John Hiler discusses the powerful effect blogs have on searches at Google.com. Because blogs contain “fresh” content and frequently contain numerous links, they tend to be weighed more heavily by Google than other sites. Why? This is essentially proof of what I wrote about on Monday – Google’s Page Rank technology treats links as “votes” for a page – and the more links a site receives, the more influential that site’s links are considered. Given the self-referential nature of weblogs, they become heavy hitters when it comes to search results at Google. You want proof? I’m the #1 search result at Google for “PayPal IPO micropayment”. OK, so it isn’t much – but I’m hardly the only one who’s written about it.
There’s even a term for this: it’s called Google Bombing.
Sit back for a moment and think about the implications. From a strategic point of view, the opportunity to influence the way your site is displayed in Google can be enormous. It’s no longer just about what words are on your page – Google can now display your site higher in search results if enough sites use those words to link to your site. If you’re aiming to be a category killer, then (among other things) make sure that other sites use that category term to point to you.