Search Engine Results Page

SERP ( Search Engine Results Page ) :

A search engine results page (SERP), is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. The results normally include a list of web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the Keywords have matched content within the page. A SERP may refer to a single page of links returned, or to the set of all links returned for a search query.

Different types of results :

SERPs of major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing may include different types of listings: contextual, algorithmic or organic search listings, as well as sponsored listings, images, maps, definitions, videos or suggested search refinements.

The major search engines visually differentiate specific content types, such as images, news, and blogs. Many content types have specialized SERP templates and visual enhancements on the main search result page.

Generation of SERPs :

Major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing primarily use content contained within the page and fallback to metadata tags of a web page to generate the content that makes up a search snippet.[citation needed] The html title tag will be used as the title of the snippet while the most relevant or useful contents of the web page (description tag or page copy) will be used for the description. If the web page is not available, information about the page from dmoz may be used instead.

SERP tracking :

Webmasters use search engine optimization (SEO) to increase their website's ranking on a specific keyword's SERP. As a result, webmasters often check SERPs to track their search engine optimization progress. To speed up the tracking process, programmers created automated software to track multiple keywords for multiple websites.

Calculation

Google Page Rank calculation :

Google's most mysterious ranking influencer, the Google PageRank (PR), has been the topic of many discussions and observations. The way the Google PageRank calculation works is still not 100% clear today, but I thought it might be useful to write the concept of the original mechanism down in plain English and show it using a simple example.

The Google PageRank (PR) is calculated for every webpage that exists in Google's database. It's real value varies from 0,15 to infinite, but for representation purposes it is converted to a value between 0 and 10 (from low to high). The calculation of the PR for a page is based on the quantity and quality of webpages that contain links to that page.

According to Sergey Brin and Lawrence (Larry) Page, Co-founders of Google, the PR of a webpage is calculated using this formula:

PR(A) = (1 - d) + d * SUM ((PR(I->A)/C(I))

Where:

PR(A) is the PageRank of your page A.

d is the damping factor, usually set to 0,85.

PR(I->A) is the PageRank of page I containing a link to page A.

C(I) is the number of links off page I.

PR(I->A)/C(I) is a PR-value page A receives from page I.

SUM (PR(I->A)/C(I)) is the sum of all PR-values page A receives from pages with links to page A..

In other words: The PR of a page is determined by the PR of every page I that has a link to page A. For every page I that points to page A, the PR of page I is devided by the number of links from page I. These values are cumulated and multiplied by 0,85. Finally 0,15 is added to this result, and this number represents the PR of page A.

To illustrate how this calculation works we defined the following simplified example.

Example:

In this example we use an imaginary Google database containing only four (4) pages that all have an initial PR value of 1 (the above formula needs an assumed start PR value for every page). These four pages have the linkstructure as shown in the first picture. In practice Google calculates the PageRank for billions of pages. Our model is simplified to show the evaluation of a PageRank.

To determine the PR for pages A to D the formula has to be executed several times. For every calculation we use the PR results of the former calculation. In this example the final PageRanks are found after 20 iterations. The next picture shows the calculated PR for every page.

Google Page Rank

What is Google Page Rank :

Google Page Rank is a system for ranking Web pages used by the Google search engine. It was developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University. In the context of their researches Page and Brin checked the idea that if a search engine will determine the most relevant pages according to the relationships between web sites, it should be more effective, then other search engines of that time.

This conception became the basis of the foundation of Google Search Engine and nowadays PageRank is the heart of Google's algorithm and makes it the most complex of all the search engines.

Google PageRank uses the Internet's link structure as an indication of each web page's relevancy value. A link from page A to page B is interpreted as a vote, by page A, for page B. In Google PageRank the page that casts the vote is also analyzed. “Votes” made by competent web sites weigh more heavily and give an opportunity to linked site to be considered as a qualitative one.

Web page that has links from many pages with high Google PageRank receives a high rank itself. But only relevant links, which are connected to your sphere and are useful for your customers, could be valued. The absence of links means that there is no support for that page and it will not get satisfactory Google PageRank.

Sites with high Google PageRank get a higher ranking in Google results. Further, since Google is currently the world's most popular search engine, the ranking a site receives in its search results has a significant impact on the volume of visitor traffic for that site.

Above mentioned states on the fact that on the way of organizing a qualitative web resource, it’s important to concentrate on such appearance as Google PageRank, and provide web site with competent links. Of course PageRank isn't the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is rather important one to pay attention to it.

But not every link is good for your site. Some of them can cause web site to be penalized by Google. It’s evident that sometimes you cannot control which sites link to yours one, but you should control which sites you link to. That’s why inbound links cannot make harm, but if a page links to penalized ones the result can be grievous. So, try to be more scrupulous in your link building campaign aimed to better Google PageRank.

You can take advantage of an opportunity of using Google Toolbar to check your PageRank. It could be uploaded for free at http://toolbar.google.com/index_xp.html. Google Toolbar provides several services, among which you can notice 10-grade scale, in which green line shows Google Page Rank of the page you visit. Such solution is not perfect because it’s not enough of 10 grades to have the full view of situation. Moreover, there is such opinion that this toolbar doesn’t perform true activities and is only for entertainment purposes; that Google constantly updates its Page Rank because of hacker’s attempts to this data and toolbar presents out-of-date activities.

To get success in the sphere of Internet, it is necessary to be well-informed in Google PageRank. The ascendancy of Google in the search engine world and the importance in its essential principles, of such notion as Google PageRank, couldn’t be underestimated.

Alexa Rank

What is Alexa traffic rank?

The Alexa traffic rank of a website compares how much traffic websites are getting on the Internet with a site ranked number 1 having the most visitors. Currently, Google is ranked number 1, Facebook is ranked number 2, and YouTube is ranked number 3.

Your Alexa traffic ranking is based upon three months of Data collected by millions of Alexa toolbar users and data from various traffic data sources.

Your Alexa traffic ranking will improve as you gain visitors through relevant content, publicity, referrals from other sites, social media, organic leads through SEO, etc.

  

How to Increase Your Alexa Rank

Alexa offers a useful tool for free that you can use to promote your Flash website. It is a free toolbar that can be downloaded and used for searches. What makes it so useful is that it only pulls sites from Alexa’s database.

This means that, if you can get your customers and clients to use it, your competition is dramatically reduced and your Alexa rank increases. Advertisers, networks, and webmasters use your Alexa rank to gauge your website. While some feel this is unfair, it is still a fact of life on the Internet.

The trick is to get the people to use the toolbar. There are some easy ways to do this and, as you start to build your traffic, you may think of other ways to get the Alexa toolbar on your visitors’ and potential visitors’ desktops.

SEO Basics

Organic SEO is the best way to build your page rank in any search engine’s database. Content can make or break your website so be sure your content is engaging, dynamic, and valuable to visitors. Google places a large amount of emphasis on content in its algorithms. It also relies heavily on inbound and outbound relevant links. A network of links from articles and blog posts (including their comments) and bookmarked on article directories can increase the value of your website in a search engine’s eyes. Only use organic SEO to promote your site; non-organic or black hat SEO may produce short and quick results, but they will not be lasting.

Promoting Your Flash Website to Increase Your Alexa Rank

One of the most effective ways to increase your Alexa rank is to promote your website and the Alexa toolbar. The toolbar is free so it is relatively easy to get people to download it. Offer it on all pages of your website. Include the link in all of your e-mails in your signature and in all e-mail ads and newsletters. Convince friends and family to use it exclusively to search for your site. Each time a searcher uses Alexa’s toolbar and goes to your site, it raises your rank.

Use the Alexa Site Audit

Not only does Alexa offer a free toolbar, they also offer a site audit. If you sign up for an audit, their bots crawl your site and give you a detailed report that includes several important factors that affect your site’s rank. In your audit report, you not only find out what needs to be improved, but ways you can do it. An audit report includes some of the following:

Reachable – how easy is it for people to find your site

On-site links – how many links do you have and are they working and related to your site

Your site reputation – quality of incoming links from other sites

Page optimization – warnings for any duplicate content or duplicate links, duplicate title tags warnings, low word count on pages, dead-end pages, and links that do not work

Keywords – quality of keywords and their effectiveness

Link recommendations – how you can fix your links

This report can be used to increase your rank in Alexa as well as your site’s rank in other search engines. A prioritized list of suggested improvements is included in your site audit that you can implement to increase your rank. For example, if Alexa finds that you content is lacking or that your keywords are not effective, you can do keyword research and include them in your rewritten content. Broken links kill your SEO and your site rank. The site audit will find any broken links so that you can fix them. You audit report will also suggest where you can place links to be more effective and make your site more attractive to search engine’s bots. Meta descriptions are summaries of the page’s content. Search engines use these in their results summaries if they are high quality. Meta descriptions also tell the search engine’s bots what your page is about and make it easier to rank. Alexa will tell you if your meta descriptions are up to snuff or if they are missing altogether. By using the tools that Alexa gives you and having your Flash website properly optimized, you can increase not only your rank in Alexa but all across the Web.

Site Map

The sitemap is a very important and necessary component in each website. In short, the sitemap is an index page of your website, which offers links to all pages of your website. These links are categorized and organized in hierarchical form, which makes finding them very easy. In case the visitor of your website cannot find the needed page, he or she should refer to the sitemap. Moreover, the sitemap helps the search engines to index your website. Providing text-based links to key pages makes the sitemap a great way to be found by the search engines. Some of you probably know that Google's Webmaster Guidelines include multiple references to sites maps, which mean that site maps must be important.

I guess you have referred to the sitemap of many websites. You have found out that sitemaps help you save your time that otherwise you would waste searching for the website you have interest in. we all have spent hours searching for a certain page. Today using a sitemap, you just have to follow the link.

All web site owners, web designers, usability experts, and search marketers agree

that having a sitemap is very important for the success of each website. Actually for most of them each website must include several very important pages such as a home page, an about us page, a contact us page, and a site map. So far, the first three have proven to be an irreplaceable part of each web site. However, the sitemap page is gaining more and more popularity.

When building the structure of your web site do not forget to create a link to the sitemap. As well, validate the functionality of the links you created in order to avoid following troubles. In case this sounds scary and you think that you are not able to accomplish these tasks because they are too complicated you?d better look for something to help you. There are various online programs which will do all these work for you. These programs are very simple. All you have to do is to type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap for you.

Each website must offer a large or small sitemap for sure. The site maps make it easier for search engine spiders to discover and crawl every page of your website. That is why the bigger the sitemap is the better.

 It is easier with small sites because their sitemap could contain text links to single every page just following the site's folder structure. The different topics could be categorized either in a directory-like format or as table of contents. Unfortunately, this type simple site map organization gives satisfactory results only for a site of 100 pages or less.

In case your site contains more than 100 pages it is meaningless to link to every single page in a site map. Visitor would feel lost in the great number of links and they won?t be able to find the one that they are looking for. Moreover, Google recommends maximum 100 links per page. If you are planning to create a sitemap for a 10,000-page or fewer web site, it is a good idea to add links only to core pages throughout the site.

When creating a sitemap for a larger site you will have to optimize the content up to a dozen different categories. In this case, you?d better add a brief description of each core page in order to make the sitemap user-friendly. If the link to each core page is accompanied by a short text describing the page's content which itself offers links that go deeper into the site from these core pages, both visitors and search engines can navigate the varying themes of a larger site.

When it comes to extremely large sites, which contain more than 100,000 pages the sitemap must be organized in a similar way. It has to include a classification of the core hierarchal content with links to different products, services, or other content.

Sitemaps are usually an index page, which summarizes the content of the pages within a single site. However, there is another type of sitemaps, which consists of a series of links to pages of different sites.

Sitemaps are the main way to help search engine spiders when crawling a site's content. In order to make your website visible on the Web you need to have it indexed. However, sitemaps are still not the only way to optimize your website.