Google's March 1st 07 Ranking Algorithm Changes

In a recent thread on WebmasterWorld, people observed that there is a change in Google's ranking algorithm. It looks as if more pages are added to Google's supplemental results and that Google might re-rank the results based on new quality criteria.

What's new in Google's ranking algorithm?

It seems that Google internally returns a first set of results that is then re-ranked according to multipliers determined in testing just this set of results.

If your web site is not included in the first set of results then the re-ranking step cannot help you because no new results are added.

If your website is included in the first set of results then the re-ranking can either help you or hurt your rankings. If your web site fails one of the re-ranking tests, then your rankings scores (relevance score, trust score, website age score, etc.) might be lowered and your rankings will drop.

Such a new ranking method would explain the yo-yo effect that can be observed for some URLs: a web page goes from search result page one to the end of the results and comes back again. The same web site is always part of the first result set but re-ranked differently.

Are more pages going supplemental?

Google might use the new system to quickly get the first set of results (probably cached sets of results). To make the primary index less unwieldy, more pages might be moved to the supplemental results.

The supplemental index would only be accessed if the total number of sites in the primary index fell below a threshold.

What can you do to benefit from the new algorithm?

If you want to get high rankings with Google's new algorithm then you must create a trustworthy web site with good content:

• Get good inbound links from trusted websites to raise the TrustRank value of your own web site.
• Get links from websites that have many backlinks (these pages usually have a high TrustRank).
• Improve the co-citation of your website by getting link from web pages that link to other sites that are related to yours.
• Try to get links from pages that link to other trusted pages next to the link to your site.
• Optimize the content of your web pages to show Google that your web pages are relevant to a special topic.
  

High Google rankings are still the result of two important factors: optimized web page content and the right inbound links.

The problem is to find out exactly how the web page content should be optimized and exactly how the inbound links now should look like. This is by far the best tool on the market to do just that: SEO Elite

Google's Pay Per Action (PPA)

Well I've mentioned the rumor almost a year ago today. The rumor is not more. Google is testing a new advertising system that allows businesses to advertise on a cost per action basis. Sorry CJ, Azoogle, Modern Click and others - prepare to get squashed. You can find Google's own announcement here.

My personal opinion on PPA: Much more worth your your advertising dollars than PPC ever was...

How does Google's new product work?

Until now, Google has primarily sold pay-per-click (PPC) ads, so-called AdWords ads: advertisers pay when someone on Google or a Google partner site clicks on the ad.

Google AdWords has one big advantage and one big disadvantage: You only pay for clicks of potential customers, but you risk paying a lot of money for nothing because of click fraud.

There has been a lot of debate around click fraud because Google has a short term financial incentive to promote it. Google's new advertising product is "pay per action" (PPA). You don't pay per click anymore but you pay when a customer takes further action, such as requesting a catalog, signing up for a newsletter or buying a product.

PPA advertising is meant to mitigate the risks of click fraud.

How can Google track the action?

If you use Google's PPA advertising product, then you must use Google's conversion tracking code in the HTML code of your web pages.

Of course, the advertiser has an incentive not to confirm the action, but cheating does not make sense. Like PPC ads, PPA ads will likely be ranked by profitability to Google.

What are the consequences for the market?

Google will be able to better maximize revenues on its advertising network, and it also should allay the concerns over click fraud.

Google's new PPA program is in direct competition to affiliate marketing networks such as Commission Junction and LinkShare. Publishers could leave those affiliate marketing networks and concentrate on Google's PPA program.

Yahoo und Microsoft will certainly offer similar PPA programs in the future. The current players on the PPA market Snap and Turn now face heavy competition.

What are the consequences for you?

If you already track the return on investment (ROI) on your PPC ads, then you won't be affected much. If you don't track the ROI yet, take a look at ROI tracking tools such as AxROI which can save you a lot of advertising money.

If you are a smaller advertiser, then PPA advertising could mean that you will pay less for better results in the future, and that you will never worry about click fraud again.

Note that Google's pay per action program is currently in beta test. This means that there are some limitations:

• participation is by invitation only, you must fill out a web form to request participating in the program
• the PPA program is currently only available to US customers
• ads are limited to Google's content network of partner sites (Google AdSense)