Secrets of Google PageRank for ICT Trends
Though not everything, Google PageRank is considered as a major factor to judge any website. Having higher PageRank is a matter of pride; and feels a kind of reward of ‘all day and night donkey work’ that a webmaster or blogger has put into.
It’s so cool to look at the Google toolbar and find the PageRank button half filled with that lovely green color! Thanks a lot to ME who worked so hard composing nice posts and promoted them 
At the same time, a HUGE THANK YOU for you all. You always inspired me and pushed fore front to work harder. Won’t ever forget Facebook, Twitter, BlogEngage, MMO Social Network, FAQ PAL. They made it possible to announce most effectively. @Kannanbala, @Ileane, @manisvce, @Element321, @bbrian017, @Kiss_n_Atl, @mmonetwork , @bloggingjunkie, @shirleyszone, @omgzam, @AlisonMSmith, @FamousBloggers, @KevinMartineau, @krenee76, @Blazing_Minds, @che2on, @YesVictory, and many others are my best friends in twitter who deserve special thanks.
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Google knows better why it awarded PR 4 for ictTrends. Still, I can guess what might be the major factor to improve in rank because I was behind it all the time!
What is Google PR?
“PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.
PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance.”
How ICT Trends Achieved PR 4?
I guess the major two factor are: search engine optimization and back links. The minor factors must be traffic and domain age. And yet more, I guess, is domain name and hosting.
Search Engine Optimization
I knew it from very beginning that on-page optimization and site wide optimization are crucial for better ranking. If you wish to make your site visible to the world, it must be visible to search engines too! There are some technical factors you need to take into account to make those search engine crawlers comfortable with your site. Make everything ready what they are supposed to look for in your website is the only method of getting deserved value to your site.
On Page Optimization
This is the first place where I put primary concern. Whenever composing posts I never neglected the technical aspects that I knew but with an alert from overdoing it. Meta tags, heading tags, inner-post linking, anchor tag, image alt text are the things I paid attention to.
Meta Tag
I know it very well that search engines fetch data from Keyword and description meta tag. Since it is not available in my WordPress theme to key in the keywords and description to each posts, I installed AllInOneSEO plugin. This plug-in adds a form at the bottom of new post page for you to type the keywords, description and title. I always made a good use of it.
Heading Tag
I read it somewhere that h1, h2 and h3 are valued by crawlers. So whenever possible I tried to use these heading tags for my main and sub titles. Moreover, when composing heading, it is necessary to pay attention to include keywords as you do for your page title.
Inner-Post Linking
Search engines will give more importance to the links if they are inside the body of your post. If I am writing a new post and context suits, I never fail to hyperlink with previous posts. Apart from this, the YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin) chooses the best matched posts among previous posts to list at the bottom. This has certainly boosted the posts to which the link refers.
Anchor Tag and text
I could have done much on it. Though did it rarely, I used them effectively. Whenever inserting hyperlink, the text with keywords are set as anchor text rather than Next, Previous, Click Here and so on.
Image File Name and Alt Text
Its always a good idea to name your images with the title of post or keywords. Similarly, I never forget to type Alt Text for image because it is the only thing search engine sees on your image.
Site-Wide SEO
Because I’m using WordPress blogging platform, I can find very easily some cool plugins for Recent Posts, Related Posts, Popular Posts, Most Commented Posts, Top Commenter and these plug-in helps to better linking with other posts in blog site-wide. This is why I shifted from Blogger to WordPress bearing heavy loss of comments and readers. But I was sure, it will be most beneficial in long run.
Back Links
There must be greater share of back links to ICT Trends from other blogs and networks. I’m submitting almost all of my posts to BlogEngage, FAQ PAL and MMO Social Networks. I submit only better posts to Digg and StumbleUpon. I always tweeted whenever I posted new article. More than these, I’m active commenter. Walking through as many blog posts as possible every day and writing genuine comments is a part of my day. This way, there appeared two immediate benefits. First, I come to know the community and introduced myself with it. Second the link back to my post from signature welcomed traffic and commenter to my blog.
It is technically beneficial to enter your keyword in name field when commenting. But since many bloggers do not like to see ‘Blogging Tips’ as the name of a commenter, and this also disconnects the personal touch with the post author, I abandoned to use keyword. I better use ‘Suresh Khanal’ in Name field. Though this might be of little use, at least I’m getting one back link form the site that is related to the subject matter of my own. If a blog has used commentLuv commenting system, I’m more happy. This puts a link back with the post title as anchor text.
Traffic and Domain Age
ICT Trends has not yet that lot of traffic to boost ranking. But still, because the visits are widely dispersed from almost the whole globe, this must have been counted as quality traffic. It is possible primarily due to the BlogEngage and Twitter. The members of BlogEngage are from whole world and most of the visitors to my blog are from BlogEngage!
I don’t know how true is it, but older domain names are valued more by search engines than fresh ones. Since ICT Trends is of about two years, it is no more fresh. Though it was abandoned for long, it picked up very soon after I started using for my blog.
Domain Name
My domain name ictTrends.com holds the following features and should be contributing to improve ranking:
It does not contain numbers and symbols
Hosting
I don’t know, but suspect if it is web hosting that hampers or improves your ranking. After I switched to HostGator hosting, my site greatly improved against downtime, server errors etc. Do you think, it helped to have higher Page Rank?
Thank you for your time! Happy Blogging!
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Search Engine Optimization (Google Webmaster Central)
On Page SEO Techniques (SEO Consultants)
BTW What next?
This was pretty theoretical explanation of the techniques to rank better in search engines. How about a case study of a blog that leaped its PR just in one and a half months? I’m making a close study of a blog that achieved PR 2 from 0 within 45 days! It is certainly a topic of interest to know how it was possible. The coming post will be a detailed dissemination of that blog along with an interview with the blog owner. Don’t miss it.
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37 Responses to “Secrets of Google PageRank for ICT Trends”
icttrends on April 6, 2010
@bloggingjunkie @shirleyszone @omgzam @AlisonMSmith @FamousBloggers @KevinMartineau @krenee76 http://icttrends.com/how-achieved-google... Page Rank
omgzam on April 6, 2010
@icttrends Congratulations man! Honored to be mentioned on that article
shirleyszone on April 6, 2010
@icttrends Happy For You about your PR 4
. Thanks for the mention on your blog and you are so welcome 
. You are a great friend 
.
uberVU - social comments on April 6, 2010
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by icttrends: RT @icttrends How ICT Trends Jumped to Google PR 4? SEO and Back-Links! | ICT Trends http://bit.ly/cCxGoS...
Featured in MMO Social Network on April 6, 2010
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icttrends on April 6, 2010
It was jquery to redirect the post page resulting blank at the end. I’ve disabled it for now. Need to sort out yet http://icttrends.com/how-achieved-google...
Kannanbala on April 6, 2010
RT @icttrends: it was jquery to redirect the post page resulting blank at the end. I’ve disabled it for now. Need to sort out yet http: …
Tek3D
Twitter: Tek3D
on April 6, 2010
Congrats again.
It seems like hard work is the most important factor that bring success to your site.
Thanks
.-= Tek3D´s last blog ..HTC Sprint EVO 4G Hands-On =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you Tek3D for you sweet words.
lena on April 6, 2010
My site got PR4 this update too
You know my friend’s new blog got PR3 (from 0) just after 6 weeks. And that too on blogger platform. Isn’t it good?
.-= lena´s last blog ..Monday Question: Who is Worth the Pain =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Contragulations to you Lena!
PR3 in 6 weeks is really great achievement. I’m presenting a case study of a blog that scored PR 2 in 6 weeks in my coming post. There will be an interview with him as well. I hope these are good example for new bloggers to find secured path for improvig.
Alison Moore Smith
Twitter: AlisonMSmith
on April 6, 2010
Good rundown here, and thanks for the shout out.
I work on blogs with PR 5, 4, 3, 2, and 0. Frankly, I can’t make rhyme nor reason for the rankings. They don’t seem to correlate to much of anything most of the time. So I ignore them as much as possible.
.-= Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..WordPress Backup: A Two-Step Process =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
That’s what Alison I said “Though its not everything” but it feels cool to have higher page rank. There are certainly many other factors that determine whether you post to list on first page of search engine or not, but higher page rank – higher chances, isn’t it. Having PR 0 should not necessarily mean that the site or page is of less importance or has less valuable content. Its in fact a mesure of popularity.
Kannan
Twitter: Kannanbala
on April 6, 2010
Congrats ! , your hardwork made it. Thanks n Regards ,
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you kannan. It all because of nice friends like you!
Ashutosh
Twitter: digitalhunch
on April 6, 2010
Congrats for your hard work and sharing ur success secret… What was ur previous PR??
Thanks
.-= Ashutosh´s last blog ..iPad Learning YouTube Videos =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
ICT Trends was in PR 1 before the update. The suggestions mentioned here are not based only on ICT Trends but my another site http://new.psexam.com which was in PR 0 turned now into PR 4. The post is accumulated sharing of my knowledge and experience.
Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog
Twitter: danalingga
on April 6, 2010
I think, Down time is important part for site rank decision.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog ..How To Create Blog Logo Easily by Using GIMP #2 =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you Dana, I too guess similar. After I changed to hostgator hosting, my downtime is drastically eliminated. This should have impacted positive.
Sourish | Wordpress Install Guide
Twitter: http://www.wordpressinstall.org
on April 6, 2010
Congratulation on your PR update . Baclinks are one of the main criteria for pr
.-= Sourish | WordPress Install Guide´s last undefined ..Response cached until Tue 6 @ 22:38 GMT (Refreshes in 11.97 Hours) =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you very much. I’m commenting on as many blogs I can find that is within my niche and that inspire me to. Hope this has collected nice number of back links to cause PR improvement.
Simon on April 6, 2010
What a refreshing article; a real step by step approach. Many thanks for taking the time to write this as it feels more like a mentor sheet than a lecture. Thank you
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
I’m so happy that you liked this post.
Kiesha @ We Blog Better
Twitter: krenee76
on April 6, 2010
Congratulations on your PR 4!! And thanks for the kind mention here. You’ve been an awesome friend as well.
.-= Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last blog ..7 Ways to overcome your blogging hangover =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you Kiesha. It is due to the great friends like you who always pushed me up and showed the path to follow.
John Paul Aguiar
Twitter: JohnAguiar
on April 6, 2010
Great tips. You covered everything a blogger needs to do to drive long term traffic and build that PR.
Congrats on the PR 4.
.-= John Paul Aguiar´s last blog ..SEO Tips For Your Twitter and Facebook Page To Rank You Higher On Google =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 6, 2010
Thank you John for your inspirational comment.
Omer Greenwald
Twitter: WebTechWise
on April 6, 2010
Very good post Suresh, and congratulations for your achievement!
.-= Omer Greenwald´s last blog ..Google PR Update is Finally Here =-.
amit barfa
Twitter: amitbarfa
on April 6, 2010
Hi,
Congrats Omer
I just wanted to let you know that one of my 26 days old site has also got PR3 from PR0.
Thanks for update.
Petr
Twitter: beabudotcom
on April 8, 2010
Google PageRank is still a big mystery for me. One of my sites suddenly got from 0 to 3 just about the time when the domain was 6 months old. At that time I also got a nice increase in traffic, though concerning backlinks I did not pay much attention to them. I still think it is best to not worry too much about PageRank and keep it going – it must come eventually. Congrats to your achievement.
.-= Petr´s last blog ..RSI Overbought and Oversold Areas =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 8, 2010
Everything is fine as long as my blog is optimized and contents are unique and genuine. But you shou be following the common SEO for your blog, no doubt. There are many factors for google to consider when ranking website and backlinks should not be ignored. Ultimately, PageRank is the measure of popularity of website and backlinks are the major element. quality of links and quantity of links back to the site counts.
Jayce on April 11, 2010
My blog also got its PR4 back. Done some of the things above. Target PR5 now.
.-= Jayce´s last blog ..Download Opera Mini 5 & Opera Mobile 10 with Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 Support =-.
Suresh Khanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 12, 2010
Congratulations Jayce. Wish you best of luck for PR 5 Next time!
Fernando Souza on April 30, 2010
Im with PR3, wish I could get PR4 as quick as possible
.-= Fernando Souza´s last blog ..First week of college =-.
sheila on May 30, 2010
Thanks for sharing this detailed SEO techniques in such a manner that newbies on this field (especially those who are not from this field) can fully understand.
Kavita
Twitter: sfihomebizz
on November 17, 2010
What a journey for icttrends. Full credit to your hard work. Now you have 2 successful blogs. I have two questions Suresh and want your sincere opinion.
1. icttrends had a page rank of 4 in april, 2010. But currently it is 3. Why? Does google downgrades page rank too and for what reasons? I am eagerly waiting for next page rank update.
2. I have not applied for google adsense yet for my blog. icttrends is 2 years old and has adsense ads. I would like to know after how many articles and blog age you applied for adsense account and got approved. My blog is 7 months old with 34 articles and no guest articles. What are my chances of getting an adsense account approved?
Suresh Khanal
Twitter: icttrends
on November 18, 2010
Essentially the links back to your blog is most determining factor for PageRank. In case of ICT Trends it was decreased to PR 3 in last update and there are a number of reasons. I was extremely active on forums and commenting and building links to it. Later on, I changed my mind to use it for Computer Jobs Exam Preparation related contents and start a new blog for Blog about Blogging. During this transitional phase I was much bewildered and the intensity was reduced.
When the backlinks to your blog are from home page they have naturally higher value. Networks like BlogEngage, Bloggers publish your posts on home page if they are published and later on they are buried deeper and deeper. If your posts can’t hold the first page consistently the link value you are receiving might go decreasing. This can result to decreasing of your PR. Because I stopped writing for ICT Trends for a few months and there was no new posts to submit on those social networks, naturally the links values were decreasing. But still I’m happy, PR was not that devastating. + or – 1 on each update is pretty natural.
Google Adsense process is somewhat mysterious. You won’t believe, but I got my application approved for a .blogspot.com blog that had 6 or 7 posts. It was much easier then. I don’t think its too tough these days as well. What they look essentially is if your site is genuine with original content. Some flow of traffic are impressive. You’ve already have a great blog and I don’t doubt your application will get approved. Just apply and wait for a week. If it is not approved for any reason (they will state that), just improve your blog and re-apply after some days. You need to have a privacy policy in your blog (if you don’t have that yet) before you drop an application in.
I don’t know if it still works the same way or not but you can always try to build up a blog on blogger.com with 8-10 good quality original posts (not less than 500 words each) and apply for Adsense. You can apply for Adsense from within blogger.com. Because it is owned by Google and it is automatically applied when you place Adsense Ads in your blogspot blogs, I see chances are higher it will be approved.
I don’t doubt for your blog to get approved. Try with your own blog first.
Hope I made some points cleared. You are always welcome for further discussion.