Marketing Defined

Google has recently filed a patent named Information retrieval based on historical data detailing many points Google uses to rank web pages…

.. Confirming the existence of the Google Sandbox or Sandbox Theory, and that it may be applied to any web site, regardless of Age!

This Post examines what this means to a web site and what steps need to be taken to optimize web pages to maintain, or seek high rankings on Google.. with the primary aim to avoid a website from being thrown in the proverbial Sandbox.

Part 1 :

How Web Page Changes influence Rankings on Google

The patent specification reveals key information about possible ways Google might use your web page changes to determine the ranking of your site.

In addition to web page content, the ranking of web pages is influenced by:

• the frequency of page or site updates
• measuring content changes to determine how fresh or how stale a web page is
• distinguishing between real and superfluous content changes

This doesn’t mean that it is always advisable to regularly change the content of your web pages.

Google says that stale results might be desirable for information that doesn’t need updating while fresh content is good for results that require it.

As an example, seasonal results might go up and down in the result pages based on the time of the year.

Google possibly records the following web page changes:

• the frequency of changes
• the amount of changes (substantial or shallow changes)
• the change in keyword density
• the number of new web pages that link to a web page
• the changes in anchor texts (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• the number of links to low trust web sites (for example too many affiliate links on one web page)

Google might then use the results of this analysis to specify the ranking of a web page in addition to its content.

Section 0128 in the patent filing reveals that you shouldn’t change the focus of too many documents at once:

“A significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no longer reliable.

Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate spam. For example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’ period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with the document, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.

Another indication may include the disappearance of the original topics associated with the document.

If one or more of these situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the relative score of such documents and/or the links, anchor text, or other data associated with the document.”

This means that the Google sandbox phenomenon may apply to a web site if changes to web pages are not planned carefully.

What does this mean to a web site?

• First of all, you should make sure that your web page content is optimized for Google. If your web page content is not optimized, all other ranking factors won’t help you much.
• Try to find out if the keywords you target on search engines require static or fresh search results and update your web site content accordingly.
• Make sure that you don’t change too much at once so that your web site won’t be put in the sandbox.

When doing research on the topic, related content was found in the current issue of the the German, Axandra:SEO Resource Newsletter for which I am grateful.  This is crucial information to absorb if ranking well on Google is imperative to a site’s survival on the web.

In addition to the above analysis I found this Excellent review of the Google Information Retrieval patent by Rand of SEOmoz.org - outlining the patent’s implications on Search Marketing for all Websites.

The key factor of this new “Information Retrieval Based On Historical Data” Google Patent is:

Regardless of the Age of a website, Google can, will … and is… placing previously well ranked web sites back in the Sandbox … Well! down-ranking them at any rate!