Google webmaster chat:

indirect answers to direct questions

Summing up Googlers' answers to webmasters' questions, we took notice of a few things webmasters are very curious about, but they can only guess at – even the expert opinions differ a great deal. Read the answers and conclusions from the third online Webmaster Chat.

Googler: "… if a site is made in a way that users run away right away, then chances are that we might not be recommending it as much as other sites that users like." – We can conclude that the information Google receives through its toolbar is used in the ranking algorithm.

Googler: "I think it is fair for Google to use that [age of a site and the amount of time a domain is registered] as a signal in some circumstances." – The age of domains and sites are ranking factors.

Googler: "Google uses a bunch of signals like location of the server or the TLD in order to determine which users might be interested in the sites content. "– This means the location of the server does influence the local page rankings.

Googler: "If you're moving from one URL to another (even if it's on a different domain), ranking signals can be passed via a 301 [redirect]." – Google will pass your old domain ranking information to the new domain if you make a proper redirect – 301. However, you should not use a 302 redirect.

Googler: "We work hard to make sure a site can't have a negative effect on another site." – So, a bunch of links from "bad neighborhoods cannot cause a drop in site rankings."

Googler: "We generally treat all links the same – be it from .gov or .edu or .info sites."

Googler: "PageRank is re-computed all the time (different PageRanks every day). But we update the toolbar PageRank 3-4 times/year." – The toolbar PageRank is often misleading and does not show a true picture.