Understanding exactly what elements need to be in place to satisfy the hunger of the Google algorithm is an on-going process fuelled by the speculation of a thousand SEO forums, each looking for the fabled Golden Key that will unlock the doors to page rankings only ever spoken of in hushed tones.
The reality of the situation is that much of what happens behind the closed doors of Goggle is already understood.
A quick search of this site will reveal all of the on-page elements that are now thought will assist a site in reaching the top of the Goggle rankings for any particular keyword or phrase.
Additionally the importance of off-page elements such as one way in-coming text links from relevant and related sites with a good page rank are equally discussed infinitum.
What are rarely discussed are the technical factors thought to be used by Google as part of its analytical ranking process.
These are thought to play as big a part in the process as the on-page factors and may in fact supersede them as Google steps up its anti-spam campaign.
Ask yourself or the poor devil responsible for your search engine marketing the following questions, and then reflect on why your search engine page rankings are not as high as you would like:
1) Is your domain name registered for at least ten years or is it registered for a year or two like all the other keyword rich spam sites with their multiple doorways?
2) Is your site located on an unique IP in a clean neighbourhood or does it share an IP range with that foot fetish link farm that Google loves so much (or not as the case may be)?
3) Is your server red hot with a delivery speed approaching warp speed nine or does it chug along at Zimmer frame speed one?
4) Do you hide all of your CSS style sheets and JavaScript in remote files or do you live them on the page and hope that the robots can be bothered to pick up that first piece of keyword rich content at line 987.
5) Is your index page lean and mean like Tyson circ 1986 at well under 20K or is a William "The Refrigerator" Perry home page at somewhere around 75K?
6) Does your CMS rewrite its page urls so that they are user and search engine friendly or does it spew our page urls that are longer than a sleeping Tom Cruise?
7) Does your Robots.txt File invite search engine robots in like a long lost friend or is it the new Berlin Wall around your keyword rich content?
My hope is that this slightly tongue in check article furthers the understanding that key elements of any search engine optimisation campaign are technical in nature and that an overall holistic view needs to be taken if you are to reach the promised land that is Google Ranking No.1
Please feel free to reproduce this article but please publish in its entirety and with the resource box and all live links included.
About the Author
Ivor Conway is the Managing Director of http://www.neuchi.co.uk, a UK Search Engine Marketing and Optimisation company that promotes the matching of client's products to interested and ready to buy online customers.