This post is not designed to go into detail about each external, off-page SEO factor, but rather it’s a list of things I have found to be important. Please comment or Google it if you do not understand.

The following lists the ranking factors for 2009 in order of importance.

1. Quality, content related in-bound links with proper anchor text

2. Quantity of low quality, somewhat relevant in-bound links with proper anchor text

3. General links without anchor text

4. Traffic. That’s right, if your website gets more traffic on a regular basis than other wesbites competing for a given keyword or phrase, you’ll likely see a bump in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Peter Norvig of Google let this cat out of the bag while doing a presentation at Berkeley University. This is one reason for example you may see a brand new page pop up on the first page of Google for a competitive keyword phrase. How does a page with no external, in-bound links rank so favorably? Traffic!

5. Local directory listings like Google Maps and Yahoo Local. These are not the only two, but if your website is mentioned in these and other popular directories, you may see a bump in your positioning in the SERPs. Further, if your listing has more comments and good reviews (example: 5 out of 5 stars), this will also help your site rank well. Some popular comparison shopping networks may have this same affect.

6. CTR (click through rates) If your website gets clicked on more often when it appears in the SERPs for a given keyword phrase, you’ll be more likely to stay there. Google may compare your CTR with your bounce rates, average pages per visit or the average time on site.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m sure I forgot something, but it’s getting really late and I should be going to bed now. I would like to hear comments. Does this method of letting a good deal of my secrets out of the bag all in one blog post help? Do you need more information, sources, etc.? If you like what you see, this SEO Professional will keep letting secrets out of the bag.

Tags: 2009, external, factors, off-page, ranking, secrets, SEO

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Advanced SEO Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.