Search Engine Optimization

Google Trust Rank is an algorithm incorporated into Google in about 2005.

we propose techniques to semi-automatically separate reputable, good pages from spam. We first select a small set of seed pages to be evaluated by an expert. Once we manually identify the reputable seed pages, we use the link structure of the web to discover other pages that are likely to be good.

The mechanism behind Trust Rank is very simple and requires human input. Human editors identify “seed pages”, which are high quality, editorial, unaffiliated pages. Links from the “seed pages” are considered trust links that pass trust score.

Trust rank calculates trust score from those “seed pages” and distributes it in a similar manner as Page Rank.

For example if an .edu seed page links to A, B and C, trust rank is equally distributed between A, B and C. If A links to X, Y and Z than the trust rank acquired by A from the seed page is distributed between X, Y and Z. When Z links to other pages Trust Rank flows in a similar manner as it did with A.

• The farther a page is from the original seed the less trust rank is passed.
• The more trust links are pointed to a page the higher its overall trust score
• Most powerful trust links are from seed pages

Examples of seed sites: Wikipedia, Microsoft.com, Stanford, DMOZ.

Tapping into .edu and .gov domains

SEOs have long recommended getting links from .edu and .gov domains since those are highly trusted sources likely to be seed pages. Try getting the .gov and .edu links.

The Weak Part of Trust Rank

Trust rank requires humans to identify seed pages, which is additional cost to Google. Other than human cost I think it’s pretty effective.

Google already uses quality raters to rate pages suspected of quality issues, so several dozens of “seed identifiers” won’t hurt the bottom line.

Learn More about Trust Rank:

• Google Trust Rank Paper