Best Strategy for High Google Search Position?

[Dominixe]

This is a question for the Webmaster experts: What is the best strategy today for attaining a high site ranking in Google search results?

I know this is an often-asked question, but Google has made recent changes that appear to de-value "standard" recommended SEO practices in link-building. The focus seems to be more on link relevancy than quantity of links (particularly unrelated links). It appears that one-way, relevant links are the best way to go. Reciprocal links (ie. 2 or 3-way link trades) have been de-valued, such that 50 one-way relevant backlinks may outperform 500 reciprocal links.

It is not clear cut to me that a high Google PageRank will necessarily result in a high search result position for a given set of search terms. There are opposing views by SEO "experts" on this. I have personally seen lower PR sites positioned higher in search results than higher PR sites (not always).

I think that banner trades are no longer effective (because they are reciprocal and have no anchor text to contribute to relevancy). Text backlinks with keywords in the anchor text and contained within relevant text on a webpage appear to be favored by Google.

Given keyword and on-page optimization, what link-building advice would you give a Webmaster newbie for obtaining a high position in search engine results for todays Google?

Thanks for your help.

Dominixe

[Panky]

Build your links naturally and have a healthy mix of the different types of links. Link your sites with relevant links vs non-relevant links.

[Evil Chris]

Relevancy is certainly KEY, but also non-relevant, hight PR valued linkbacks can be beneficial as well. It will get you immediate Google traffic and you won't be penalized because a site like that is linking to you.

Many webmasters completely ignore PageRank but I don't. Your own page doesn't need to have high PR, but if the sites linking to you have PR4 or better, you are doing all right with Google.

[Dominixe]

Originally Posted by Evil Chris

Your own page doesn't need to have high PR, but if the sites linking to you have PR4 or better, you are doing all right with Google.

I have always been confused with statements such as "sites having PR4 or better". Are you referring to the term DomainRank? which I have seen mentioned in a number of SEO articles - I believe that the site DomainRank is the PageRank of the site URL (www.site.com). Or are you referring only to webpages with a PR4+?

Directories are a good example of this. One may list in a directory where www.thisdirectory.com is PR4, but the backlink is located on an interior page say http://www.thisdirectory.com/categor.../linkpage.html where linkpage.html has aa PR0.

Does anyone know if DomainRank is a factor in Google search ranking results?

Dominixe

[beardo]

Lots of prayer always works for me! ;-)

Oh great google gods. Please increase my PR.

[Dominixe]

And has it worked for you beardo?

[Kristine]

Maybe it sounds stupid to you, but I'm newbie. Where can I see Page Rank?

[Dominixe]

Originally Posted by Kristine

Where can I see Page Rank?

Hi, Kristine!

Search for "PageRank Checker" in Google and you will find lots of sites where you can enter a URL address and have its PageRank reported to you. However, be aware that this is NOT the actual PageRank (which is known only to Google), but an approximation of the actual PageRank. Even so, this is valuable to me for prioritizing sites that I might want to trade links with.

There are also various browser toolbars that will report this approximate PageRank - for example, the Google Toolbar. I personally don't use the Google Toolbar because of privacy issues associated with Google's collection of user data with this toolbar.

Hope this helps.

Dominixe