Closer Look at Seo

Since the two founders of Google published the paper on Google search algorithms (the anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine, the world never gets reliable information about Google algorithms. This increasingly sophisticated and complex algorithm is the lifeblood of Google. However, due to the infinite charm of Google, search engine technology fans around the world are studying it. There has always been such a group of people on the Internet who want to reverse export Google's search algorithms through analysis of Google's search results, and then grasp --
Now Google is used to search for "mobile phones". The "Mobile Phone home" website ranked first among the 6.08 million results is one of the earliest Seo-optimized websites in China, it has been running steadily for more than a year, but more than a year ago, Google searched for "mobile phones" and still could not see the website.

From "not found" to "first"

In March, it was a very important month for Gao chunhui and his "Mobile Phone home" website. In this month, the mobile phone home website ranked first in Google's search for the "Mobile Phone" keyword and kept it until now. Before that, when I searched for the word "Mobile Phone" on Google, the highest ranking of "Mobile Phone home" was only in the seventh place, and even a long time before the website was optimized, cannot be found in Chinese Google.

Gao chunhui was once the first generation of Internet users in China. "Mobile Phone home" is a personal website that he developed in his spare time after many ups and downs, it was the old "China's first webmaster" Who made a comeback. However, "Mobile Phone home" is always a personal website created by Gao chunhui. When high personal abilities and resources accumulate on this website, it is difficult for a website to continue to improve its influence in the industry due to lack of money, so that Gao chunhui once thought of selling the website.

Wang Tong, a netizen from Gao chunhui, made a transfer. On June 19, June 2003, Wang Tong optimized the "Mobile Phone home" website, there is only one goal-to improve the ranking of the search results of "Mobile Phone home" with "Mobile Phone" as the keyword on Google. Wang Tong's work on "Mobile Phone home" has a professional saying abroad, called search
Engine
Optimization), that is, "Search Engine Optimization ". Gao chunhui agrees that Wang Tong will optimize the "Mobile Phone home" website, to a large extent, I want to "look better" when launching a website-to become the No. 1 website in the mobile phone industry on Google, obviously more convincing to the capital.

In the month that Wang Tong optimized the "Mobile Phone home", the fate of the "Mobile Phone home" changed dramatically, as Google's "Mobile Phone" is the top keyword search result, the website traffic began to grow rapidly, and Gao chunhui temporarily dismissed the idea of selling "Mobile Phone home, I want to see if there are new opportunities. In the next year, the traffic brought by Google dropped the number of "Mobile Phone home" from more than 3,000th in the Alexa global website to nearly 700th, becoming the dominant professional Chinese mobile phone site.

In August this year, when the reporter found Wang Tong again, he told reporters that Google's left-side ranking is no longer the focus of his current attention. "There are too many people in this circle, I am very cautious with the list I have received. "Wang Tong's words are helpless.

As Google gradually becomes the preferred search engine for domestic users, Seo targeting Google's left-side ranking has also formed a "semi-underground" industry in China, the value of Google's left-side ranking is also attracting more and more enterprises' attention.

Value of "Left Hand"

Enter "Google ranking" in the search box of Google, and press enter to view more than 0.29 million results. The results on the first dozens of pages are almost identical.

As a market segment that is attached to the search engine industry, Seo is already quite developed in the United States. Many large enterprises even outsource their website optimization services, in order to make the website get a better ranking in the search results of a keyword. Seo-related industry organizations are also prevalent. Every time Google updates algorithms, they will be noticed and relevant research will be followed up quickly. The SEO industry in China is still in a "semi-underground" state. The mainstream media has hardly followed this small circle, and practitioners are basically using Soho to carry out their businesses completely on the Internet, there are only a few organizations in the company, and the size is also within 30 people.

Beijing search marketing consultant Co., Ltd. is one of the few Seo companies in Beijing. The general manager of the company, Xin decang, told reporters that Seo In China is less than a year old, "three months ago, we had to explain to our customers what is Google's left-side ranking optimization. The calls we made today were made directly for inquiry. Now, one customer may have three or four Seo jobs, but some people in China have been talking about Google's left-side ranking since and, and the development is so fast. "
What gave birth to the SEO industry and made it develop rapidly is Google's left-hand ranking.

The left side of the Google search result page is controlled by Google's algorithm. Google also provides customers with the keyword spot price click payment ranking service on the right side of the page, this is also one of Google's main sources of revenue. When you query a keyword on Google, one or more business card-like links may appear on the right of the search results page. for users who are used to viewing the search results on the left, these links on the right are naturally regarded as advertisements. In fact, they are also true, which is a form of online advertisements.

Yan digang told reporters that the different understanding of Google's "right-hand" has directly led users to tend to find their own goals through the link on the left. "We once conducted a survey on a large number of keywords on Google, and accessed the same keyword. The proportion of users accessing the link on the Right of Google is less than 1%, that is, more than 99% of customers ignore the ranking on the right. "

The company also bought a keyword bidding advertisement on the Right of Google. Now he needs to pay about 3000 yuan per month to Google, the price of Google's left-side ranking service provided to his customers is only several thousand yuan a year. According to Yan Degang, the indexing rate of the link on the left of Google for the same keyword is 100 times that of the link on the right (advertisement), but the price is lower on the left, this huge gap in cost effectiveness is the root cause of the growth of the SEO industry.

"We buy the ranking on the Right of Google, mainly for the company image. In the SEO circle, there are only a few powerful companies, now we have bought almost all Seo-related Chinese keywords on Google. The so-called "strength" refers to the six existing professional technicians in his company. Compared with the vast majority of domestic Seo enterprises operating in Soho, these six people are powerful technical forces.

The reporter found a keyword related to SEO on Google. In the result, he selected the website on the first two pages, contacted one by one, and interviewed nearly 20 websites providing Seo services, among them, there is only one company in Shanghai, which is equivalent to Beijing search marketing consultant Co., Ltd., and the rest are personal websites, these websites are available in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Henan, Shandong, and other provinces and cities. No contact information is provided on the website, only mobile phones, PHS, QQ, and MSN seem reluctant to disclose their identities. Reporters also learned in the interview that, A considerable part of them are made by some IT enterprise employees who open their own websites. Of course, they do not want to be exposed.

"The competition in this industry is fierce. Search for Seo-related keywords on Google. Optimization of these keywords is actually the most effective way for SEO practitioners to show their strength to their peers and customers. "Li xianwen, who has been in the domestic Seo circle for nearly a year, said that the competition between his peers seems helpless." Now, more and more people are doing this, disrupting the market, the price ranges from several thousand yuan in the past to several hundred yuan each year. The threshold is too low. In fact, the biggest cost of Seo is the post-maintenance cost. At that low price, who can guarantee that the customer's website will be ranked in this ranking in a few months? Look at SEO industry websites and you will know. If you have the skills, you can first build your own website! "

Li xianwen's last saying "making a website" actually indicates that his website ranks first on the keyword "Google ranking. For other Seo-related keywords, different websites will have different rankings. Reporters have seen very different results from five Seo-related words. Obviously, the competition on the SEO battlefield is fierce.

For SEO practitioners, if they can know Google's fingerprint-algorithm, they can play with Google and stand out from their peers. But Google is not a vegetarian, and the relationship between Google and the SEO industry is also very subtle.

Shake hands with Google

Website optimization involves two aspects: Page Technical Optimization and website content construction. Because Seo is generally dominated by external technical services, it only involves page technology optimization, therefore, the competition among SEO practitioners is mainly reflected in the technical aspects such as the ability to control web page production technology and website pattern design, customers generally do not allow a Soho worker to make too many changes to their website content, especially SEO practitioners generally have difficulty in understanding specific industries.

"What we need to do is simply to make the website more suitable for Google, or use Google's words to make it more friendly to Google. "Wang Ying, who is in charge of technical support at Beijing search marketing consultant Co., Ltd., has been working in the SEO circle for a long time. She has a personal understanding of Google. "Google's technology is really amazing, and we feel that it will become increasingly difficult to optimize Google. It is not easy to stick to personal behavior in Soho mode. "

Google's PageRank is a well-known variable. Google uses PageRank to evaluate the page level of a webpage and uses this value as the most important factor in its search algorithm. When Seo first entered China, increasing the PR (PageRank) value almost became synonymous with Seo, But Wang Ying told reporters that PR value is no longer the core of optimization, currently, Google is constantly looking for new variables to gradually balance the proportion of each variable. In the past, the optimization methods based solely on several factors have become very difficult today.

The reporter saw that many websites are still promoting how to increase pr value for customers to achieve permanent optimization, and the various Google algorithm introductions posted on these websites are all translated from last year. A Seo practitioner in Shanghai believes that the domestic SEO industry lacks in-depth research on Google, which is an important reason affecting the overall level of the industry. However, Yan decang believes that the integration with foreign SEO should not be a problem. Now Beijing search marketing consultant Co., Ltd. is already a member of the "Search Engine Optimization Expert Association" in the United States, compared with hundreds of Seo member organizations that are booming in the European and American markets, the only two member organizations in China (the other member organizations are in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) are a little thin.

Even if Seo in China is not in the world, the world has already discovered the Chinese market. Google just succeeded in its IPO in the United States and will immediately set up relevant offices in China. What does this mean for the domestic SEO industry?

"In fact, Google should be more willing to see the healthy development of the SEO industry. "Wang Ying believes that Google and Seo are never compatible. "There is little news in this regard in China, but the situation in the United States is quite clear. Google never expresses its views on the existence of Seo, and there is no hostile action. Even I think Google actually shares a common goal with Seo. "Wang Ying's" common goal "is to make it easier for people to find what they want online.

In fact, because the SEO industry is optimizing the webpage objects searched by Google, Google itself has not been changed, google's modification and upgrade of its own algorithms will not make any changes to Web applications on the Internet, so Google cannot have a legal dispute with the SEO industry. On the contrary, because Seo aims to make websites on the Internet "more friendly to Google", the relationship between the two sides should be closer.

However, Google has always been a low-key and restrained company, and its algorithms are the core commercial secrets. Therefore, Google cannot take the initiative to help the SEO industry, or even all the reviews of Google's algorithms by SEO insiders.

Taking an inattentive attitude towards Seo does not mean that Google is truly indifferent to this. In fact, A large part of Google's 10 regular updates per year and occasional algorithm upgrades are inspired by SEO industry research.

In November 15, 2003, this was an unforgettable day for all SEO practitioners. Google appeared to have undergone the most important algorithm upgrade in history and was later called the "Florida Update ". In this update, almost all keywords in the business field have been affected, especially some popular keywords. the Google search results homepage has completely changed, many websites ranked first in a day are far behind the 500 rankings.

In the next six months, discussions on the "Florida Update" were distributed across various Seo forums. Many people once thought Google was using new algorithms to punish Seo in disguise, because commercial keywords are the most popular rankings in the SEO industry. Of course, Google does not say anything about this, So Seo technicians are eager to win in the Forum.

However, some experts believe that the "Florida Update" is only an upgrade made by Google based on its own needs. The patents of some new algorithms on the Internet were actually bought by Google as early as 2002, this may be a routine upgrade after the test is completed. The obvious example is Gao chunhui's mobile phone home website, which remains at the top of the keyword search result ranking by mobile phone even after the "Florida" upgrade.
It doesn't matter how Google changes. to grasp the left hand of Google, you must make the homepage of the website suitable for Google's palm.

Link 1:

What is Seo?

Seo = search engine optimization, literally translated as "Search Engine Optimization", but here we do not talk about changing the search engine. The true meaning of SEO should be "optimizing webpages, to make it more friendly to search engines ".

To enable the search engine to find a website, make sure that the search engine adds the website to its search database. Different search engines have different appetite for capturing original information. Now all search engines, including Google, there is a problem that is hard to digest-insufficient ability to accept dynamic websites. Google simply pulls out a list on its website to list all the web page technologies that it cannot identify or handle. These technologies are called "unfriendly to Google ".

Similarly, Google also has an unfriendly list on the search algorithm level, but Google does not seem to have published this list, only occasionally, some websites will be "punished" because these websites are "cheated", and the so-called "cheating" standard is the internal list, if a website uses the technical means listed on the list and is discovered by Google programs, it will not be able to obtain a high ranking, on the contrary, the website will be downgraded or even removed from Google (removed from the database ).

If you know what is "unfriendly" to Google, you can find a method that is "friendly" to Google, by selecting keywords, external links, anchor text, and reasonably arranging the combination of page elements, we can optimize the underlying structure of the website. We try to use static page technology as much as possible, and use less or even no dynamic page technology, by reducing unnecessary script programs, you can initially achieve a "friendly" search engine at the technical level.

However, to achieve the ultimate goal of Seo-ranking first in the search results of related keywords, the most important thing is the cooperation of website content. As a master in the SEO circle, Wang Tong believes that using some technical means to make the website ranking rise can indeed be done, but improving the ranking in the short term is meaningless for a website with poor content, because Google's algorithms are currently updated very frequently, websites that rely solely on technical means can't help but test their time.

Because Google aims to "find what people need most", the most fundamental solution to website optimization is to make your website truly the most desired one. Gao chunhui's "Mobile Phone home" is a very obvious example, because of the accumulation of popularity and rich content, "Mobile Phone home" rose to the top of the "Mobile Phone" keyword in less than a month, and kept up, it has even withstood the "Florida Update" test that has hit many websites in China.

Because other search engines share the same purpose as Google, they also help users find the most suitable website. Therefore, another benefit of enriching website content is that they can be used with only one click, optimization for Google can also improve the ranking of other search engines.

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"Challenge SEO" Competition

May 2004 ~ In July, The darkblue.com website launched a Google left-side ranking competition called "challenge SEO", attracting the attention of many search engine optimization experts around the world. According to darkblue, the website held this activity to explore how Google ranked.

This competition named "challenge SEO" is divided into two stages. Two awards, "Competition Award" and "persistence Award", were set up. The competition date is from January 1, May 7, 2004 ~ In July 7, at on the morning of June 7, search for the keyword of the competition in Google. The top website will receive the "Competition Award". At on the morning of July 7, search for the keyword of the competition in Google, the top websites will receive the "persistence Award ".

The competition keyword is given by darkblue.com, which is the goal of contestant optimization. This keyword must meet three conditions: Not commercial; no practical significance; no search results for Google before the competition. Darkblue.com announced on searchguild.com at GMT, May 7, 2004 that the keyword of the competition was "nigrw.ultramarine ".
All contestants need to do is to optimize the keyword "nigrw.ultramarine" on a webpage. Obviously, this is an opportunity to show your technical skills in front of your peers. On the first day after the start of the competition (January 1, 12th), Google's search results have quickly climbed from 0 to 136000. The fierce competition shows that, more importantly, this fully demonstrates that Google's search results can be changed.

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Speculation about Google Algorithms

Google's algorithms are only known to Google, but the Internet cannot hide any secrets, especially Google, which has the widest range of users, people can always speculate on the algorithms that may be used by Google from the search results. SEO industry research and practices show that many of these speculations are relatively reliable.

PageRank is the only publicly known algorithm that best embodies the concept of Google's search technology. However, according to speculation in the SEO industry, Google's current algorithm formulas have been upgraded countless times, there are even more than 300 variables involved, and PageRank is only the most famous one. After the "Florida Update", in July this year, Google appeared to have performed another "big surgery" for its algorithm formula ". Wang guessed that PageRank's influence on the entire Google algorithm has now dropped to around 20%.

Currently, the industry is popular saying that Google is making adjustments to PageRank's previous algorithm's excessive proportion. Its ultimate goal is to find a balanced algorithm, so that the proportion of the most important variables cannot exceed 10%, which is not good news for SEO practitioners, it will mean, currently, optimization methods that are easier to operate to increase the PageRank value are weakened again.