The Vicious Circle Of SEO (And How To Beat It)
The Vicious Circle Of SEO (And How To Beat It)
PageRank is a key part in how websites are valued on the web. In class we learned about how networks of websites form–each node carries its own PageRank score. Webpages link to other websites, and there are two important parts of PageRank Updates: the updates of hubs and authorities. Hubs are “high-value lists,” and authorities are webpages that are linked to by several hubs. A hub or authority is considered to be good if it is pointed to be may authorities or hubs respectively.
Google’s SEO (Search Optimization Strategy) is explained by Ryan Erskine in the Forbes article. The search engine displays websites in order of popularity, which is measured by the number of back-links to the page. However, it is also believed that the most popular pages on Google have more access to gaining back-links due to their page constantly being visited/selected when searching on Google. The question of whether or not Google’s algorithm favors back-linking websites is up for debate. Ultimately, the article argues that to beat top performing websites, new websites must understand Google’s algorithm: Rankbrain. Rankbrain takes in users’ experiences on webpages by observing behavioral patterns and differences among the webpages. Pages that experience less clicks on the “back button” are considered to be higher-performing webpages. The algorithm therefore considers both back-links AND the behavioral context.
This article is incredible relevant as we learn about hub/authority updates, as well as how advertising slots are allocated to advertisers. Some websites will always pop up more often than other due to the large number of hubs linking to the much bigger website, but new websites can develop stronger content to gain exposure–and by default, the website will also experience an increase in back-links. This is important when placing valuations on advertising slots.