You
need to choose your domain name very carefully if you want to ensure
that your Web site ranks high among search results and if you want
to avoid being excluded altogether from Google results.
In their site-ranking criteria, Google now gives
higher ranking to Web pages for which a search keyword is part of
the domain name as well as in the third-level domain name. Some
of the implications for domain names are:
-
If possible, include the most important keywords
that define your company in your domain name.
-
Use of secondary domain names as a doorway
to specific pages will increase. The new demand for keyword
domain names will boost the demand for domain-name leasing.
This will, in turn, put upward pressure on leasing rates and
domain-name prices.
-
Since keyword-based ranking is blind to a
domain name’s extension, the value of extensions other than
dot-com will rise, as will leasing demand for active domain
names with keywords that have considerable traffic.
-
There will be an increase in the use of third-level
domain names such as appraisal.DomainMart.com, escrow.DomainMart.com,
and so forth, where “appraisal” and “escrow” are keywords.
Google’s
algorithm also ranks more favorably search keywords in an Internet
address’ directory name and file name. As with domain names, a hyphen
to visually separate the keywords is not necessary, as the algorithm
looks only at the string of characters.
On the
other hand, Google's SafeSearch
feature, designed to filter out links to Web sites with adult content,
completely blocks Websites that have adult words imbedded in them,
according to a study by CNET.com and a report by Harvard Law School's
Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
SafeSearch
marked as unsafe for children PartsExpress.com,
an audio, video, and speaker components Website; JewishSussex.com, a religious
Web site; EssexCountyBeeKeepers.org of Topsfield, Mass.; BluesExcuse.SouthBurnett.com.au,
an Australian blues band's site; BassExpert.com; and the Anglo-Saxon
history site RomansInSussex.co.uk.
The Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet
& Society reported last week that SafeSearch excludes many innocuous Web pages from search-result listings. The
thousands of nonpornographic sites that are excluded include The
Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography. News sites take a hit
too, with articles from Fox News, Wired News, The Baton Rouge Daily
News, and some Web logs affected.
SafeSearch can be enabled or disabled through
a preferences page. The feature uses
a proprietary algorithm that analyzes the pages and classifies them
as safe or unsafe for children.
If your site is blocked and does not have a "robots.txt"
file, which is designed to limit automated Web crawlers in various
ways, you should first contact Google. If you are unable to satisfactorily
resolve the issue, then contact us.
Other factors based on Google's Patent Application
#20050071741[1]
1. “A method for scoring a document, comprising:
identifying a document; obtaining one or more types of history
data associated with the document; and generating a score for
the document based on the one or more types of history data.”
38. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or
more types of history data includes domain-related information
corresponding to domains associated with documents; and wherein
the generating a score includes: analyzing domain-related information
corresponding to a domain associated with the document over time,
and scoring the document based, at least in part, on a result
of the analyzing.
39. The method of claim 38, wherein the scoring
the document includes: determining whether the domain associated
with the document is legitimate, and scoring the document based,
at least in part, on whether the domain associated with the document
is legitimate.
40. The method of claim 38, wherein the domain-related information
is related to at least one of an expiration date of the domain,
a domain name server record associated with the domain, and a
name server associated with the domain.
If other
search engines are not yet using similar criteria in their ranking,
it is highly likely that they will do so soon.
Related Article: Language,
Country Search Engines: Implications for Domain Names, PPC Ads.
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[1]
Thanks to Rob Garner at agency.com for providing me this information. |
