Themes in Content: Hub And Authority Sites - Why Themes Hit the High Notes
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As search engine algorithms are modified and changed, for better or worse, the requirements for achieving high rankings are altered. While that is a given, in the minds of most SEO professionals, the subtle differences in the algorithm can mean major changes in the search placements.
One of those rather innocuous sounding algorithm alterations involves content themes. In fact, it’s not a small change, and it can definitely cause some tectonic plate level shifts in the rankings, for your most important keywords.
Avoiding an earthquake type disaster swallowing up your non-themed content is essential for any website owner. Fortunately, an understanding of what makes the Earth move can go far in preventing your site from falling into a bottomless pit.
Two important developments in the Google algorithm signalled the arrival of theme-based calculations. One is the propelling to the top of the rankings of authority sites, along with their cousin, the hub site. The other major change was in the addition of Topic Sensitive PageRank (TSPR) to the Google PageRank tabulation.
Hub sites and authority sites are the very definition of strongly themed content. Google ranks both types of sites very highly, as they are considered by the search engine giant, as the most important for their respective themes. In fact, hub and authority sites are perhaps the best evidence that topics and themes are taken very seriously in search algorithms.
An authority site for any keyword theme is considered by Google to be especially important for that keyword or keyword phrase. A hub site has multiple incoming and outgoing links, to similarly themed websites and web pages. The common denominator, with both classifications of sites, is their heavily concentrated theme based content. That themed content can be both on and off site.
While authority and hub sites are largely a Google creation, the same sites tend to also rank highly in Yahoo! and MSN Search, making the phenomenon of themeing sites and pages valuable for all search engines.
Topic Sensitive PageRank is also part of the trend towards themes. PageRank is Google’s numerical measurement of the importance of a web page on the Internet. That measure is a tabulation of the number and quality of incoming links to a web page. In the past, all incoming links were apparently weighted in the same manner, regardless of relevance to the receiving page. Over time, that has changed drastically.
While all web pages still transfer PageRank, in accordance to the original formula, those pages sharing a similar theme pass along more RageRank. In essence, pages sharing a common theme, share Topic Sensitive PageRank. That common themed page passes along PageRank at a higher level than non-themed page.
Next: Making the Themes Play Beautiful Music for You >>
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