Unsolved Mystery
On March, 31, 2005, US Patent and Trademark Office published
Information retrieval based on historical data - a Google patent document filed on December 31, 2003.
The document confirmed most of speculations in SEO community on how Google may rank web documents.
It is probably the most insightful guidelines for search engine optimization.
Google's ranking algorithm has evolved from pure link analysis (PageRank) to a more comprehensive analysis of quality of web document.
However, the unanswered question or unsolved mystery is that:
How the new algorithm score a document which has no external link?
The fact is that majority of web documents have no external links and majority of user searches are very specific which will and should
lead to those web documents.
My speculation is that the new ranking algorithm use the same old recursive PageRank algorithm, but the score of a page is the combination
of many factors, not just the importance of link. It's best to view the page score in new algorithm as PageRank2 if the old PageRank of pure
link analysis is PageRank1. Google may never publish the PageRank2 on toolbar.
Implications of New Algorithm on SEO
- Internal link still counts, but less important than it used to be.
- Quality external links to one page will spread to the linked pages.
Implications of New Algorithm on SERPs
- Documents on older sites will out-rank documents on newer sites regardless the quality of the document.
- The Google SERP will be more like a directory for highly competitive keywords.
- The Google SERP will be boring
Related Topics
Google PageRank - Basics, Secrets and Common Misunderstandings
Google's 2005 Superbowl Update - the Whole Picture
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