Summary of what Google might use to determine the ranking of your pages:

• the frequency of web page changes
• the amount of web page changes (substantial or shallow changes)
• the change in keyword density
• the number of new web pages that link to a web page
• the changes in anchor texts (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• the number of links to low trust web sites (for example too many affiliate links on one web page)

Your rankings can be influenced by the domain name:

• the length of the domain registration (one year vs. several years)
• the address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
• the stability of data and host company
• the number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)

Rating the links to your web site:

• the anchor text and the discovery date of links are recorded
• the appearance and disappearance of a link over time might be monitored
• the growth rates of links as well as the link growth of independent peer documents might be monitored
• the changes in the anchor texts over a given period of time might be monitored
• the rate at which new links to a web page appear and disappear might be recorded
• the distribution rating for the age of all links might be recorded
• links with a long life span might get a higher rating than links with a short life span
• links from fresh pages might be considered more important
• if a stale document continues to get incoming links, it will be considered fresh
• GG doesn’t expect that new web sites have a large number of links if a new web site gets many new links, this will be tolerated if some of the links are from authorative sites
• GG indicates that it is better if link growth remains constant and slow
• GG indicates that anchor texts should be varied as much as possible
• GG indicates that burst link growth may be a strong indicator of search engine spam

Search results and users’ behavior:

• the volume of searches over time is recorded and monitored forincreases
• the information regarding a web page’s rankings are recorded and monitored for changes
• the click through rates are monitored for changes in seasonality, fast increases, or other spike traffic
• the click through rates are monitored for increase or decrease trends
• the click through rates are monitored to find out if stale or fresh web pages are preferred for a search query
• the click through rates for web pages for a search term is recorded
• the traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored for changes
• the user behavior on web pages is monitored and recorded for changes
• (for example the use of the back button etc.)
• the user behavior might also be monitored through bookmarks, cache, favorites, and temporary files
• bookmarks and favorites are monitored for both additions and deletions
• the overall user behavior for documents is monitored for trend changes
• the time a user spends on a web page might be used to indicate the quality and freshness of a web page

Other factors that can influence your rankings:

• web pages with frequent ranking changes might be considered untrustworthy
• keywords that have little change in the result pages are probably matched to domains with stable rankings
• keywords with many changes in the results are probably matched to domains with more votality

For details of the patent filing, go here.

Strange things were happening to my Futures Trading website recently. There is an increase in search engine traffic generated by Google but a drastic drop in Yahoo search traffic.

Then I suddenly remembered Yahoo was doing some new index database. I reckoned most of my links to the Future Trading website were wiped out. I wonder what can I do to get these page back on Yahoo index? I would really really appreciate help on this.

Fortunately, most of the pages on the website are still indexed by Google and MSN search.

It has been quite a while since I wrote my last blog. Yes, I am up to something new - a new website on buying and selling used cars in Singapore to compete for the keyword Singapore Used Cars.

The idea for this website was prompted by the successful SEO project for the website www.Accounting-Services-Singapore.com. It was during the Yahoo domain sale promotion, and I registered the domain for less than $5. I used the free website builder tool provided by Yahoo and created a simple “profile” website and viola! It was ranked number 1 on Yahoo Search after less than 3 months. Although I have no idea on the type of website that I am going to build to generate revenue.

I intend to repeat the same feat for Singapore Used Cars website. And I have some idea how it is going to be a revenue generating website. However, I will keep the idea under wrapped until the website is ranked well and has respectable amount of traffic. I am targeting to achieve 100 unique visitors daily.

I’ve just completed my first website on Debt Help. I have more than 10 pages of content which I hired writers to write. These are search engines friendly articles designed to get indexed and ranked favourably.

The website, Debt-Help-Tips.com, provides valuable information to help people to reduce and eventually eliminate all their debts. I believe eliminating bad debts such as credit card debt and debts that support expenditures is one thing that you must do to acheive financial freedom. The interest rate in credit card is usually one of the highest you’ll ever pay - 24% per annum, which is about $1 out of $4 you spend!

So before you use that plastic again, think twice. Try using cash.

By now, you should have heard about the official launch of the new MSN Search which has been in beta for several months. Search results are now extracted from MSN own database using MSNbot spidering instead of Yahoo’s Slurp spidering.

MSN search displays its results fast - very fast. Faster than Google and Yahoo.

And when you search for “index futures trading” on MSN Search, TradersVic.com is at the number One position. However, this keyword is not a popular searched term and I do not get much traffic with this keyword. Maybe people would just search for “emini S and P” or “nasdaq future” or “nikkei 225“. I would reckon the keyword “futures trading” to give more traffic.

Anyway, it is still something I can boast about - being number 1 on the 3rd largest search engine. Right?

This is a fantastic way to take advantage of Yahoo’s offering of low cost domain registration at US$4.98/year for up to 5 years. Included in the low price is a template for your starter page where you can write a keyword optimised 1000 characters web page.

I have just registered a domain related to accounting services in Singapore:

• http://www.accounting-services-singapore.com

Go visit the above URL and see how I optimised the keyword and included the contact information for my client, Mr. Joe Tan.

The .SG second level domain was opened for registration on 2 Jan 2005. You can still get cool names with this extension that will probably give you an edge if you are marketing to the Singapore market (and to a certain extend also the neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia).

Prior to the release of .SG, SGNIC tried to trademark this second level domain. However, there was huge difficulty and immense opposition from the business and IP communuties. I did not bother with the outcome of that trademark application. Whatever the outcome, as small business owners, we can always find ways to take advantage of such “protectionism”.

Anyway, my vanity calling prompted me to register a fancy .SG domain too - not so much for search engine marketing purpose. I registered a domain related to “Singapore Tycoon“.

Yes, you probably guess it right - it’s …

http://www.tycoon.sg

And I have some brief content on Singapore Tycoon on the landing page and hope that the search engine spiders will like them.

Microsoft has started using its own database of more than 5 billions websites with search.msn.com. This marked the official beginning of the Big3 search engines war.

Now instead of pleasing just 2 spiders to rank well in Google, Yahoo and MSN, you have to please 3. Each one of them has its strengths and weaknesses. My suggestion is to focus on one spider at a time.

My strategies are to focus first on Yahoo then MSN next is to use Adwords to get Google’s targeted traffic. I make some money with the targeted traffic from Yahoo and MSN with Adsense. In turn, use Adsense earning to get Google targeted traffic.

Brilliant! Isn’t it? This is not my idea, I borrowed from YC’s.

One of the most popular affiliate network is Commission Junction.

http://www.cj.com

Beside Commission Junction, who I focus heavily on throughout the manual, there are a number of other

LinkShare.com - Representing more than 500+ merchants, LinkShare has emerged as one of the top affiliate programs on the Net.

CommissionSoup.com - Although a new kid on the block, Commission Soup offers a handful of top financial services related merchants.

BeFree.com - Reporting offers a wide range of merchants with categories ranging from clothing, entertainment to travel.

JohnsonLane.com - Primary a provider of financially based merchants programs including credit cards, mortgages and credit services.

ClickBank.com - Offering a variety of merchants in the areas of software, ebooks and other electronic, downloaded product and services.

QuinStreet.com - A smaller affiliate/merchant exchange featuring a few dozen merchants. They offer quality products and services.

DirectLeads.com - Growing quite rapidly DirectLeads represents hundreds of merchants. Easy interface and good commissions.

ClickXchange.com - Choose from a selection of merchants. And, although they’re one of the smaller networks they provide great service.

AffiliateStorm.com - A very new affiliate network. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one and will add more at a later date.

In addition to the affiliate networks mentioned above, there are a number of very popular “affiliate directories” who have catalogued tens of thousands of affiliate programs by company and industry for your convenience.

Refer-it.com http://www.refer-it.com

Associate-it.com http://www.associate-it.com

AssociatePrograms.com http://www.associateprograms.com

AffiliateMatch.com http://www.affiliatematch.com

SponsorDirectory.com http://www.sponsordirectory.com

AffiliatesDirectory.com http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com

2-Tier.com http://www.2-tier.com

ClickQuick.com http://www.clickquick.com

WebAffiliatePrograms.com http://www.webaffiliateprograms.com

100Best-Affiliate-Programs.com http://www.100best-affiliate-programs.com

My search engine optimization exercise could be considered completed. 2004 was the year of learning the mechanics of search engine marketing and attracting targeted traffic from search engines. 2005 will be the year of content building.

My goal is to build 1,000 content pages by 18 Dec 2005.

My mentor, Richard, remarked that I have a BIG goal. If it is easily achieveable, why set a goal? This sounded cocky, but its true. Setting goal is to push oneself beyond the thinkable limit. Last year, my goal was to get into the top 30. I got several of my websites into the top 10 SERP. Should I have set my goal to top 10, I could have ended up having several websites within the top 5 SERP. Anyway, there is no right or wrong way in setting goal. The point is to know what you are targeting, aim at it and starting shooting.

In order to track my progress and record the work that I will be doing, I have started a new blog on web content building,

http://content-advisor.blogspot.com