Other Factors Affecting Page Rank
In class we’ve talked about Page Rank exclusively in terms of link structure within a network of web pages. However, in reality Google is using a far more sophisticated set of algorithms than just this. Actually, according to this site Google probably uses over 200 different factors to determine how pages are listed (however, in reality, no one outside of Google has a full list. Lots of the factors listed on that site are just conjecture by SEO experts).
One thing that’s interesting about this list is just how much Google actually does look at a page’s actual layout – and not just it’s position in the network. In fact, the source I provided estimates that Google checks around 50 different metrics related to “Page Level Factors,” not to mention around 20 “Site Level Factors” which also have nothing to do with the network structure as a whole, and are entirely under the control of the owner of the website.
The practical upshot of this is that one’s Page Rank is not completely in the hand’s of Google’s mysterious algorithms. There’s actually quite a bit one can do to improve results just by structuring and styling one’s page a certain way. On one hand this might seem like a pretty risky thing to do, because there is certainly a risk of people sinking to all kinds of shady practices to boost their visibility. However, many of Google’s criteria might actually help encourage people to create better web pages. For example, according to the site I linked, Google gives priority to websites that do things like incorporate multimedia, have sites friendly to mobile, or provide alt text on images. They can also actively discourage some sketchy SEO practices. For instance, they allegedly keep track of sites that link out to a massive amount of sources for the explicit purpose of improving page rank, and then penalize sites that link to these artificially created hubs.
Naturally, as I mentioned, there are inherent risks with a single company acting as the internet’s moral police, even though that company’s unofficial motto is “don’t be evil.” For example, it’s very likely that YouTube videos get a large boost in priority just by being on a Google owned website. However, I think that these trade offs are probably worth it. After all, it’s undeniable that today’s search results are significantly better than those even a few years before when search engine algorithms were much less sophisticated.
(full link: http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors)