Fortune Interactive's Research Sheds a Light on How Search Engines Determine Rankings

RALEIGH, N.C.-July 17, 2006--Fortune Interactive LLC (www.FortuneInteractive.com), an interactive marketing firm specializing in search engine marketing, today announced the first part of its findings on how leading search engines are determining the rankings of web pages.

Fortune Interactive utilized its proprietary SEMLogic™ technology to ascertain what metrics were crucial to the web pages organically ranked on the first page of search results for the competitive key phrase "laptop" on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

This extensive research study found the range of optimal values for a key metric varies across search engines and the importance of a metric varies even down to the key phrase level. Similar to the methodology utilized by search engines, SEMLogic™ uses semantic analysis in examining a company's online competition and identifying patterns and trends as well as establishing what search engine crawlers are recognizing as the strongest supporting words. The technology studies and evaluates over 100,000 data points of on- and off-page factors of more than 100 competitors in any given industry.

Key SEMLogic™™ findings on the top ten web pages ranked for the key phrase "laptop" on the Google, Yahoo and MSN include:

  • Off-page optimization factors out-weighed any on-page optimization factors.
  • In-bound link quality was the most important factor across all three engines. However, each engine's optimal range for link quality was different.
  • In determining in-bound link quality, the reputation of the originating web page was more important than the page's relevance to the keyword "laptop."
  • In-bound link quantity was the least important factor among off-page factors.
  • The most important on-page factor for Google was title-tag keyword density.
  • Web pages that successfully ranked across the engines all had strong values in at least the two most important influential factors for each search engine respectively.

SEMLogic™ allows Fortune Interactive professionals to utilize quantifiable data in the creation of advanced search engine optimization strategies. The days of using educated guesses and hunches when optimizing a web page are over.

The complete findings of the research are available at http://www.fortuneinteractive.com/pr/laptop.html.

About Fortune Interactive

Fortune Interactive is a full-service interactive marketing agency, specializing in search engine marketing and Web log (blog) marketing. Fortune Interactive utilizes SEMLogic™, its proprietary search research technology. The company is located in Raleigh, North Carolina.