can anybody explain this to me

[Lovestoned]

How does the ranking works? is it based on the number of hits the site gets???

[soulbleed62]

its based on lots of things, all of which arent really set in stone.

- number of links to your site and the PR of the sites that link to you
- age of your site / when its updated
- SEO of the site itself
- keyword density
- site map

[HHI Golf Guy]

Each search engine bases their rankings using a unique mathematical algorithm, and these algorithms are highly guarded secrets of these companies.

The algorithms are quite complex, and Google has previously stated that their algorithm takes into account over 1,000 on-page and off-page factors to determine the rankings.

These factors work on a sliding scale, kind of like a giant IF-THEN-ELSE programming statement such as if Ranking Factor A is present, Factor B carries 80% weight while Factor C carries only 5% weight and so on down the line for each of the variables in the algorithm. The algorithm takes into account factors on individual pages, site wide factors, and off-page factors (i.e. inbound links and the pages and sites providing those links).

It is these reasons why you simply can't copy the inbound links and KW density another top site and expect to get top rankings.

The best way to improve your own web site rankings is to develop a cohesive web site theme and develop the propery hiearchy of content and navigation in your site to support that theme. You don't need thousands of pages to do this. A typical real estate site can do this with 40-60 pages.

Find links to your site from authority sites relating to your primary themes. For example, if one of your primary themes is "Tampa Bay real estate" then find links from authorities on both "Tampa Bay" and "real estate". From there, look at KW stemming from your primary theme and find links from authority sites relating to those KW's.

Remember, the authority of a web site has nothing to do with that little green Google Toolbar page rank feature. What are the factors of an authority web site? I won't divulge my authority site criteria. After all, I do have clients that pay me for that expertise.

With that being said, there's a heck of a lot more involved in getting top rankings, especially with the on page optimization of a web site. Read as much as you can about the topic from a number of resources, then pick out the commonalities of those sources. Beware of "magic bullet" claims. Depending upon your site and your competition it may take you well over a year to get top 10-15 rankings. That should get you started.

[nuvru]

Lovestoned, did you get all that? Haha.

HHI Golf Guy, you could of probably just said "it works by magic" and saved yourself a lot of time.

[roosevelt]

Lovestoned, did you get all that? Haha.

HHI Golf Guy, you could of probably just said "it works by magic" and saved yourself a lot of time.

Hehe nice one. Well this is how Google works in particular.

1) Keyword Density
2) Number of relevant links from other websites to yours.
3) The page rank of those websites
4) Site Localization!

I won't go in the whole details but I recommend searching on those topics and you will get an idea of what I am talking about.

Just so let you know the algorithms really aren't just if and else but works more recursively. Recursive basically means a function calls itself to solve a particular problem :p.

You could ask some experts here: submitexpress.com to optimize your website.

[bluefrog59]

Golf Guy has it right. If you want to get down to some basics to get started, here is a list of items to work on:

Page Titles - make sure they fit your content and keywords well

Alt attribute - don't overdue your keywords in these, make them fit the image and you'll be surprised how well your site can do with a little honest alts. Yahoo pays more attention to the alts than does Google - also images that actually linkt to something carry a greater alt attribute weight than those that do not.

Clean up your code - every time I see a site that has 400 characters of Javascript and CSS before you finally get to the text it drives me crazy. Optimizing a code heavy site is much more work than optimizing a SE friendly site. You want your content to be easily found and spidered by the engines - don't make them try to decipher the code and the content. Although most big engines have gotten pretty good at this it still hurts your site to have a higher code to content ration than the competition.

Have rich content - be sure to add as much relevant information as possible to your site. For example: what are the legal aspects of real estate, what are the schools like in the area where you operate, climate etc.. all this is important to your customers and adds keyword rich content to your site.

Work on your internal linking - link from one page to another using words within your text that relate to the page where the information is. For example: if the word "weather" is on your home page, link it to your "climate" page.

Once you have the above in order, then it will be time to begin building links and getting spidered more frequently by the engines.

[the-ref]

Like previously said, all search engines work differently. What could get you a number 1 ranking in Google may give you a 10 ranking in Yahoo or a 20 ranking in MSN. Because there are literally thousands of search engines out there, there is no way to develop a site that will attain top rankings for every search engine. Your best bet is to just stick with the top dogs of search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, maybe even Ask) and see how you can optimize your site to best meet their standards.

[backgammonnn123]

I must say that first off im a little biased because my seo concentrates more on link building then anything else and he says its tedious work but its the most important part of ranking a site well in the search engines.

[maciekjed]

I think that most of SEO technics are based on speculations. Speculations about how does google algorithm work. Nobody knows anythink for sure. But that makes it so exciting ;p

[AAO]

As far as I know there are 2 aspects to ranking
on site- that includes the metatags, coding, site structure, Keyword density and so on.
off site- means site presence on other sites.
a link to your home page, or a link to a particular page on the website.

While the on site can be handled by one time payment to your website maintenance team, its the 'off site' that it very very hard work.
Article posting, forums, affiliates blogging are some ways they can be done.

Any other suggestions?

[cobs]

its based on lots of things, all of which arent really set in stone.

- number of links to your site and the PR of the sites that link to you
- age of your site / when its updated
- SEO of the site itself
- keyword density
- site map

All the above plus-The content of the page that is linking to you

[kidd24]

Page ranking or where our web pages appear in the search engines is the most important factor if we are interested in online business or if we want to get visitors to our web sites. So, how do search engines work? Most of todays webmasters fail to analyze this question properly. We have thousands of search engines, the most important one today is Google. Each of them works on a special mathematical equation or algorithm which in most cases is kept secret to the general public. Webmasters spend months and even years trying to figure out the secret Google algorithm and how to rank better in the search results.

[jamesww]

All the above plus-The content of the page that is linking to you

It is not just how many links and the PR of the pages that link to your website that determines your position in search results. It also depends on how those links get back to you. If they are reciprical than you get a low amount of benefit from them. If the are three way they get down graded slightly from a one way link. The best link is going to be from a high PR web page that links one way to your site.

[philippine_real_estate]

if you want to rank on search engines, link to other related sites using your targeted keyword as your anchor text. content freshness is also important together with constant link building.

[rainier]

it all depends on how you optimized your site, for you to get rankings you need to do a link building.

[home]

How does the ranking works? is it based on the number of hits the site gets???

its base on how your site well optimized

[lyka27]

Raking works based on the popularity of the site.
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[wchua24]

nice , HHI golf guy.....wow very well said and i though its only about link building haha... thanks for the info surely you helped me allot and other people understanding this...thanks again cheers:)

[imranzaheer]

Achieving high ranking is a process that combines various things.

First thing is the strong On-Page Work, You should cover all points like title, meta description, H1 tags, Image Alt attribute, Link title attribute, page size, and other on-page seo factors.

Once done with on-page, now look for link popularity. Gather quality links from high pr web sites through forum submission, directory submission, article submission, threeway link exchange, press release submission and other off-page resources. But linking should look normal.

[apexonein]

The best thing that I can do is to provide Some URL which will answer your question. Since your question is not as simple as you are asking. There are much more than you can think.

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm

http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/05/new-study-on-google-ranking-factors/

regards
Apexone

[rainier]

for you to have rankings you need to have relevant backlink and traffic.

[Copybuild]

How does the ranking works? is it based on the number of hits the site gets???

Nope, it is not based on the number of hits. You would get a bunch of quality traffic if you have great visibility in major search engines. And to attain high rankings on them, a site must be well-optimized, on-page and off-page. :)

[jvcus17]

its based on lots of things, all of which arent really set in stone.

- number of links to your site and the PR of the sites that link to you
- age of your site / when its updated
- SEO of the site itself
- keyword density
- site mapthis is right however in addition to that, you can also check your site in google analytics to check where your ranking..and if you want to have a good ranking you should work hard for it..