I write numerous idepth articles on various search engine optimzation topics at SEO Chat, a forum and information site on SEO.
I also contribute many posts to various internet discussion groups and message boards on SEO topics.
Search engine optimization forms a large proportion of my daily posts on Blog Business World.
I have started to receive search engine optimization questions, in my daily e-mail, from my readers.
Gordon Smith, of the University of Wisconsin Law School, who writes the highly informative Venturpreneur blog wrote me with a couple of questions.
He wanted to know why, on his Google search engine results pages (SERPs) standings for his displayed keywords, his number of displayed incoming links never changes.
Gordon Smith reports no change, in the number of incoming links, even though he knows he has far more links to his blog than Google is showing.
That is a very frequent question on every SEO discussion forum. The mysteries, of how the dominant search engine Google displays its backlinks, leaves many people puzzled.
First of all, let's clear up some search engine terminolgy.
The position of your blog, in the search engine results for your blog's keywords, is called "search engine results pages" or "SERPs) for short.
Your blog's ranking in the SERPs will change up or down based on your content, your number and quality of incoming links, your blog's title tags, and almost 100 other variables. The SERPs for any keyword (or search term), entered into the search box, is measured by a highly complex computer program.
The computer calculation program, that determines your blog's position in the SERPs, is called the search engine's algoriithm. Every search engine uses a slightly different one. None of the search engines will reveal its secret mathematical formula either.
We are all left to educated guesses.
That doesn't mean we are left to chance, however. There are many tried and proven methods for developing strong placements in the SERPs for your keywords. While the search engines keep tweaking their secret formulas, fresh keyword rich content provided by blogs, will always get good results.
Another term to consider is Google PageRank. Note that PageRank is one word, and refers to the relative importance of any web page on the internet, as caculated by yet another Google formula.
Google PageRank is also one of the about 100 components of the Google SERPs calculation for keywords.
Are you confused yet?
Google PageRank is NOT the same thing as your blog's ranking for your most important keywords in the SERPs. The two names are often confused.
Google PageRank is shown on a logorithmic scale, ranking from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest, and almost impossible to achieve top of the ladder. Most blogs fit into the moderate to solid range of PR4 to PR7.
I have written an indepth article on Google PageRank for SEO Chat called "Google PageRank Primer".
Your Google PageRank can be seen as a level indicator of green on the Google Toolbar. You can download the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/.
As a matter of interest, the Google Toolbar also functions as a pop-up ad blocker.
Now, after that lengthy digression, back to Gordon Smith's initial question.
Why does Google only display a few of the incoming links, even though there are many more links to his Venturpreneur blog.
A quick backlink check of Venturpreneur shows 437 backlinks according to Google.
The links can be checked from the Google Toolbar or by entering link:http://www.venturpreneur.com/weblogs/ into the Google search box. Both methods provide the same result.
Sure enough, 437 is the number of links that Gordon lists on his Venturpreneur home page readout of his SERPs positions.
The links displayed by Google must have at least a Google PageRank of 4 or higher. Lower PageRank links do not appear, but they are all taken into account by Google for both PageRank and SERPs calculation.
Google likely has even more PR4 or higher links for Venturpreneur in its caculations, but often elects to display what it calls a "sampling" of backlinks.
Google uses all incoming links, whether displayed or not, in both its SERPs and PageRank calculations.
They just don't show them all.
As far as Google PageRank is concerned, Venturpreneur enjoys a solid PageRank 5. With a few more quality incoming links, Gordon Smith should see an increase in his PageRank to PR6.
The update of Google backlinks and PageRank usually occurs every three weeks or so. The time table for updates is never precise, to prevent it being predictable.
Watching for when the next major update will occur, is a favourite sport, of many search engine optimization (SEO) professionals.
Even I do it.
The next update should take place next week some time, as the most recent one happened in late April.
At that time, we'll see if the displayed backlinks for Venturpreneur will go up or down.
One way or the other, there will be a Google backlink and PageRank update.
