SEO is Not Always About Making Money
I was interviewed few days ago by a magazine writer who was doing an article about search engine optimization. I told her all what I know about SEO. We covered the topics from keyword analysis, competitor analysis, on-page and off-page optimization, link building, and eventually monetizing websites.
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PageRank is not Solely Based on Backlinks
There will be a lot of people which may disagree with my observations, but I think PageRank (PR) now is more flexible than before, and it is determined not just on the basis of the number of backlinks pointing to a particular page and is also not based on the old mathematical calculations used to assign the value of that little green bar in the Google toolbar.
Why do I have that kind of observation?
If backlinks is not the sole basis for PageRank, what are the other factors? I think content is still the key. Coupled with links (even for a few) from high authority sites and relevant niches, surely PageRank will be assigned to that particular site. Last time, I have a PLR article site with no PR at all. I started promoting the sites by linking it to relevant websites and submitting it to high authority social bookmarking sites. After two weeks, Google began updating the PR of sites and would you believe my sites PR went to 4 from N/A? I was even wondering why it happened. I was thinking that it was a mistake but as for my other sites, they experienced the same, climbing from 1-2 notches in their PR value.
Take this blog for example. The very first post made on this blog was dated September 1, 2008 and if I remember it right, I just installed this blog a day earlier that is August 31. Two days ago, Google again updated the PR of websites and to my surprise, this site’s PR rose to 3 from nothing, and the site is not even a month old. You can even check the number of backlinks this site have and you will really think why the hell it has 3 when it has a little number of links pointing to it. I have proven this method to many of my sites and I am sharing this to you my dear readers. You may want to experiment first on one of your sites and I will be glad to receive your feedback and your own observations.
If you allow me to share, here’s my definitive list of must-haves to have a good PageRank even if your site is relatively new.
- Quality content. It doesn’t have to be 100% original, but still the keyword is QUALITY.
- In-content links on relevant PAGES.
- Sitewide links on relevant WEBSITES.
- Links from authority sites (quality social bookmarks, content pages like Squidoo)
- Good layout of websites. Not spammy and full of ads.