WebProNews recently posted this super interesting article about an experiment done by SEOMoz that looked at different Google ranking factors, and how many Search Engine Optimization experts view their importance.
A few things that stuck out for me:
- Page-level backlink metrics are the top algorithmic factor (compared to domain-level, link authority, social metrics, etc.)
- Diversity of backlinks is greater than raw quantity
- Nofollow backlinks do indeed help with rankings (further evidence to support this post)
- Pages with more content rank better
- Long titles and URLs are bad for SEO
- Using keywords earlier in tags and content seems “wise”
- Facebook may be more influential than Twitter for ranking, but Matt Cutts says Google can’t see Facebook shares so this doesn’t make sense to me
- Google Buzz may be used for indexing (more info here)
- Matt Cutts says in general the more content on the home page, the better, but you can also have too much
If you’re a nerd like me, hopefully you find this data useful too!