Can You Pass Google's Credit Check?

(c) 2008 By Sean Proskemailto
sean.proske@thewebhostcompany.com

Getting your site listed on the first page of Google'ssearch results is a bit like getting a loan from a bank.You aren't likely to be approved for a loan if you have noincome and no credit history. It's too risky for the bankto extend credit to those who aren't worthy of it.Google trades in a different currency... traffic, and justlike the banks assess risk before lending money, Google willassess risk before "lending" traffic.Google may not care if you've ever paid a bill late, butmake no mistake about it... they have their own version ofa credit check and you need to pass it in order to be foundin their search results.The Google credit check is of course the process ofdetermining "Page Rank".Nobody outside of Google, and probably very few people onthe inside actually know how page rank is calculated. Thereare a number of factors, but exactly what they are and howthey're weighted is about as closely guarded as the recipefor coca-cola.We may not ever know the formula in its entirety, but wedon't need to. The most important ingredients are always
obvious. Sugar and water for coca-cola... Relevance andLink Popularity for Google Page Rank.Relevance is something Google is very good at figuring out.If you sell widgets on your site, as long as Google hascrawled it... they know your site is about widgets andyou're already in the result set for the search term"widgets".The problem is that no matter what you do in terms ofoptimizing the content and structure of your website, it isgoing to start out on the last page of the result setinstead of page 1, and that's where it will stay until youestablish your credit history (link popularity).Google's own assessment of relevance isn't sufficient foranything other than inclusion in a result set. To move youup in the result set, Google has to be sure your site willactually be perceived as relevant and important by humanbeings.That's where the link popularity comes in. If webmasters ofother sites that Google thinks are in some way relevant towidgets see fit to send traffic to your widget site, thenthat confirms to Google that human beings will perceiverelevance.Inbound links form your credit report, which is anindication of human perception of relevance. That's whatmakes Google comfortable with sending their traffic to you.If you want traffic, and the top spot on Google, then youneed to get other webmasters to link to you from relevantsites... period.Fortunately, that is a very easy thing to accomplish. Itsimply involves offering something of value in exchange foreach link you receive. There are literally dozens of waysto do this for free... and on a massive scale.To learn these techniques, refer to the other articles inthis series, which are available by free subscription to theauthor's newsletter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sean Proske is the CEO of thewebhostcompany.com. Forwebsite marketing tips subscribe to the author's freenewsletter at: http://www.thewebhostcompany.com/