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Rand Fishkin and SEOmoz introduced their tool Linkscape at SMX East and WebProNews was there to get the story. We followed up with Rand at SMX West to get an update on the tool.
Rand prefaces the discussion by boldly stating that they are “a few months away from reversing Google’s algorithm.” If that does happen, just know that WebProNews broke the story. 
As we all wait on that to occur, Rand tells of a different approach that SEOs can implement.
Traditionally, SEOs look at PageRank to determine how well they rank and how and why someone ranks above or below them. Rand says this methodology is not much better than random guessing. The actual correlation that SEOmoz found is that basing actions on PageRank is only about 3 percent better than guessing.
He instead suggests acting upon data driven metrics. Take advantage of third-party data to estimate traffic competitively. For this, Rand recommends sites such as Compete, Alexa, and Quantcast. There are also tools that Rand recommends for predicting search engine rankings. They are Yahoo Site Explorer, PageRank, and Linkscape.
Rand strongly advocates this idea of bringing mathematics and statistics into SEO. He does however, believe that not one single metric should be held as the key. Link popularity is still the most prominent factor by nearly 75 percent and is followed by keywords and content.
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No further explanation required. ,
The Google PageRank can be kind of a lottery sometimes (even though it’s mathematically far from being a lottery). But as you will see in the diagrams of this posting,
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is a lot more than I expected when I stumpled upon a link on Delicious telling that the info here is awesome. Thanks.
As Derek Kean says, “search algorithms are always updating and changing”. Search engines’ business model requires that they display the most relevant results for a query. For now, they might be depending on links to assess relevance. That need not mean that they will continue to do so for ever.
Wouldn’t it be the best strategy to attract visitors to your site through great content and then lead them to your sales pages? This strategy can never fail because it is aligned to search engine goals also.
- Gopinathan
Is as well some sort of pagerank atribute but with a different hat.
The available tools out there right now do a good job of measuring the total links in to a site, but to average them together increases statistical significance. I like how he goes on the record saying that PR is a 3% better stat than a random guess, which I believe to be true. Entering into analysis on many small business websites shows they are beaten by pages with usually no or very low PR. This only goes to show how PR is a very weak tie in to rankings.
I think that since the search algorithms are always updating and changing, especially since social media sites are gaining importance with many companies, it will continue to change how the effect each individual link gives any site. Hopefully this will translate into measurable metrics, because right now most metrics that clients understand are movements in SERP.
Will be nice to have statistical references that are uniform across the field, instead of each individual SEO delivering different numbers in different formats. Unify!!
-Derek
There isn’t anything new about prediction tools whatsoever. Yes the playground may change but the game remains the same. Things like web position gold have been around donkeys years, counting things like number of links, then its blogs, then its unique domains. Whatever the algorithms there will always be tools that try to catch up with what the search engines are in doing on a ranking scale.
Now with it seemingly so that personalised search and heavy geo targeting and user intent queries are rolling out constantly then these sort of tools becomes even less useful.
Get a shave u scruffy git.
Wow Rand, if LinkScape gets anywhere near being able to predict how to increase positions in SERPs with exact recommendations THAT WORK, you will easily triple your subscribers overnight.
I like the idea that SEO should permeate a company’s culture. Marketing was never a bolt on feature. Search engine marketing shouldn’t be a bolt on either.