* I've just been listening to a new video that talks about the three things Google is now looking for in organic search results. One is content and structure, two is links and authority and three he talks about activity and interaction. He briefly says that 'activity' is RSS feeds, blog comments, etc.
1. Would you say he's accurate in what he's saying about the three main things Google is looking for?
2. What actions constitute "activity"?
3. If activity is getting visitors to 'do' something on my Web site, what would this be?
And if this is what Google wants, what's going to happen to all the static Web sites out there that don't have blogs and the like?
Answer: Yes, we're absolutely in agreement with what Matt Cutts had to say.
Let's start by defining "off site" activity as generating links and citations. Google has shown in their Place pages that they can identify phone numbers, addresses, etc. from other sites that correlate with a Place Page listing (like reviews). These are what we call citations and are very important to creating a full online profile for your business.
It's also important to keep in mind that Google has never officially stated that citations are a benefit to your site. Regardless, our combined experience has lead us to believe that although a few citations are not as much of a benefit to your site as a high PR link, they are noticed, monitored and worth your time.
Having an RSS feed by itself is not a strong asset, however having RSS subscribers in a feed reader is. The more subscribers the better. Same thing with blog posts, forum posts, and maybe even email references. Google doesn't tell us exactly what they monitor, but you can bet it's significant. I've seen many cases of sites with large amounts of traffic, but very low PageRank, doing very well for ranking. So there are certainly sites that appear to be benefiting from lots of interaction regardless of their recorded PageRank.
Here's a recent post where Google specifically mentions Google Buzz and community interaction as a way to build, Quality Links to your site.
Static vs dynamic URLs and Blog vs Forum, that's all really a non-issue. Google doesn't care about that as long as they can index it. What they are wanting to see is that your site's users like the site, use it, and share it with others.
So, what exactly does Google want to see users do on your site?
* Stay for a while. If they leave right away, that would result in a high bounceback ratio, leaving the impression that the site is either of poor quality or not on topic.
* They want to see them revisit the site often. Quality metrics such as Recency, Loyalty, Length and Depth of Visit are all very important not only for sales or membership, but very likely for your ranking.
* User participation (Posting in Forums, Commenting on Blog Posts, Joining Email Lists, Bookmarking pages, etc.).
What's really debatable is exactly what Google sees, and how you can take advantage of that knowledge. Unless Google actually tells us at some point, we'll have to assume that the above information is something they can and do monitor. Even if they can't, improvement of those metrics will lead to a more successful site nonetheless
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