What Are Search engine optimization Experiments?
The algorithm employed by search engines to determine web pages that appear on their search engine results pages and the ranking of each page is a closely guarded secret. Furthermore, undoubtedly the algorithm changes from time to time so that a website that has ranked highly at one time may fall out of favour and another takes its place.
Ultimately, those interested in search engine optimization (SEO), are trying to find ways to improve the rankings of their pages. We are dealing with computers. As a doctor with an academic background, I have been interested in trying to learn if it is feasible to learn a little about the ranking secret. Some experiments are well described in the literature and some that are presented are my own. These experiments are presented in the typical way - Objective - Methods - Results - Conclusions.
As Google provides the largest number of searches, all refererence to searches relates to this search engine.
Getting to Number "1" on Google
The significance of high ranking for a webpage in terms of traffic and possible income is discussed on Google-PageRank.
As a doctor, I would like my website www.2womenshealth.com to rank number one for "health" and "women's health etc.
Question: How realistic is it for me to attain number one ranking for "health"?
To address this question we need to look at the characteristics of the top ranked pages.
Question - How do I achieve high PageRank?
The major, but not only, factors that determine PageRank is the number and relevance of other websites that link to you. The process of obtaining back links is discussed on Search-Engine-Optimization-Off-Page
The Importance of Off Page Search Engine Optimization - Back Links
Observation - The Number One Ranked Website For "click here" is Adobe - www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html out of 1,520,000,000 websites found by Google.
Question - Why is Adobe Number One for "click here"?
Experiment
Objective - To Assess Adobe page for on-page SEO for "click here"
Method - Review The Adobe Page and look for "click here"
Result: "click here" does not appear on the page
Conclusion: It is possible to attain high ranking for a keyword phrase search term even if the phrase is not visible on the page.
Experiment
Objective to assess Adobe page for "click here" in the HTML Code.
Method: View Code for the page (Choose - Page Source) and look for "click here"
Results: "click here" is not in the Adobe page HTML Code
Conclusion: It is possible to attain high ranking of a page for a keyword phrase even if the phrase has not been optimised "on page".
Objective - To determine the importance of off-page optimization.
Method -
Search for "click here"
Determine the number of back links for the number one ranked page.
Results -
Number of Searches = 1,520,000,000
Number One Web page -
Experiment To Assess The Back Links for "health" of the top 10 ranked pages.
The title of your page and its description are likely to be presented on the search engine results page (SERP) and the importance of these tags cannot be overstated. Ensure that you include the main keywords of your page in these tags as well as in the URL. If your page is about music then label its filename as “music”.
Health:
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David Viniker, the author and webmaster of SEO4us.com, believes that quality of content is a prerequisite to success. He is a clinician (consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist - ObGyn at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London - borders of London and Essex). He has research and teaching interests. His website www.2womenshealth.com receives 1.5 million visitors annually and is the most popular personal women's health website on the Internet. He has applied his clinical skills to researching SEO techniques.
We are based in Loughton, Essex and close to North and East London and Hertfordshire.