Google SERP Spillover and Snowball Effects

Ever wondered if the powers that be at Google had a talk with your mom before deciding on Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking algorithm? There is one saying that parents are fond of telling their children about and it goes like this: “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” This saying may just as well be the guiding principles in Google’s SERP rank rating.

Google SERP Spillover Effect: “Tell me who your friends are…”
Come to think of it, a web site’s Google SERP rank rating relies quite heavily on its one-way links. To get listed at the top (or near the top, anyway) of Google’s SERP for a particular query, a website must have a great number of quality and relevant links. Let’s look at these concepts more closely.

Your one way links, as you probably already know, refer to the links that point from one web site to your web site. When visitors click it, they are directed to your web site from whatever web page they came from. Google’s SERP algorithm designers think that you are “in” on the scene when you have many such links.

However, that’s not the extent of it. Google’s algorithm designers think that the Google SERP rank rating and the relevance of the web pages from where your one way links are found are even more important than the mere absolute number of links that you have pointing towards your site. That is, your one way links only count towards your web site’s SERP rank rating if these links are posted on web sites with high SERP ratings in your keyword or category niche. For instance, it is more effective if your online train ticket sales site has a one-way link from an online travel agency’s page that has a high Google SERP rank rating, than if it has a one-way link from an obscure online poker gaming site.

This is Google SERP ranking algorithm’s spillover effect. It is Google’s official stand that if webmasters of sites having high page rank ratings in your particular industry think that your web site is worth linking to, then your web site is probably relevant, too. Your web site’s Google SERP ranking therefore rises accordingly.

This smacks of high school clique mentality, don’t you think? If the cool guys think you’re cool, then you must be cool, too…

Google Snowball Effect

Getting to the top of Google SERP rankings is comparable to climbing up to the top of Mt. Everest. It requires a lot of patience, skill and fortitude to reach this highly desirable spot. Prior to accomplishing this goal, a web master has to put in months of hard work to make his web site Google friendly so that the Google spider will return it at the top of the particular keyword SERP.

Once a website attains a high ranking on one keyword, however, attaining supremacy on related keywords or keyword phrases becomes easier. In short, your web site’s initial high SERP ranking snowballs and raises your page ranking in other related keywords and keyword phrases.

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