Is Google now getting into the beverage business? Not really. However in a new article at the Washington Post, Leslie Walker coins the phrase “Google Juice” which she associates with how high a Web site ranks in Google’s search results.
“Google juice, for the uninitiated, refers to how high a Web site ranks in Google’s search results — the higher the ranking, the more juice. Google juice is all about links. As many people know, the Internet search leader ranks Web sites based largely on the quantity and quality of other sites linking to it,” she writes.
While the phrase “link juice” has become popular in referring to the benefit a web site or page can gain by others linking to it, this is the first time I have heard anything about Google Juice even though there is a Wikipedia definition for it. The statement that Google is all about links is also not entirely true. They still look at “on the page factors” as well. Links are helpful for sure but they are not all that Google looks at.
She goes on to talk about the current SEO contest – “v7ndotcom elursrebmem”, started by John Scott. This is a contest where contestants try to gain the number one spot for this silly made up phrase by a combination of SEO tactics and link building efforts.
Finally she draws attention to some of the ways people obtain links including link baiting, using Rand’s Web 2.0 Awards site as an example which has already amassed over 50,000 links and text link brokers such as TextLinkBrokers.com, a company of which I just learned today that they reside right here in my home town of Phoenix, Arizona. I’ve been aware of them for quite some time but never knew they were my neighbor!
In conclusion she writes, “There are shady ways to get Google juice, too, but be careful — it could get your site booted completely out of the Google index. If you break the search-engine rules, the juice can turn to poison and lead to the Google death penalty.” Overall a pretty decent article. I just don’t know about the Google Juice verbiage.
