Blogging to Look Good for Google - Keys to the Algorithm
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Leonsis wanted to find out what Google’s algorithm considers important. He knew that if he cracked that, he could get the information where he wanted it. There are many factors that go into where Google positions particular sites in its SERPs, but Leonsis found that three were especially important:
- Website popularity. Web pages score higher in the SERPs due in part to being more popular than other pages.
- Linkage. If a web page receives a lot of one-way links pointing to it from other web sites, it will score higher in the SERPs. Blogs naturally link to other blogs, and freely give out one-way links.
- Freshness of content. The more entries you make, and the more recent they are, the more likely it is that your site will score high in the SERPS.
So how did Leonsis go about applying these points to make his blog popular? He took advantage of the fact that people are most interested in other people, especially celebrities. So he posted short pieces about his day – the day of a wealthy businessman who regularly rubs shoulders with well-known people. One entry talked about meeting Lionel Ritchie and receiving an impromptu performance, for example.
Needless to say, these stories acted as linkbait. Leonsis wrote about celebrities that web surfers wanted to read about, and bloggers soon started linking to his stories. Leonsis began returning the favor, linking to blogs that were on topic for his interests: local sports. He even linked to Mark Cuban’s blog. You may recognize him as the man who said anyone who would buy YouTube is an idiot, but he is also part owner of another sports team. Many of these blogs, in turn, linked back to his. To really help build traffic, he linked his site to the web site for the Capitals.
Popularity and linkage form only two legs of the tripod though. The third is freshness, and Leonsis played into that by posting several times a day. To help others find him, he added tags to his blog posts. Now all that was left for him to do was wait.
Next: The Virtue of Patience >>
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