Almost no body text ranks high

and a few other Q's while you're at it :-)

[AfiComp]

Hi all,
I've got a few questions for you guys, and I hope you can help me figure it all out :-)

1) I came across a site which ranks #8 in the search results for a very competitive phrase, now here's where google's logic was lost on me:
a)Their entire site (with the exception of the FAQ page)is image based (i.e. no body text what so ever).
b)PR4
c)Keyword prominence of 35.5% according to WPG's PageCritic
d)About 10 backward link (according to the google toolbar)
My question is - How come?

2) On another occasion, a really "spammy" site (IMOH - the entire thing was covered with hidden text, and had "Site Under Construcion" written everywhere) , that held an even higher position for the same competitive phrase, was finally knocked out by google (from the SERP for that particular phrase), and yet it retains PR5, and top positions on a slightly different search phrase.
Once again my question is - How come?

3) Last one - going back to the SERP for the aforementioned competitive term - one of the top "scorers" (#9) is a "permanent redirect" domain owned by the top site in this specific industry (the "doorway" domain, obviously, redirects to it's "mother site").
So, I guess you already know where I'm going with this...

10X in advanced to each and every one of you that takes the time to read my question and tries to enlight me (remember - I'm a green-wet-behind-the-ears-newbie, so be patient me :-)

AfiComp

[aspdesigner]

I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses here on the "why is this spam showing up" questions, so I'll answer #1 for you -

If the page is all graphics, this is likely being caused by ALT text being indexed as the page content. This is actually the Google-recommended way to handle getting an all-graphics page indexed. Do a view source on the pages and check.

The other possibility is that they are cloaking. Try comparing their copy in the Google cache with what you see on their site.

[AfiComp]

Hi aspdesigner and 10X for your reply,
After having a second look at their source code, I found out they have NO alt text what so ever.
As for cloaking - the cached image is exactly the same as the "Live" page, and to top that, I took a "ride" at WebArchives "WayBack machine" and their site design hasn't changed in the past year.
So I ask again - How come?

10X,
AfiComp

[aspdesigner]

Maybe in the Meta Tags? Check to see what comes up as the site description (the snippet) for various searches, and see if you can find where that specific text is coming from.

[JudgeJeffries]

I understand where aficomp is coming from. Even if this site does have some tag or other, it should be beaten hands down by the normally optimised sites that have all the bells and whistles but isnt. I often see the same phenomina in my topic and can never understand why.

[AfiComp]

10X again aspdesigner ,
The META tags (desc. and keywords) are, indeed, the only keyword oriented parts on the site.
Still that doesn't explain it.
What about my other questions - any ideas regarding them?

Thanks again,
AfiComp