Relevancy Modified MozRank: A Smarter Metric for Rank Analysis
We have been working for a while now on our own internal correlation study in partnership with Trident Marketing and Fuzzy Logix. In working on this project, time and time again it shocked me how crude our current ranking metrics are. We finally have good raw data from sources like SEOMoz and Majestic SEO but we have only begun to scratch the surface of how Google uses these types of data to organize and create search rankings. In the same way that SEOMoz identified a simple statistical modeling technique known as Latent Dirichlet Allocation as a likely candidate for how Google models topic relevancy, we have been looking for similar statistical techniques that Google is likely to use in turning raw link data into metrics more suitable for ranking pages. The...
Thoughts on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Search
First off, kudos to the SEOMoz team, and specifically, Ben Hendrickson for their stunning study and continued focus on building a data and research-driven approach to SEO. That being said, I feel like some grains of salt need to be thrown into this recent study regarding the recent study regarding the relationship between LDA (topic modeling) and search rankings. To begin, let’s make it clear that it is generally accepted that a good portion of the search algorithm is textual relevance. Similarly, it would not be unreasonable to believe that Google uses just a few sophisticated mathematical tools to accomplish this relevance measurement, making it the easiest to discern and most singularly shocking. Whenever someone struck upon the meat of this part of the...
Controlled Experimentation + Correlation Data Gives Solid Evidence
I am always excited to hear that our internal testing using controlled experimentation matches up with that of those doing correlation studies, like the great work coming out of SEOMoz. Most recently, Rand Fishkin posted a great piece on correlations between numerous ranking factors and outcomes in both Google and Bing. One of the more “surprising” pieces of data revealed in this correlation study was the relationship between the .org extension vs. .net/com/gov/etc. It seems that in both Bing and Google, there is a slight bias towards the .org TLD. Interestingly, back in 2008 before SEOMoz had built such a great data set to perform correlation studies like this, we created a controlled experiment to look at potential Top Level Domain Analysis. We...
New SEO iPhone Link Juice App Released
Kudos to the team over at Link Juice for their release of a truly fantastic iPhone app. The app allows you to get access to a link data from SEOMoz, Majestic SEO and SEMRush in a useful, intuitive manner. Well done, this is truly an indispensible app for SEOs on-the-go. No tags for this post.
5 Things you should do with each SEOMoz Linkscape Update
1. Read the blog post. Linkscape’s index size fluctuates – as do the indices of all search engines – from update to update. SEOMoz normally reveals this information in their blog post that announces the release, such as seen in the graph below from their March 2010 update....
New Free SEO Tool – Google Double Listing Demystifier
The brand spanking new Google Double Listing Demystifier helps you identify the actual ranking of individual pages in the top 10 when there is a double listing present. If two pages from the same domain occur in the top 10, Google will automatically insert the second listing directly under the first with an indent. While this makes it easy to find pages from the same domain, it makes it far more difficult to determine what the actual rank of the second page is. This simple tool will help demystify the double listing by identifying what the actual rank of those individual pages are. This can be incredibly valuable as it will allow you to know whether or not your or your competitor’s second page listing is vulnerable because it is actually in position 10, or...
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