Domain Name Influence on Google Rankings
The Google patent specification of March 31, 2005 revealed a lot of information about possible ways Google might use your domain name in the determination of you ranking...
Welcome to part five in our six part series about the new Google patent specification and what it may mean to the rankings of your website.
Host Network and Google Ranking
Google mentions specific types of information relating to how a document is hosted within a computer network that can influence the ranking of a web site. For example, Google tries to determine the legitimacy of a domain name.
According to Google, valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway or throwaway domains are rarely used for more than a year. In an attempt to determine the value of a domain, Google records the following information:
- Length of the domain registration (one year as oppossed to several years)
- Address of the web site owner (for returning higher relevancy local search results and attaching accountability to the domain)
- Contact information of administration and technical support for consistency (changed often or completely falsified on spam domains)
- Stability of data and host company, and IP range (IP range associated with spam)
- Number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)
- Securing a reputable host can and will go a long way in promoting your web site to Google.
Known Bad Name Servers and IP's
Google claims to have a list of 'known bad' contact information, name servers and IP addresses. This list helps Google to identify whether a spammer is running a domain. Bad name servers might host known spam sites, adult or doorway domains.
If you're hosted on a known bad name server your Google rankings will pay the price. You may even be blacklisted entirely.
The patent specification claims that Google might check the information of a name server in several ways. For example, a good name server might have a mix of different domain names from different registrars. Bad name servers might host mainly adult or doorway domains, bulk-domains from a single registrar or domains with many commercial words.
The answer is simple. First, your web page content must be properly optimized. If your content is not optimized properly, then all other search engine ranking factors are pointless.
Second, you might want to register the main domain name for your web site several years in advance to show Google that you are serious about your website. Make sure that your website is hosted by a reputable hosting company.
If your web site is hosted by a company that mainly hosts the websites of spammers, it might be difficult to get good rankings for your site. You can check your host's integrity by checking their mail server at www.dnsstuff.com/. This will tell you if they are listed in the spam database. If your mail server is listed you may have a problem ranking well in Google!
The simplest strategy may be registering your domain several years in advance with a reputable provider. This may help to demonstrate longevity and accountability to Google. Google wants to see that you're serious about your site, not here today and gone tomorrow!
Read the next in our series of articles on Google patent specifications and how they effect your website rankings, Click Through Rates and Your Google Ranking.
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