New Google algo checklist/todos

I feel an article coming on ;-)
Thought I'd pass it by you guys and gals first.

The following is based on my and others observations of the algorithm since Florida and how to become an authority. Below a 6 point checklist which be warned, in most cases is going to require a lot of work, in no particular order below...

1. Have you increased your total site size?
Check the top 5 rankings for your target main keyword/phrase with the 'site:' search function on Google. For example site:www.competitor-domain.com
This provides how many pages they have indexed. nine times out of 10 they will have more than your own which if you have been hit by florida/austin/brandy will very likely be a lower number of indexed pages. If not read the next point. Solution: Start thinking more content. Glossary, fAQ, more product details, articles, forum...
Size matters! Thats why amazon, major portals, hubs and professional dwp spam are ranking so highly. They are commonly huge in site with thousands of indexed pages. Get your website to around about the same number of indexed pages as those ranking top 10 (average). The less competitive the term the most likely you will not need too much new content.

2. Have you made a big effort since Update Florida to obtain more incoming links with ideal link text?
Those sites coming up top are seen to have either a whole lot of indexed pages (point 1) or, a whole lot of thematic and unthematic inbound links. Most at the very top have both. Thematic links to your site are crucial. get to the directories and get working on link exchange. Remember it doesnt have to be exactly reciprocal, suggest you will link to another of their domains so the links arent exactly reciprocated (if they have another domain.) see my article here on effective link pop building. Try and get on a par or naturally more links than those ranking currently at or near the top.

3. If you have a budget, buy text links. Even the best sites out there need to compete with those with budgets even though they will get more natural links through excellent content. Those in competitive areas certainly need to consider a monthly link purchase budget. As much as I'd like to be able to say that quality content will suffice for link popularity, the fact is, currently to compete you may need to purchase links. Some themes just simply require that you purchase links to have a chance. Sad, but true.

4. Special effort to be made on finding directory/hub links. ODP link for sure and a link from yahoo!, even at $299, may be worth considering as the link will be thematic and does count. Also be on the look out for small themed directories. Do a google search using keywords such as:
mainkeyword +add url
mainkeyword +submit url
mainkeyword +directory
mainkeyword +resource
mainkeyword +links
mainkeyword +surf tips
...
This will help you find the smaller little known directories that are specific to your theme and many are free inclusion. I found 7 of these for a client last week for a major travel keyword which will help a lot as it is a new site.

5. Check existing link partners to see that..
a. They are still linking to you.
b. If there is perhaps a more appropriate thematic page that they could link to you from (homepage not always the best). c. That the link text is ideal and not the common error of just company name (assuming no keyword in company name).

6. Dont worry about trading links with competitors! Consider an "Other resources" page somewhere on your site. If you explain to your competitor that it is now of mutual benefit to do so due to the new google algorithm putting increased weight on thematic incoming links, they will be more open to do so.

7. Internal linkage should be thorough. I am no longer concerned about pagerank drain as pagerank has nowhere near the ranking significance it used to have. I've increased the number of internal footer links on each and every page I have and have made sure my sitemap is up to date. If you dont have a sitemap, get one, and get some footer links as an alternative navagation or better to link some pages not covere din your main navigation. Don't worry about pagerank, worry about getting as many internal links to each and every page as you can. Clearly for large product sites footer links should only go to say main categories. Also consider multiple sitemaps, one for each category. This I know flys in the face of some SEO thinking on just linking to main pages due to pr drainage, things change quickly though.

The top two points are vital to becoming an authority and ranking well. Note, I haven't said anything about on page optimization. That is secondary to site size + lots of internal linkage) and link popularity right now. When you are an authority, is when on page optimization really counts. This is where the over optimization theory is flawed imo. Those sites that got booted were not imo due to over optimization, but because they arent an authority for their term yet, hence they dropped in ranking with all the other non-authority domains. My own site has more h1s and h2 than you can shake a stick it at, but for my german market, I'm still right up there for the terms im targetting. You HAVE to be an authority first though.

In a nutshell, size and link pop is crucial and should come before on page optimization.

If this advice/checklist gets you back up top, or gets your new site up top. Send me a cheque in duplicate for $20,000. Or alternatively, thank me with a link to my homepage ;-)

Feedback welcome.
Cheers
Alan

one more point, avoid linking to PR0 sites !

If the PR0 site you refer to is a penalized site, ok.
If it's a new site, I can't see how this could be a bad thing.
They will eventually raise PR and not be a PR0 anymore.

good clarification joc.
great post webby. some very good points.

I don't mind linking to PR0 sites, everybody have to start some where.
PR0 today could possible PR6 in six months. Who knows. However I monitor sites (with a boring, time consuming script), until they become PR3. Don't want to link to bad neighbourhoods.

Looking foreward to reading your article Webby.

Thanks WEBBY, you are always benevolent and polite...

i have saved your post on to my harddisk

Excellent post as usual Webby! Comes in good timing because I've been listed in DMOZ today

...but avoid sites like this:
http://www.1-sun-web-site-promotion...ee-add-url.html

Excellent post Webby. Matches everything I am seeing.

How many authority sites does google take? It seems in my keywords only two commercial sites are allowed in the top 10. I totally agree with Webby that I need to get more quality links...but if there's a quota for each keyword how am I supposed to beat them? They are working on their links too. And to others out there with new sites don't even try because they are way ahead...

JV

@requim,
Ummm, that pretty much was the article lol. I'll rewrite it though thanks to the input here (particular the warning on link farms, ffas, bad neighborhoods etc.).

@Relaxzoolander
Good point about being careful about ffas and link farms. Commonsense is always required when researching link partners. I wouldnt be troubled about pr 1 or 2 links though. I't really is more quantity than Pagerank nowadays. Ask the professional spammers.

@jvalantine
I think the key is not to find the exact threshold of what defines an authority as I belive that to be fluid based on the competitiveness of a term and competition. Here is a little tip:

Get a factor from the top 5 domains on your main keywords by adding the total number of indexed pages (site:www.domain.com) with the total number of incoming links (better using AllTheWeb backward link stats than Google, but for a quick calculation Google is fine). add them all up and divide by 5. You then have the average factor for the top 5 rankings. Then check your own site, likelyhood is that your factor will be lower if hit by Austin or you are not ranking top 20. You then know what you have to aim for for your specific main keyword.

I know for example that the thousands of pages indexed due to my forum have nmade me an authority. For site size I have few German market competitors that are close . I'm slacking though on link pop (I dont follow my own advice basically and actively seek them :-/ ) Hence for the german equivalent of "search engine optimization" (Suchmaschinenoptimierung) I'm ranked 3rd and not top. Of the two main factors, link pop and site size, Link pop carries the most weight, especially if thematic.

Uncle Alan says go to Google and check your 'Webby factor' ;-)
(link: + site: search in google) and do whatever you need to do to get it up to the top ranking domain levels.

As mentioned use ATW stats if you have the time, it is more accurate as it shows all links, not just those that are pr4+. My link pop tool shows pretty much all the main backward links for most engines.

Cheers
Alan

Excellent post Webby.

It's great that you freely share all your hard work, rest assured it will come back to you in one way or another.

Well done, Thank you

Well, to me it's important that I'm seen to be researching and testing and not just "me too'ing"
It's always been important to me that potential clients see I'm not a hobby seo with a copy of WPG, so if my posts show I know what I'm talking about, I might get links and perhaps the odd client. Many SEO companies are annoyed I even have an SEO basic tutorial on my site as they feel it gives away too much and potential clients will go it alone. I feel though a marketing manager is not going to want to go through 15 pages of partly technical tutorial and try and do it himself but outsource to someone he can see has a sound knowledge of SEO. I dont have the company for my health, so of course my posts do have some self interest :-)

Another excellent effort, Webby. Thank you for offering your insights.