblogging.com. Next time when you search for ‘problogger’ you may see www.searchforblogging.com in top 10 results even if it doesn’t rank there in the general impersonalized search.

Although Meta descriptions are no longer part of the ranking algorithm they can significantly affect your site’s positions in the personalized search results. Your Meta description is a crucial factor that determines the CTR (click-through-rate) of your site in search results. The more compelling your description is, the more searchers will click it. When they click through to your site from search results this is recorded in their Web History. Next time they search for a product or service related to your site, it may appear high up in their personalized search results. Got it?

What Should You Do?

You should keep in mind that Google does not always show the Meta description you provide. Sometimes it just brings a random text snippet from your page that contains the keywords used in the query. But you can easily locate the keywords where your Meta description shows up by searching for them on Google.

All you need is to take a look at your Meta descriptions. Check and see how your website appears in the search results and find ways to improve it.  Having a compelling text in your search results snippet will get you more clicks, more visitors and eventually more customers.