Chapter 5. External Ranking Factors
In Chapter 4 we covered internal ranking factors, which are elements over which you have absolute control, such as adding appropriate keywords on your pages and using a consistent linking site structure to ensure easy navigation. In this chapter we will cover external ranking factors, which are factors that do not depend entirely on you and, in some cases, in which you have no say at all.
When I talk about external ranking factors, I am talking about many different things, including the number of external inbound links, user behavior patterns, website performance, website age, and so forth.
There are many different external ranking factors. Each factor will be in its own context with its own set of rules. In cases where you can sway these factors in your favor, you want to take full advantage by being proactive.
I will reference several scripts in this chapter, including the mymonitor.pl script, which appears in its entirety in Appendix A. By the end of this chapter, you will have an overall picture of the most important external ranking factors.
External Links
External links are also known as backlinks, inbound links, and referral links. According to Wikipedia, backlinks are defined as follows:
Backlinks (or back-links (UK)) are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) world, the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page (though other measures, such as PageRank, ...
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