New search engine ranking factors and Panda update

For search engines, social signals, like links, are an expression of a website's reputation and have a major influence on the ranking. With the new Google "1+" function, social signals will become even more important. The structured acquisition of social signals is a new discipline in search engine optimization that is equivalent to building link popularity.

Cherry-picking does not pay off

Links from third parties, especially from websites with a high authority, have a major influence on the ranking in the search results. However, if you have only acquired links from websites with a high authority, you may lose positions in the search results, as search engines value a heterogeneous link popularity that also contains links from websites with a low authority or from websites with "nofollow" links, such as Wikipedia or blogs.

Reference texts that are too professional are useless

The reference text for a link (anchor text) to another website should contain the keyword that corresponds to the content of the linked website. If the anchor text for a website is based exclusively on precisely matching keywords and is not mixed with URLs or company names, search engines will get the impression that this is a manipulation, which can lead to a penalty.

"Exact keyword domains" are losing importance

Previously, it was relatively easy to occupy top positions in the search results for keywords such as "washing machine price" or "washing machine" with a domain such as www.preise-waschautomat.ch or www.waschautomat.ch, as the domain already contains the keyword. However, these times seem to be over, as the quality of the website content is more important than the keyword in the domain.

"Quality score" for the content

The mission statement of search engines is to offer users the best possible results. In order to improve the quality of search results, Google regularly carries out algorithm updates, such as the current Panda update. With the Panda update, Google places particular emphasis on the "quality score" and penalizes websites with poor content. Therefore, the text of a website must meet the following requirements for top positions in the search results: For Google, a concise text contains too little information for the visitor. A relevant text has a certain length, i.e. at least 200 words. A poorly designed text is not easy for visitors to grasp. A structured text with subtitles, sections and highlights is an indication of high quality for search engines. Search engines do not appreciate the consistent repetition of exactly the same keyword. Keyword extensions (e.g. continuing education, continuing education offer, continuing education opportunity) and the use of synonyms (e.g. continuing education, training, course, course) increase the quality factor. Copying text from another website, as is sometimes done by price comparisons, industry portals, recommendation platforms or local directory services, is penalized by the search engines. Some US and UK sites that operated on this principle suffered massive setbacks with the Google Panda update. The new ranking factors and the Panda update make it clear that search engines are becoming less and less manipulative and are striving to offer their users good information. This is where the great influence of content quality on the ranking comes from. Good content is distributed with links or social signals, which in turn is an important prerequisite for top positions in the search results. For website operators, this means nothing other than constantly working on the topicality and relevance of the content. Imre Sinka *www.slideshare.net/randfish/smx-munich-keynote-mozranking- factors