In our quest for answers, we take a look at the second set of the Top 10 SA Pages that Google favours. Will the results reveal any surprises, or will the secret remain buried with Google’s hate for farming and cross linking partners?

7). News24

Description – 8 May
Page Rank	6	Links from EDU domains	895
news24.com Pages indexed in MSN	45,237	Links from GOV domains	36
news24.com Pages indexed in Google	65,000	Links to home page	31,672
Pages in Google Supplemental Index	46,100	Links to home page (not internal)	22,226
Pages in Google Main Index	18,900	Links to domain	374,852
news24.com Pages indexed in Yahoo	764,273	Links to domain (not internal)	132,045
Links from Yahoo Directory	21	Total Deep Links	109,819
Links from DMOZ Directory	2	Deep link %	83 %

Indexing
With over 750,000 pages in Yahoo, a mere 65,000 seems like quite a embarrassing amount of pages for one of SA’s leading news sites.

Links
Another link profile I wouldn’t mind having. Boasting with over 130,000 inbound links to their domain and fantastic deep level link percentage. Another 36 .gov links – wow they have the parliament behind them as well…

Summary
All-in-all, they need to up their amount of pages indexed, as well as lower the supplemental pages. But overall a good performance from the news giant; I wonder how they rank on 24.com?

6). IOL

Description – 8 May
Page Rank	7	Links from EDU domains	1,700
iol.co.za Pages indexed in MSN	51,485	Links from GOV domains	29
iol.co.za Pages indexed in Google	225,000	Links to home page	174,593
Pages in Google Supplemental Index	377,000	Links to home page (not internal)	172,486
Pages in Google Main Index	-152,000	Links to domain	690,978
iol.co.za Pages indexed in Yahoo	879,588	Links to domain (not internal)	285,674
Links from Yahoo Directory	101	Total Deep Links	113,188
Links from DMOZ Directory	0	Deep link %	40 %

Indexing
“There’s something screwy going on around here.” – Elmer Fudd
I think I broke Google… Sorry, Matt. But clearly something went wrong. Again a big difference between # of pages in Yahoo compared to Google and Yahoo. Duplication issues? 

Links
There’s little wrong with their link profile. Some good high quality links with a healthy 40% internal link percentage. The 1,700 .edu links sure would boost their performance. But a bit worrying that Google only picks up 71 of 285,000 links.

Summary
Looking at the facts on hand; a lot of questions come to mind. Was the tool broken? How relevant are those links that they have? Mmmm, Maybe more digging is required...

5). Wits

Description – 8 May
Page Rank	7	Links from EDU domains	1,310
wits.ac.za Pages indexed in MSN	76,572	Links from GOV domains	23
wits.ac.za Pages indexed in Google	52,800	Links to home page	3,946
Pages in Google Supplemental Index	39,300	Links to home page (not internal)	4,932
Pages in Google Main Index	13,500	Links to domain	23,534
wits.ac.za Pages indexed in Yahoo	65,107	Links to domain (not internal)	13,851
Links from Yahoo Directory	138	Total Deep Links	8,919
Links from DMOZ Directory	2	Deep link %	64 %

Indexing
With an across the board balanced index ration there’s no surprise why Wits is ranking at #5. Although it’s fairly less than the other websites in the top 10, it’s all relevant themed content with great interlinking.

Links
A decent amount of relevant links to the domain, but only 5% according to Google (641). A big percentage of deep level links which shows the quality of the resources they offer on site. 23 .gov links - maybe should have giving more ministers some honorary degrees?

Summary
A surprisingly great performance from my old arched rival varsity (Go RAU). Simply upping their game will see them claw their way up the rankings!!!