what's Google Site Ranking based on?

Used to be the content that determined site ranking for a site but now....

[Aella]

Not very long ago it used to be the content that determined the site ranking of any website. All we heard was 'content is the king' rantings everywhere. And though much of the echos of these rantings atill prevail but I doubt if this is still the case. Doesn't seem to be! What was achieved with good content and keyword density till a few months back doesn't seem to be affecting the site rankings any more :(

What exactly is Google doing now? What is the site ranking now based on? Links?

[tedster]

Content is still part of the equation - but from the very beginning of Google, links were very important, especially as measured by their PageRank formula.

Today there are hundreds of factors involved. Check out our Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com] area that stays pinned to the top of this forum's index page. Especially check into some of the threads about patents. You'll get more of a big picture about all the factors that Google uses today. But of those factors, the area of links is still quite high on the list.

Also note - you asked about "site ranking". While there are some site-wide factors, Google's search results are for specific URLs, not sites.

[randle]

What exactly is Google doing now? What is the site ranking now based on?

If you want to rank well get good back links, from trusted sites and add quality content. That continues to really be the road to success. You ask a good and relevant question; one that garnered a great deal of lively discussion over the years. However, threads about that have been replaced by discussions about why sites fall.

More and more it seems like the real question is; “what is causing that site to fall in the rankings”? The hunt for, and reward of, signals of quality is being algorithmically crowded out by the implementation of penalties and filters.