Each participant was asked to rate more than 100 search ranking factors along with specific questions about hot issues in the SEO field.

1. Anchor Text from External Links


2. Keyword Use in Title Tag


3. Raw Link Popularity


4. Diversity of Linking Domains


5. Keyword Use in Root Domain

Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors:

1. Cloaking with Malicious Intent


2. Link Acquisition from Link Brokers


3. Cloaking by User Agent


4. Frequent Server Downtime


5. Linking Out to Spam

Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics for SEO

1. Linkbait + Viral Content Creation


2. Blogging and Engagement with the Blogosphere


3. Classic "Create Valuable Content" Strategies w/o Promotional Marketing


4. Public Relations (beyond just press release publication)


5. Direct Link Purchases from Individual Sites/Webmasters

Which of the following best represents your opinion of how Google handles algorithmic evaluation of content on subdomains (excluding potential special cases such as Blogspot, Wordpress, etc.)?

• 83% Content on Subdomains inherits some, but not all, of the query-independent ranking metrics of the root domain (or other subdomains) and is judged partially as a separate entity.


• 10% Content on Subdomains never inherits all of the query-independent ranking metrics of the root domain (or other subdomains) and is judged largely as a separate entity.


• 7% Content on subdomains inherits all or nearly all of the query-independent ranking metrics of the root domain (or other subdomains) and is judged much the same as other content on the shared root domain.