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Search engine optimization (SEO) company SEOmoz.org recently released the follow-up to its first series on "Search Engine Ranking Factors" initially published on August 2005. The new report, dubbed Search Engine Ranking Factors Version 2, documented the opinion of 37 recognized leaders in organic search engine optimization. The report included a survey of these SEO all-stars on their thoughts about sites' ranking in Google's SERP or search engine results pages.

Their answers to the survey questions after the jump.

Here are the four "Google Ranking Questions" asked to the SEO experts.

1. What is your opinion of Google's sandbox — the effect whereby newly registered websites (or those that have recently changed owership) experience a period of low recognition and rankings in Google's SERPs (search engine results pages)?

38% - effect more prevalent than it was 6-12 months ago
32% - effect never existed
21% - effect less prevalent than it was 6-12 months ago
9% - effect appears to have little changed over the last 6-12 months

It appears a majority (70%) of the SEO leaders surveyed believe that the "Google sandbox" effect never actually existed or if it did, does not matter that much anymore.    

2. Which of the following algorithmic components do you believe to be MOST important in Google's rankings?

56% - authority and trust of a domain
35% - external links pointing to an individual page
9% - keyword-based relevance of an individual page 

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For these SEO guys, ranking in Google is all about authority, reputation and trust of a domain.  

3. What is your opinion of the impact of personalization on manipulation/spamming of Google rankings?

62% - will have little to no long-term impact on search rankings or traffic
26%- will be gamed by search engine spammers
12% - will reduce the effectiveness of manipulative ranking tactics

Around two-thirds of the respondents believe personalization will have little to no-long term impact on either SERPs or site traffic. 

4. Do you believe that user data (time on page, click in the SERPs, browsing stats from the Google toolbar, etc.) influences the Google rankings?

44% - yes, but user data has only a small amount of influence
26% - yes, user data has a moderate level of importance
15% - yes, user data has a great deal of influence
15% - no, user data does not influence the search rankings 

A high percentage of these SEO experts agree that user data indeed affects Google rankings but they disagree on its level of influence. Only fifteen percent believes user data does not influence the search rankings at all.

View the full report in the SEOmoz site. 

[tags]search engine optimization, SEO, SEOmoz, SEO tips, google, site ranking, SERP, search engine, optimization, keyword[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 1:26 am and is filed under Google and SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.