There are times when organizations question the need for search engine optimization. There can be conflicting information around that often confuses those considering search engine optimization and perhaps social media marketing.
One event that leaves many website owners, particularly those who also run a blog, is the freshness factor when it comes to the SERP’s. A lot of content does seem to appear at the top of the SERP’s within hours of publication. This is due to its freshness. Within 24 - 48 hours that content has often dropped out of the SERP top pages and gets lost amongst the millions of other pages. If there has been a decent search engine optimization strategy carried out on that page then over time it will steadily climb back. Many website owners and bloggers point to this front page phenomenon and question the need for search engine optimization. The 24-48 hour factor should answer that question.
If you are in any more doubt, then perhaps the statistics put together on invesp.com would interest you. Admittedly these statistics relate to blogs. However the same theories can be applied to any website.
The most important statistic was that of inbound links, take several major online marketing blog’s as examples: Online Marketing Blog had over 700,000 links coming in to their pages, the Matt Cutts blog almost 300,000 and Marketing Pilgrim almost 250,000.
While not quite as important, the number of pages also made an interesting stat. Online Marketing Blog had 2,779, the Matt Cutts blog 4,306 and Marketing Pilgrim 11,464. What makes these stats interesting is that there is little correlation between the number of pages and the number of links. In fact, Online Marketing Blog had the fewest pages of the three chosen yet the highest number of links. Other factors such as quality, search engine optimization and perhaps social marketing may have some bearing.
When it comes to PageRank, Matt Cutts has a PR7 whilst the other two register as PR6. The ultimate statistic however comes in the number of visitors. According to Compete and Alexa data, the following is an estimate: the Matt Cutts blog registered the most visitors with over 300,000 monthly unique visitors. Marketing Pilgrim registered over 160,000 and Online Marketing Blog over 120,000. Matt Cutts has an unfair advantage as his reputation as a Google employee helps to drag in visitors, particularly when he makes a Google related statement.
You may look at these stats and wonder about their relevance to search engine optimization’s ability to rank well and draw traffic. Online Marketing Blog may appear to receive less visitors that the other two blogs mentioned. They do, however have far less pages that could appear in the results.
Raw statistics are always difficult to draw conclusions from. However, what is evident with this group, (and the others mentioned in the full stats), is that the amount of content is important. Of more importance is the number of links coming in to a site. In previous posts we have spoken about the need to work on the off page search engine optimization strategies if you want to rank well. Every blog mentioned in the original post had inbound links number in the thousands.
While Google PageRank is not a key indicator these days, the top blogs all had PR rankings of five or better. They top dozen or so all had visitor numbers measured in the tens of thousands.
As a business building its rankings in the major search engines it is very important to look at all of the stats that you can locate for your online competitors.
One event that leaves many website owners, particularly those who also run a blog, is the freshness factor when it comes to the SERP’s. A lot of content does seem to appear at the top of the SERP’s within hours of publication. This is due to its freshness. Within 24 - 48 hours that content has often dropped out of the SERP top pages and gets lost amongst the millions of other pages. If there has been a decent search engine optimization strategy carried out on that page then over time it will steadily climb back. Many website owners and bloggers point to this front page phenomenon and question the need for search engine optimization. The 24-48 hour factor should answer that question.
If you are in any more doubt, then perhaps the statistics put together on invesp.com would interest you. Admittedly these statistics relate to blogs. However the same theories can be applied to any website.
The most important statistic was that of inbound links, take several major online marketing blog’s as examples: Online Marketing Blog had over 700,000 links coming in to their pages, the Matt Cutts blog almost 300,000 and Marketing Pilgrim almost 250,000.
While not quite as important, the number of pages also made an interesting stat. Online Marketing Blog had 2,779, the Matt Cutts blog 4,306 and Marketing Pilgrim 11,464. What makes these stats interesting is that there is little correlation between the number of pages and the number of links. In fact, Online Marketing Blog had the fewest pages of the three chosen yet the highest number of links. Other factors such as quality, search engine optimization and perhaps social marketing may have some bearing.
When it comes to PageRank, Matt Cutts has a PR7 whilst the other two register as PR6. The ultimate statistic however comes in the number of visitors. According to Compete and Alexa data, the following is an estimate: the Matt Cutts blog registered the most visitors with over 300,000 monthly unique visitors. Marketing Pilgrim registered over 160,000 and Online Marketing Blog over 120,000. Matt Cutts has an unfair advantage as his reputation as a Google employee helps to drag in visitors, particularly when he makes a Google related statement.
You may look at these stats and wonder about their relevance to search engine optimization’s ability to rank well and draw traffic. Online Marketing Blog may appear to receive less visitors that the other two blogs mentioned. They do, however have far less pages that could appear in the results.
Raw statistics are always difficult to draw conclusions from. However, what is evident with this group, (and the others mentioned in the full stats), is that the amount of content is important. Of more importance is the number of links coming in to a site. In previous posts we have spoken about the need to work on the off page search engine optimization strategies if you want to rank well. Every blog mentioned in the original post had inbound links number in the thousands.
While Google PageRank is not a key indicator these days, the top blogs all had PR rankings of five or better. They top dozen or so all had visitor numbers measured in the tens of thousands.
As a business building its rankings in the major search engines it is very important to look at all of the stats that you can locate for your online competitors.
I agree. Page rank does not determine where you will be listed in the search engines for search engine optimization. Great article.
ReplyDelete