The Most Important Factors Search Engines

The Anchor Text of Link - Anchor text describes the visible characters and words that hyperlink to another document or location on the web. For example in the phrase, "CNN is a good source of news, but I actually prefer the BBC's take on events," two unique pieces of anchor text exist - "CNN" is the anchor text pointing to http://www.cnn.com, while "the BBC's take on events" points to http://news.bbc.co.uk. Search engines use this text to help them determine the subject matter of the linked-to document. In the example above, the links would tell the search engine that when users search for "CNN", SEOmoz.org thinks that http://www.cnn.com is a relevant site for the term "CNN" and that http://news.bbc.co.uk is relevant to "the BBC's take on events". If hundreds or thousands of sites think that a particular page is relevant for a given set of terms, that page can manage to rank well even if the terms NEVER appear in the text itself (for example, see the BBC's explanation of why Google ranks certain pages for the term "Miserable Failure").

Global Popularity of the Site - More popular sites, as denoted by the number and power of the links pointing to them, provide more powerful links. Thus, while a link from SEOmoz may be a valuable vote for a site, a link from bbc.co.uk or cnn.com carries far more weight. This is one area where PageRank (assuming it was accurate), could be a good measure, as it's designed to calculate global popularity.

Search Engines Ranking Factors

Popularity of Site in Relevant Communities - In the example above, the weight or power of a site's vote is based on its raw popularity across the web. As search engines became more sophisticated and granular in their approach to link data, they acknowledged the existence of "topical communities"; sites on the same subject that often interlink with one another, referencing documents and providing unique data on a particular topic. Sites in these communities provide more value when they link to a site/page on a relevant subject rather than a site that is largely irrelevant to their topic.

Text Directly Surrounding the Link - Search engines have been noted to weight the text directly surrounding a link with greater important and relevant than the other text on the page. Thus, a link from inside an on-topic paragraph may carry greater weight than a link in the sidebar or footer.

Subject Matter of the Linking Page - The topical relationship between the subject of a given page and the sites/pages linked to on it may also factor into the value a search engine assigns to that link. Thus, it will be more valuable to have links from pages that are related to the site/pages subject matter than those that have little to do with the topic.

These are only a few of the many factors search engines measure and weight when evaluating links. For a more complete list, see SEOmoz's search engine ranking factors article.

Link metrics are in place so that search engines can find information to trust. In the academic world greater citation meant greater importance, but in a commercial environment, manipulation and conflicting interests interfere with the purity of citation-based measurements. Thus, on the modern WWW, the source, style and context of those citations is vital to ensuring high quality results.

What is Web Analytics?

Analytics is defined by the Web Analytics Association as “the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting and analysis of quantitative Internet data to optimize websites and marketing initiatives.” In short, it’s how you determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, gather the data you need to fine-tune your site and ultimately maximize your return on investment (ROI). Every single discipline of Internet marketing relies heavily on analytics.

Framework for Web Analytics Graphic

Why Analytics Matters to You

Web analytics allows you to access valuable information undreamed of by pre-Internet marketers:

    Target Your Audience. See who your typical customers are and how they get to your site. Age, gender and other factors influence how people interact with your website.
    Check Your Conversion Path. Measure the loss between any two steps on the way to conversion. You will need this data in order to perform Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
    Maximize Your Return on Investment. Evaluate the effectiveness of your various marketing methods. Are your pay-per-click keywords paying off? Have you optimized your site for the right search terms? What kind of boost are you getting from your social media marketing strategy?

Web Analytics Tools

There are two basic methods for collecting analytics data:

    Log files: Your server already produces this data, which capture every detail of a user’s interaction with your site. Various free and paid analytics services can interpret the data for you, or you can outsource it to an analytics company.

    Page tagging: Also known as “Web bugs,” this method gathers data via the user’s browser rather than your server. Page tagging requires signing up for an analytics service and adding JavaScript tags to each page on your site, and tends to be more accurate than log files.

Log files and page tagging each have distinct advantages and disadvantages for analytics strategies.

An Ongoing Process
The Internet changes quickly, so a successful Web analytics strategy must include a continuous improvement program (CIP) in order to stay ahead of your competition.

    Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Create a set of measurable factors you use to gauge your success so you can consistently chart your site’s long-term performance.
    Testing: Test changes to your site and use this data to make continuous improvements.
    Consistency: Controlled testing will allow you to more accurately predict what effect changes will have on the site.

In this section, you’ll find analytics tutorials and tools from analytics experts, as well as information on training and services offered by analytics professionals. Check our blog for regular updates on new developments in Web analytics.