Strategies International

MatchScore, PageRank and search results position

Only Google knows the exact algorithms that control which pages appear on page one of search results, and which do not. That process is as jealously guarded a secret as the formula for Coca Cola, but by reading the tea leaves and "walking back the cat" (as they say in Hollywood), there are ways to work out how it is done.

The six biggest influences on MatchScore.

Google's first pass is to calculate a "keyword match score". The second pass relates to PageRank. Below, I've isolated the various steps within the first pass - Keyword Matching:

Search words are received by Google after a person types them into the Google search page and presses enter.

The words are compared to the entries in a HUGE Google database of keywords, resulting in what I call a "MatchScore". (I am not sure what term Google uses internally, if indeed they use any). MatchScore is calculated by awarding points out of a hundred. There are a half-dozen factors that make up 100 points (or percent if you prefer). It's very much like doing a paper at school; try to pick up points on every question.

1. Page Title: 20 points. If the search words match the page title exactly, you get most if not all of these points. The looser the match, the fewer points awarded.
   • If the search words are "Seattle Light and Power", and the keywords entered are "lights in Seattle", you might score 15 points out of the available 20.
   • The very first words in the page title are the most important; If your page title is "Seattle Plumber and Plumbing Services while-you-wait" and the search words are "Seattle Plumber" you might score the full 20 points!
   • If no words match the page title, you get 0 points for this part of it.
2. Keywords in URL: 10 points. You score points when the search words match the words in the domain name.
   • If the search words were "life coach Dublin", and your domain name was www.lifecoachdublin.com, you might scoop up most if not all of the available 10 points.
   • If you were in the plumbing business in Denver and your domain name was "www.acmecompany.com" , search words of "plumber in Denver" would score 0 from the available 10 points.
   • If you had a URL on your website http://www.acmecompany.com/Denver/plumbing-services.html, you might score 5 (half of the available 10) points because the search words are at least somewhere in the page name.
3. Words in Keyword meta tag: 10 points: If your keywords match the search words, you score points. (Search for the text string '<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT=' in your source code to see your keywords).
   • Too many keywords will dilute the effectiveness of the keywords you really want people to gravitate towards. About 5 - 7 keywords is ideal.
   • Keywords are actually "key phrases". A Keyword can have several words in it. For example, "Seattle plumbing" and "plumbing in Seattle" are two keywords.
   • It is necessary to separate them using commas, otherwise search engines may consider them to be all the one keyword, or at best, a list of individual keywords even though you entered them as phrases. So, keywords "Seattle plumbing, plumbing in Seattle" are two distinct keywords. Thus, if someone enters "Seattle plumbing" in search, you will get a 100% match against one of your keywords, and you may score the full 10 points for keywords matching.
   • If the keywords are not comma separated, a search for "Seattle plumbing" will deliver a partial match, because "Seattle plumbing" is only a piece of the key word "Seattle plumbing plumbing in Seattle". Such a partial match might score you half of the available 10 points.
     To scoop up your full 10 points, it is important to use commas to separate keywords.
   • Limit your keywords to seven or fewer. Fewer is better, if fewer covers all the keywords you want. The more you increase your number of keywords, the more Google "dilutes" the value of each for that page, so don't squander the value of your most important keywords by including keywords that are much less important. The limit of seven keywords is per page, which is another reason you should separate out pages.
4. Textual content: 20 points. The more often keywords are used in your content, the better score you get.

   The more you increase your number of keywords, the more Google "dilutes" the value of each

   • Keyword density: If "seattle plumbing" appears 10 times out of 10,000 words on a web page, it will get more points than if it appeared 10 times out of 20,000 words on a web page. But remember, "stuffing" the text with your keywords can have a negative impact - search engines seem to know when a website does that.
   • If your relevant content is growing every day, you scoop up more of these points.
   • If you content has changed significantly every day, Google visits your site more and more frequently. It takes time for it to notice, but it will notice within three of four months.
5. Latent Semantic Content: 10 points. Google knows that "chair" and "seat" have a similar meaning. You have probably noticed how when you search for one term, it brings up similar terms in search results. In addition to using the exact keywords of your choice, use semantically related terms to reinforce keyword matching. Semantically related terms ("chair" instead of always "seat") reinforce your ownership of the subject. The Google search engine is somehow able to make the association between semantically related words and gives you a better score if it finds them.
6. External keyword reinforcement: 30 points. The more links you get from sites that "talk about your subject" the more points you get for being associated with those keywords outside of your own website. Such external keyword reinforcement is one of the ways in which inbound links to your site help you scoop up more of these 30 available points.
   • Anchor text Inbound links (like this: Life Coaching for Executives) reinforce keyword ownership better than plain links (like this: www.ici.ie).

The calculated MatchScore is then given a grade:

95-100: A+
90 - 94: A
85 - 89: A-
80 - 84: B+
75 - 79: B
70 - 74: B-
and so on...

That first pass is like taking an English exam (at least, like it was in the old days). You do your best on each of perhaps six questions, which in total offer you the possibility of 100 points (or percent). Getting full marks on one or two questions, even scoring brilliantly on them, won't give you a pass if you score miserably on all other questions. The points are there for you to get that needed high score. You just have to score well on most if not all questions to score a high grade. And in the end, it's all about getting a better score than anyone else.

Google takes the web pages that score an A+ (for the search words in question) and displays them in the search results, but sorted by PageRank; highest to lowest.

You can see just how important keyword matching is.

• If your page does not match up with the search words, it doesn't matter what PageRank you have.
• In a competitive space, many companies might have worked up an excellent MatchScore, so PageRank becomes the decider of what appear on top.
• Keep a religious dailiy focus on keyword matching, and keep a keep eye on your long term PageRank needs - when competition gets hot, you will need that higher PageRank.
• Concentrate on individual pages to score that high MatchScore. Trying to match for too much in one page will dilute the page's MatchScore. For example, if you have 3 very different products, break out each product into a different web page, applying the above rules appropriately to each page.
• All you need is a better MatchScore than your competition for those words you really want to own. Very, very few companies score highly on MatchScore, even for core terms related to their business. So, the opportunity is there for companies that know how this works to climb toward the first page of search results before their competitors wake up.

Coming soon... The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Websites.

Liam Scanlan - SEO Services for Small Companies, when he's at work.