April 2007 - Google patent application

[Chatmaster]

Hi guys

Just thought I'd share the following research I did on the Google patent application #20070094255 filed by Matt Cuts on the 26th of April 2007. You can also read my summary of it on my site "Document scoring based on link based criteria" (http://www.samarketing.co.za/document-scoring-based-on-link-based-criteria.asp)

As I see it Matt gave us enough warning on his blog that they are looking into paid links and as we suspected they are indeed looking into the matter. Don't know if any of the formulas in the patent application is already applied but we know that Google keeps the history of your site, so what you do now might effect your rankings at a later stage.

I would appreciate any comments as these patent application requires concentration, which I certainly had very little time for during the day :D

[Blazingpie]

this is a very good summary of the patent, and personally i think that they have already started implementing several of the things. For example, with a few of the sites I'm tracking, the rankings fluctuate according to the rate of gained backlinks

[Paz]

It's a nice read Chatmaster.

One thing from the patent I'm struggling with is the contradiction between having to add fresh content and the increasing importance of avoiding duplicate pages.

If fresh content means adding more pages, rather than editing old ones, then there's a potential problem of relevancy if you're trying to make them unique.

It's not something I've had to think about until the last few weeks.... LOL

[Chatmaster]

That is a very important point Paz.

I think the new way of link building will be done in a way where new pages are added to a site and it has no PR yet. It will be a case of, "Guys I am publishing a article on Monday and I need to add a link for 'blue widgets' and 'widget tools'. Who is publishing any new pages related to 'widgets' wanting to do a link trade with me?

Clearly this patent makes it clear that having buddies within specific industries will have it's benefits. Added to that I also think that it is good news for the SEO industry as a whole as link building per document is now going to become more important instead of just link building per site, which means that specialist SEO's will become more and more important imo.

What worries me though is that it might also make SEO more expensive as it might need more resources now.

[Paz]

What worries me though is that it might also make SEO more expensive as it might need more resources now.

Yeah SEO's getting more expensive every quarter, but I'm sure it's still a better long-term ROI than PPC; which is getting ridiculous in some markets.