The SEO pie!

[inertia]

Here's an interesting idea!

If we break the SEO process down in percentiles, what percentage do you think each SEO aspects occupies, with 100% being a perfectly optimised site? Obviously this is going to change between search engines so lets stick to the big 3.

I would say Google is:

IBL Links: 45%
Content: 30%
Optimisation (title tags, keyword density, internal linking etc, meta): 20%
Trust / Domain Age: 5%
Other aspects / Validation: negligible %

After doing this i realised...its HARD!

As far as Yahoo and MSN goes, I'm not too sure and your thoughts will probably educate me a little.

[fernimac]

I think that when you separete each of the factors apart, they stop making sense. Although you can make assumptions about the different role that each one plays in the positioning of a certain web, I would say that it is the conjunction of all of them which makes the "positioning miracle" happen. I mean, a good position is much more thant the sum of its parts.

[kgun]

I think Rand Fishkin did that guessing fairly well. SEOmoz | A Little Piece of the Google Algorithm - Revealed Scroll down and you find my comment.

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by fernimac

I think that when you separete each of the factors apart, they stop making sense. Although you can make assumptions about the different role that each one plays in the positioning of a certain web, I would say that it is the conjunction of all of them which makes the "positioning miracle" happen. I mean, a good position is much more thant the sum of its parts.

I second the motion and am about to read kgun's comment...

[freelancedesigners.com]

Thos percentages may be a close approximation of value, but IMO it would only be relevant when all of those pieces are present. in other words, using only 1 or 2 of the attributes would not provide the same value as the value created when all of the pieces are applied to a site.

[Big Juice]

80% black hat
20% white hat

and toss in a little social ala mode for flavor of the moment

[mjtaylor]

Well, I like SeoMoz's survey of SEOs and their take on the weight of SEO elements.

I'm not sure age of domain really matters any more ... I have seen a new site (less than 6 months old) come up to the top 10-20 for a highly competitive term recently and it is still climbing. No sandbox. The 3,000 backlinks to its blog probably has something to do with that ...

That said, I am not at all sure that this breaking down into percentages is useful, as you have to focus on all three elements: links (on and off site), content and optimization.

[kkharrison]

I agree with freelance designer, but do you really think such a high proportion to IBLs? Just a thought that great content would gain momentum and could be controlled...?

[haselhurst]

Hi all,
I think you need to include user behavior (which I think will become more significant in the future).
i.e. How long they stay at page, how many page views, did they add page to favorites, how many links they click on, etc.
Given Google analytics it makes sense they will use that data.

Cheers,
Geoff

[incrediblehelp]

You might find this interesting here:

The SEO Success Pyramid » Small Business SEM

[craigmn3]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I'm not sure age of domain really matters any more ... I have seen a new site (less than 6 months old) come up to the top 10-20 for a highly competitive term recently and it is still climbing. No sandbox. The 3,000 backlinks to its blog probably has something to do with that ...

This was on Google? I was going to say that age might be rated higher. All the pages in my keyword for my top client "Above Ground Pools" all have a pretty solid domain age. But then again that age could also impact IBL's, one would think naturally links come with age.

All of these issues are so interelated i don't think this pie can be cut. Since staying in the top ten of google is a matter of a fraction of a percent difference between you and your competitors algorithm score, failing on one of these is a failure on all.

my two cents
worth every penny

[lukkyjay]

How big do you think domain NAME is? I've seen a lot of websites with keyword rich domain names without as many IBL's as the other sites on the first page of Google along with them.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I'm not sure age of domain really matters any more

Are you suggesting that Google tossed both the age of the domain and the length of the most recent renewal term into their patent simply either as filler or to mislead?

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by inertia

If we break the SEO process down in percentiles, what percentage do you think each SEO aspects occupies, with 100% being a perfectly optimised site?

Since there is no such thing as a "perfectly optimized site, presumably you mean what weight does a Search Engine give each factor.

Originally Posted by inertia

I would say Google is:

IBL Links: 45%
Content: 30%
Optimisation (title tags, keyword density, internal linking etc, meta): 20%
Trust / Domain Age: 5%
Other aspects / Validation: negligible %

As the 1st factor is extrinsic, with the remaining being intrinsic, you are saying that only 55% of the SERP is the result of the site's internal PR. Has Google made any statement(s) that would support this?

[MtraX]

I'm pretty sure that IBL and domain age go together as IBL also have an age aspect to them. There's way too many factors to just break it down into 4 or 5 aspects though. I think the SEOMOZ report is a pretty accurate starting point...

[fernimac]

Originally Posted by craigmn3

All of these issues are so interelated i don't think this pie can be cut. Since staying in the top ten of google is a matter of a fraction of a percent difference between you and your competitors algorithm score, failing on one of these is a failure on all.

I absolutely agree. What we cannot say, for instance, is that if you have a good title you have 10% of the positioning resolved. You need inbound links with an anchor text that is related to that title. And both of them must be related also to the content on the page. So, although the relative weight of each factor is different, you still need most of them to be right to obtaing good results.

[colincartwright]

Interesting idea, but a client of mine has had a site live now for 2 years, virtually no IBL's (they don't encourage them on purpose!!) and yet they rank in the top 4 on google for 5 out of their six sets of chosen keywords and in what is a real competetive market (If you put in their keyword terms, upwards of 225,000 results come back for almost all of them). So tell me agin how important IBL's are??

[chadhaajay]

I'd give 75% to good content and nice layout. Rest 25% I'll give to domain name, domain age & website traffic because if you have unique and attractive content on your website or blog, you will surely get incoming links from others either in terms of web-based links or email links.

I'm saying it from my own experience.

Sincerely,

Ajay Chadha (Director)
Chadha Software Technologies

[fernimac]

Originally Posted by colincartwright

Interesting idea, but a client of mine has had a site live now for 2 years, virtually no IBL's (they don't encourage them on purpose!!) and yet they rank in the top 4 on google for 5 out of their six sets of chosen keywords and in what is a real competetive market (If you put in their keyword terms, upwards of 225,000 results come back for almost all of them). So tell me agin how important IBL's are??

I don't think 225,000 results is a competitive market. Search for "piso en la Costa Blanca" (flat in Costa Blanca, Spain) with Google and you'll get 2,7M results. Now, that is a competitive market. If you don't get some IBL you're dead.

[thindenim]

Just to jump into the domain age argument for a second. My bands website has been up for about 10 years and I haven't touched it for 5. The optimisation is very spammy by todays standards, and the code is horrendous (remember this was done 5/6 years ago). There's only a few pages, hardly any content and very few in bound links.

Despite all that, it ranks 2nd in the uk for a search on they keyword "surround" (surround - Google Search), which has over 67 million results. I can only assume this is simply due to the length of time it has been there and the trust it has built.

[inertia]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Well, I like SeoMoz's survey of SEOs and their take on the weight of SEO elements.

MJ, i completely agree, this is the best SEO advice ive read and i regularly read through it as a pointer for my work.

Or