Archive: January, 2009

What can an SEO firm do for your PageRank? To answer this question we need to take a quick look at surfer models. I’m not talking about babes with boards hanging around a surf shack, I’m talking about how the original PageRank algorithm reflects what is known as the random surfer model, which is a room full monkeys with Internet-connected laptops type of scenario in which a page’s rank is determined by the probability that at least one of the monkeys will visit a desired page by clicking links at random. This random business is misleading though – surfers do not as a rule randomly visit webpages – instead, they pursue links that match their own interests and intentions. Enter the intentional surfer model in which a page’s rank includes, and is partially based on, how many real users actually visit the page. Now we are beginning to venture into the territory of search engine optimization because under the intentional surfer model, the x-factor is the identification and matching of keywords and keyword phrases.