'Host domain authority' is most important SEO factor

The most important element of the Google search algorithm is the authority of a domain according to a new report, although its popularity and external links within the site were important too.

The authority of a host domain is the most important element for search engine optimisation (SEO) in the Google search algorithm, a new report has suggested.

The research, conducted by SEOmoz, listed the trust or authority of a domain as contributing 24 per cent towards the algorithm, while the popularity of the link came in second with 22 per cent.

The website conducts this SEO research every two years by asking a panel of experts what they believe are the most positive and negative ranking factors, as well as many other more specific questions.

In this year's report, the third and fourth-placed factors in the algorithm calculation were the anchor text of external links and the keyword usage on the webpage, recording 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

Earlier this month, Steve Baldwin wrote in his Search Insider blog on MediaPost that using keywords in domain names would be vital to rankings on Google's new Caffeine search engine infrastructure.

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