subject: Google's new SERP Guidlines [print this page] Google's new SERP Guidlines Google's new SERP Guidlines
Google recently announced it's changes to their Ranking Algorithm used to rank pages on the World Wide Web and sweeping was the word of the day. The biggest change that affects many people engaging in Internet Marketing and depending on their positions on the front page of Google is the lowering in rank of html comment based back links. This is a huge blow to those who have depended on automated tools to generate those links in blogs and forums around the web. Now those links are next to worthless, unless, they are links to or from relevant content.
Now it appears that Title, and of all things, proper code structure are the big ranking factors. Listed in order here are the references to each factor and it's importance in ranking.
Key
--------------------------------
parent tag > child tag
tag.attribute
(tag incarnation).attribute
Rank Placement
---- -----------------------------
01 title
02 samp
03 acronym
04 linking to relevant pages
05 a.href
06 p
07 pre
08 inside a textarea
09 kbd
10 caption
11 small
12 code
13 strong
14 sub
15 u
16 center
17 cite
18 big
19 font
20 bdo
21 em
22 legend
23 button
24 table > thead > tr > td
25 abbr
26 address
27 blockquote
28 caption
29 div
30 span
31 del
32 ul > li
33 strike
34 ins
35 sup
36 dfn
37 body
38 tt
39 table > tr > td
40 dt
41 h1
42 i
43 s
44 h3
45 a
46 img.alt
47 select > option
48 object > param.name
49 object > param.value
50 input.value
51 (meta:keywords).content
52 (meta:description).content
53 (meta:author).content
54 URL
55 b
56 HTML comments
You can see that the url and its importance have slipped to the bottom as well so simply placing your keywords in the URL will not add significant weight to your site. Many automated tools that accelerate the move to the top of the rankings used the vanity url as a requirement for a valid "niche" to market to. Alt tags on images has also slipped and that was one that only the less than lazy made use of. Block Quotes, and h1 headers dropped which will render many Wordpress plugins invalid. The changes are broad indeed and seem to target the Internet Marketer squarely in the chest.
I predict huge new waves of wonder software to hit the market soon as many tools have died or lost thier relevance. I for one will stick primarily to the same method I have always used. Good SEO mixed with Good relevant content and quality item of commercial value to my taget audience.
