Here’s a blog post that answer your question: “Does PageRank really matter for ranking in Google?”
The short answer is: “Yes, it does.”
The long answer is: “Not all the time, it depends who links to you, how they link to you and the keyword you’re competing.”
To get the full explanation, go visit Jonathan Leger’s blog now.
Kelvin Hui suggested in his blog post “SEO Singapore? Is SEO hot in Singapore?” that those who can rank high for the search terms SEO Singapore should be able to help you to optmize your website for more search engine traffic.
I think there is some truth in that statement.
However, if you search carefully, you will realized that the search terms seo singapore and singapore seo in Google, the results you get are not exactly the same. Why? Because, in our natural use of English, a different use in the sequence of the words gives different meaning. And Google algorithm is smart enough to distinguish that but not smart enough to realize seo singapore and singapore seo actually mean the same thing.
In my earlier post, I mentioned this blog was ranked in the second page of Google search results for the search terms seo experts. Since then it has risen the rank and it is now ranked number 11.
I have been observing a change in the type of results on Google search recently. Could SEO experts from different countries please help me to confirm my observation?
I reside in Singapore and I am seeing more Singapore-based websites in the search results listing. So, I would be re-directed to Google.com.sg even if I typed in Google.com in the browser address bar. And the results from Google.com.sg are so different from Google.com – it used to be about the same.
It was published in the Winter 06/07 issue of the Search Engine Standard Magazine — it’s about the challenges of setting up a SEO team for a company – corporate SEO. Before reading this article, I always thought there is a void between the IT department, the Marketing team and the Corp Comm group when we come to online marketing, be it search marketing or email marketing.
Came to know about this SEO course offered by Rice University, Houston, Texas via this post at WebProNews, Rice University Adjunct Offers SEO Course. On further finding, I realized that it’s not a full-time university module but a continuing education by the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies.
Still, it is interesting to know that search engine optimization is being recognized and taught in the university.
Surprise! I just discovered that I’ve got PageRank 5 web page and it is a blog post at the free blogspot.com by Blogger.com.
Google Blog SearchBETA is definitely new to me. I just came across http://blogsearch.google.com and discovered that my previous post “Google Webmasters Central for SEO Technicians” was ranked top for the keyword singapore seo.
Today I discover an interesting phenomenon with Google ranking. One of my PR1 website actually ranked above my other PR4 website for the keywords: singapore seo. These websites are:
Let’s try to use the results above to examine how pagerank affects search engine ranking.
It is definitely a MYTH that you need high pagerank value for your web page in order to be ranked in the top 3 pages of the search engine result listing.
Check out this keyword “blog marketing“, there are over 250,000,000 results. And my friend Kian Ann’s 3 months old Blogopreneur.com – currently still a PR0 website – is ranked at 26th!
High PR will help, but there are more important factors that you should focused on – as illustrated by the above Google ranking.
Why You Do Not Need High Pagerank
In most cases, you will need a very high PR to compete for very competitive keywords.
However, if you believe that The Long Tail economic theory works in e-commerce then you should know why we are talking about optimizing your web pages for the less popular and less competitive keywords. We want to be able to get our web pages to the top of the organic search engine listing as quickly as possible without incurring the high cost of traditional media and PPC advertising.
On-Page Optimization
Take a look at ShiHengCheong.com.
And here’s DesignerSEO.com.
There is definitely more content in DesignerSEO.com than ShiHengCheong.com. In fact, you can find more occurrences of “Singapore” and “SEO” in DesignerSEO.com than ShiHengCheong.com.
In terms of on-page optimization, DesignerSEO.com has more text and content search optimization. It is much easier to work on this site as there is more content to help boost the frequency of the targeted keywords and more pages to optimize its internal linking structure.
However, we have to know if this page is optimized for the targeted keywords. Generally, DesignerSEO.com is targeting “singapore seo” however, the main niche keywords are: seo web design training workshop singapore.
And, the targeted keywords for ShiHengCheong.com: singapore seo specialist which is closer to the keywords “singapore seo”.
This is one reason why ShiHengCheong.com does better for the keywords singapore seo but nowhere to be found for the keywords “seo training in singapore” or “web design course in singapore“.
Proper on-page optimization will ensure that your web pages are search engine friendly and “crawlable”. However, in terms of actual getting in the top search engine ranking, off-page optimization rules!
The Seven Off-Page Things That You Must Do To Get Top Search Engine Ranking
1. Keyword targeted inbound text link is very important for you to rank well in Google.
2. A keyword rich text link from within the main content text is more “powerful” than links from the sidebar menu. You want a link from a page with content that is related to your website.
3. Use only the targeted keywords in the anchored text. Try not to dilute the focus by add other keywords. Stop words such as and, the, an, a, or are OK. You only need 4 or 5 quality inbound links to get ranked in the top 30 for a no-so-competitive keyword. You should be thinking along the Long Tail concept and optimize for profitable rare keywords than popular competitive keywords.
4. If possible, get link from sites that are frequently visited by Googlebot, SLURP and MSNbot, such as a high PR website (PR5 or higher) or popular blogs – these are criteria for good quality links. Examples of a popular blog is Blogopreneur.com which is visited by the important search engine spiders several times a day even though it is still at PR0.
5. Get good quality inbound links also to your internal pages. Make sure that the web page or blog post, where your link is placed, has been indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN. It would be nice to have link from high PR but if you are new, even PR0 can do. The important point is to have your link placed strategically in that web page.
6. It is easy to get ranked in the top 30 if you get help from your friends. Look for strategic link partners among people that you know. Work in team.
7. If you already have a well-spidered website/blog, don’t be stingy. Link to others who have good content first, eventually you will get more links in return.
Since you are reading this, you are either well verse in the art of SEO or you are struggling to get visible on the search engine. If you are the former, please drop me a comment. If you are the later, you can come attend my SEO Web Design Workshop in January 2007.
Here’s how I helped my friend Andy to get top 10 ranking in Google in about 10 days. He wanted this new website, AmeliaHun.com, to be ranked for the keywords “Coolest Baby on the Planet” – a website dedicated to his newborn baby daughter.
It is more for fun than anything else that he selected such a cool long tail keyword – not a competitive keyword indeed.
But what the heck, it’s still an SEO experiment and you have to get your optimization tactics right to be visible in the top 30.
If you can get a not-so-competitive keyword ranked in the top 10 on Google and Yahoo then you are on the right track. All you need to do for more competitive keywords is to repeat what you’ve done right and create more keyword optimized pages for the next 3 to 6 months.
This was what Andy has done. The domain name AmeliaHun.com was registered on Aug 22, 2006. He did not do anything until Nov 9, 2006 when he was in Kuala Lumpur to demonstrate how easily and quickly one can create a simple web page. Yes, he created that homepage in front of a live audience. So please do not expect a fanciful web page – there are only some text and a couple of pictures. However, he is pretty good at SEO and the resulting homepage is well optimized for the keywords: coolest baby on the planet.
When he asked me on Nov 12, 2006 to point a text link to his new website, I actually gave him 2 and not 1 text link. The first one is a link in the form a list item in a blog post about backlinks and the other one is embedded in the first paragraph of a blog post talking about the coolest baby at http://shihengcheong.com/blogs/2006/11/coolest-baby-on-planet.html.
Yesterday, Nov 21, 2006, I was told that AmeliaHun.com was ranked the 6th Coolest Baby on the Planet by Google.
That’s top 10 ranking in Google achieved in less than 10 days. Congratulation!
And, guess what happen today? My blog post about the coolest baby is ranked Number 1 for the search term Singapore’s coolest baby on Google.!
Latest Search Ranking Updates
Nov 24, 2006
- AmeliaHun.com is ranked NUMBER 1 and 2 in Google.
- AmeliaHun.com is ranked Number 3 in Live Search(MSN).
- This post put www.TIMMGuru.com into the 17th position in Yahoo.
Nov 29, 2006
- AmeliaHun.com maintains NUMBER 1 and 2 position in Google.
- AmeliaHun.com is ranked Number 1 in Live Search(MSN).
- AmeliaHun.com is ranked Number 6 in Yahoo.
- ShiHengCheong.com is ranked Number 1 for the keywords singapore coolest baby in Google.
Dec 7, 2006
- AmeliaHun.com maintains NUMBER 1 and 2 position in Google, Number 1 in Live Search(MSN) and Number 7 in Yahoo.
- As for the keywords singapore coolest baby, TIMMGuru.com is ranked Number 1 and http://shihengcheong.com/blogs is ranked Number 4 in Yahoo, and in Google and MSN http://shihengcheong.com/blogs/2006/11/coolest-baby-on-planet.html is ranked Number 1.