Search Engine Ranking Factors

Introduction to Ranking Factors
This article contains a list of the factors that can control a web document's rank at the major search engines (Yahoo!, MSN, Google) for a particular term or phrase. Although it is not possible to say for certain which of these items affects which search engine or how important the factors are individually, I've created an estimated ranking importance range as indicated by the following symbols:

Exceptional Importance:-These factors have primary influence in ranking search results at the major search engines.
High Importance:-These factors have a high impact on modifying rankings of web documents in the SERPs
Moderate Importance:-These factors have a measurable level of affect on the rankings in the SERPs, but are not major contributors..
Slight Importance:-These factors carry some impact on rankings and could be important when in a highly competitive area.
Inconsequential Importance:-These factors are of low importance in changing the ranking positions of a web document. They may have some effect in certain queries or documents.

Most Important Factors
The following are the top 10 ranked factors across the 5 categories:
1. Title Tag
2. Anchor Text of Links
3. Keyword Use in Document Text
4. Accessibility of Document
5. Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages
6. Primary Subject Matter of Site
7. External Links to Linking Pages
8. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
9. Global Link Popularity of Site
10. Keyword Spamming

In-Document (on-page) Factors Affecting Ranking:
The following factors are on-page items that change the ranking directly by virtue of being a part of the indexed and retrieved document. Many of these factors will not apply normally to all documents, while others are standard.
Title Tag
Keyword Use in Document Text
Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages
Uniqueness of Document Text
Related Term Use in Document Text
External Links in Document
Age of Document]
Citation Links or Sources
Meta Description Tag
Organization of Document Text
Text in Alt/Img Title Tags
Paragraph Headings
Keyword Use in URL
Meta Keywords Tag
Use of H1, Bold & Other Visual Tags
Use of In-Document Links & Anchors
Grammar Use in Document

Site Factors Affecting the Value of Hosted Documents:
The following factors affect all documents hosted at a particular website. These factors influence the overall strength and focus of the site where documents are hosted, thereby affecting any page at the site.

Anchor Text of Incoming Links to Site: - In determining a site's subject matter, both the text of the site's hosted documents and the text of links pointing to the site may be contributing factors. If many links point to a site with anchor text that is "on-topic" for a document hosted at the site, that document may have a better chance of ranking well for the query.

Age of Site: - A site's age may manipulate the value and trust placed upon documents hosted there by search engines. Older sites are generally considered more responsible than newer sites as they have established a record of legitimacy.

Domain Extension:- .com, .net, .biz are all commercial extensions, freely available to anyone. But, domains like .gov, .mil or .edu may only be purchased and operated by those with special privileges. As such, a domain carrying one of these extensions may be considered more "trustworthy" and therefore accept a boost in ranking.

Keyword Use in Domain Name:- Search engine may consider the value of a keyword or related term/phrase in the actual domain name of the site. Relevant terms/phrases would thereby benefit sites with those terms/phrases in their name.

Existence of Sitemap Page on Site:- A sitemap page, particularly one noted as such via anchor text or title may boost the crawling speed and thus ranking effectiveness of documents at a website.

Global Link Popularity of Site: - Global link popularity simply measures the importance of all the links to a unique domain, with more links from more important sites (relative to their own link popularity) typically having stronger control.