SEO experts talk a lot about the need for new content. They also talk about the importance of a clean site history to search engine optimisation. This need for old and new factors runs right to the heart of the methods that Google uses to rank your site.
When it comes to appearances in the search engine results, pages tend to stand alone. When it comes to ranking calculation, however, Google appears to take a mixed bag of factors into account from the whole site and the page itself. The vintage of your site can have a big effect on the ranking of an individual page.
In a release last year of an old Google patent on the assessment methods used for PageRank, a number of interesting points came out about the way in which history factors into the calculation:
- Google looks at the age of each individual page in comparison to the average age for the site. The difference is then taken into account in the ranking. This means that while an absolutely new page would have no chance of scoring high for itself, and an old page would probably slump in the rankings over time, the mix of old and new gives new pages on established sites an advantage.
- Google’s scoring system takes into account the frequency with which your site is updated over time. The changes made in one time period compared to another are also taken into consideration. This means that your updates need to be consistent over time.
- The changes taken into account include both new pages and a percentage of the content of a particular page.
- The changes will be scored by the perceived importance of the sections that are seen to be changed. This point is particularly interesting, as it indicates that simply changing minor factors on your main pages won’t make a difference. Changing minor pages will have a similarly small effect.
- Changes to just one page will be scored differently in comparison to site-wide changes. Google’s system seems to be very big on averages. If you change just one page on your site, that change is assessed on its own. If you change a number of pages, however, the effect of those changes is averaged out.
Like all thoughts on search engine optimisation, the above points aren’t set rules. Although much was discovered about Google’s scoring methods when the old patent was released last year, those methods have undoubtedly evolved since the patent was first submitted. Google’s assessment methods are constantly changing. The best bet for your optimisation is to keep tabs on the industry and talk to a professional. You can chat to our consultants at SEO Consult Australia about your optimisation.
It is also important to note that your site’s search engine optimisation will always be guided to some extent by its competitors. If your competitors are updating more frequently than you, your pages are likely to suffer in comparison. Google’s assessment methods are more helpful when planning out your plan of attack.
