Why do sites created using the twentyten theme rank so well?

[general_z]

 

[monyluv7]

Geez, I'm glad I ran across this thread. I was about to use the Atahualpa theme which is taking me too long to customize. (nothing against the designers. I just can't make up my mind with all the options).

Perhaps I should keep it simple and try working with Twenty Ten.

 

[monyluv7]

There is no doubt that themes can effect search engine rankings but on a very low level. THe most likely way is their load speed. Some of the big fancy pro themes out there look good but there is so much going on that it takes forever to load and remember the majority of visitors might not have lightning fast broadband.

If your blog takes a long time to load your bounce rate is going to sky rocket because most people are not going to sit there and wait for your site.

High bounce rate means google is going to penalise you so anyone saying themes do not have any effect, you're just plain wrong

I agree. I know when I go to a site and it takes too long to load, I'm leaving. And Google DOES look down on high bounce rate.

 

[mbhmirc]

i think it's a combo of page load speed and google fitting it to a model of code structure it expects from a well writtern site. Might be worth doing a whole site with the same stucture and see how well it ranks.

 

[general_z]

i think it's a combo of page load speed and google fitting it to a model of code structure it expects from a well writtern site. Might be worth doing a whole site with the same stucture and see how well it ranks.

Page load speed, YES.

Fitting code structure? Yes/No. Let me explain;

Google love semantics and clarity within a page. Why? It makes Googles job much more easy to distinguish what is what on a web site and therefor make Googles job easier to categorize it. This is also true for page speed.

Basically -- everything that makes Googles jobs easier in going to your site and indexing and categorizing it is always a good thing (think sitemap, robots.txt, clear top-to-bottom structure, sub pages, clear menu (code wise) categories and so on).

I wouldn't say it's a fact that Google love semantics, but semantics and good on page SEO often go hand in hand so if you aren't doing it -- DO. It really will affect your results.

And no, on page SEO isn't dead and never has been. Surely 10 billion links do a lot but 10 billion links + good on page seo do more.