It has been a couple of weeks since my last post on Google filters and I wanted to continue the series today by talking about the Co-Citation Filter.

How It Works

With its most recent updates, Google is focusing not only on the links you have to your website and their Page Rank but also how relevant they are to the content on your site. For example, if you have a website that deals with small business issues and a website that focuses on home renovation links to you, it will not help you rank for the small business keywords and will potentially classify your website as a home renovation page (probably not what you want!)

Google’s Link Evolution
In the old days of search engine optimization any link would do and the more you had the better. As Google evolved they put a much heavier focus on high ranking pages. Websites with high Page Ranks that link to you carried far more value than those with low Page Ranks. Now Google wants to see that you have not only high Page Rank pages linking to you but high ranking and relevant pages.

What You Can Do

Link building is one of the two key elements to an effective SEO strategy (along with creating unique, targeted, optimized content) and business owners should continue to pursue linking opportunities. However, with Google’s new approach, entrepreneurs should be focusing in on getting links from the high Page Rank sites and the pages that are relevant.

Look for who runs the top ranking webpages that surround your topic. Some will be competitors while many will be potential complimentary providers. Make a list of the top 20 complimentary high ranking and relevant pages and focus your efforts on getting links from these pages. Connect with the owner or website manager, think outside the box on how you can potentially work together, and get that all important link back to your site. It will make a world of difference for your Google rankings!

Evan Carmichael