How to weight in full-text search?

Google Search Results: PageRank and Why do I rank #1?

• Google SEO Experts: I'm completely puzzled by this one. There seems to be a lot of discussion about Google's PageRank. Quality external sites linking to a site's page boosts the popularity of that page, which Google appears to place a significant amount of weight in its search results algorithms. Not that I'm complaining, but I have a #1 Google ranking on the search term "Andrew Wyeth Master Bedroom." I'd like to understand why. There doesn't appear to be a lack of competition (there are about 2,200 search results found). The perplexing thing about it is that the PageRank for this number one ranking page is ZERO (0). Obviously, Google has indexed the page, but there are no inbound links to this page. Here's the question. If Google deems this page so unpopular (i.e. PageRank = "0"), how can it achieve a number 1 ranking in the search results? Additionally, I have hundreds of other (product) pages indexed by Google utilizing the exact same methodology (with respect to meta tags) and a #1 ranking is nowhere in site. Odd, huh? I am looking for links to articles on how this can happen. The URL in question is: www.respree.com/product/pages/sku/LNYG7770 The Google search phrase is: Andrew Wyeth Master Bedroom (with or without quotes yields the same results) Am I wrong in the assumption that Google places a 'significant' amount of weight on PageRank. I don't think I'm wrong. There is too much evidence suggesting it plays an important part. Thanks in advance for help.

• Answer:

  respree-ga Your are #1 without quotes, with quotes you don't show up at all, and the #1 is www.artexpression.com/byimage/NYG7770.htm which shows up #2 on the without quote search. This is for the search phrase you have given, Andrew Wyeth Master Bedroom. If you reorder the words, Master Bedroom Andrew Wyeth, you become #1 on both searches. The use of quotes limits Google to exact matches, which explains why you don't show up at all when the wrong order is used. Now, according to my Google Toolbar, your page www.respree.com/product/pages/sku/LNYG7770 indeed has a page rank of "0". What it does have going for it is a great Title. Google overweights title tags in searching, before applying the page rank filter. For example, your page: www.respree.com/product/pages/sku/LBENAB18004 is # 4 on Google when bradford house andrew wyeth is the search phrase, or #2 when it is in quotes. Another example, you are #1 on Google for Madame Stumpg and Her Daughter Jean-Baptiste, without quotes, and you are #1 and THE ONLY SITE with quotes. www.respree.com/product/pages/sku/LBENAB50518 The title tag is the crucial factor when it comes to Google returns for long phrases on esoteric subjects. Since most people are competing for traffic on popular subjects (sex, computers, health), the page rank comes into much greater play with them. The crucial thing to remember is that page rank is an "after the fact" filter, once the target pages have been narrowed down through the search phrase. I'm going to give you a few pages that talk about the importance of the title tag, though I hope the explanation and examples above have clarified the situation for you. In the article "Title Tag Strategies" on the Search Engine Strategies site, they state "Your title tag is by far the most important tag on your web site from an optimizing stand point. Actually, in my professional opinion, the title tag is probably the single most important element of your web site along with your keyword rich text. This will be contrary to what many others are trying to teach these days. Most will tell you that your meta tags are the web optimizing hidden secret to success. Sorry, they are wrong. If meta tags were the answer, everyone would be ranked number one wouldn’t they? " http://www.searchenginestrategies.biz/titletagstrategies.htm Michael McKown writes "Title tag: Probably the most important tag of all, very important to website promotion for a few different reasons. Keywords go here." http://www.tn-intl.com/search-engine-optimization.html http://www.searchmechanics.com/home/business.htm These agree with my personal experinece, which I summed up in an article about using Google Adwords to optimize your site: http://www.fonerbooks.com/adwords.htm Your site should do very well when people search on the Artist name and Painting title together. Google Search Strategy: importance of title tag in google