The team over at seomoz has been conducting surveys for a years, intending to better understand which factors top search engine optimization professionals think are most important to Google rankings. At SMX Munich Rand Fishkin presented the results of the most recent survey and compared it with the 2009 survey. You’ll find the results in graphical format below, but first a few notes on the ranking factors themselves.

Metrics on both surveys

Page-Level Link Metrics

The number and quality of links pointed to a specific website page

Domain-Level, Link Authority Features

Generally, what is the number and quality of links pointed to the entire domain.

Page-Level Keyword Usage

How keyword relevant is the specific website page.

Page-Level Keyword Agnostic Features

This includes minor ranking factors like load time, name server reputation, and other technical factors

Page-Level Social Data

This includes links to the page from social networking and bookmarking sites.

Domain-Level Keyword Agnostic Features

This includes technical factors similar to page level agnostic features, but includes data for the website as a whole

New Metrics for 2011

Page-Level Traffic/Query Data

Now Google considers, not only domain traffic overall, but also traffic a specific page. Higher traffic pages are seen as more important, and rank higher.

Domain Level Brand Metrics

This has to do with overall traffic, online reputation, and target market. Brands which are recognized as an authority in a certain market will enjoy higher rankings for related searches.

Domain Level Keyword Useage

When the relevant keywords are used throughout the site, the site is more likely to appear for related searches.

Understanding the Charts

Looking at the charts above, you can see that seo ranking factors have become more diverse. Where page and domain link authority used to make up over 60% of the equation, they now combine for only 43%. Page level keyword importance did not change much. This survey also recognizes the increasing importance of social media indicators. The biggest change overall is the drop in the importance of page level link metrics. Rather than focus on how many external links a particular page has, Google is now looking more to social indicators, and overall brand impression.

What does this mean for my SEO campaign?

As search engine optimization becomes even more complex, and ranking factors get more diverse and complicated, working with a professional SEO marketing company only becomes more important. Many tactics which worked quite well under old ranking algorithms are now ineffective. Staying on top of changes to the Google algorithm is the only way to earn and retain a competitive advantage in the search engine wars.

Global Market Exposure would like to thank you for your business. We are confident that we can help any business with their online marketing needs. We would like to reward our current clients for referring their friend’s and colleague’s businesses to us with a $100 service credit towards their next bill.

How does my business receive this credit?

It’s easy. Simply refer someone to our service department. When they sign up for any package or service from Global we will credit your next bill $100. Make sure they mention who referred them!
Review your Global Experience Global values your feedback. Your input is an invaluable tool for us and your positive experiences are the best method to advertise our services to others. We would highly appreciate a few moments of your time to review Global Market Exposure on one of the following websites: