Keyword doesn't even appear

Keyword Mystery

[Rhys]

What have I missed?
I have been number one with my chosen keyword for a long time, but have noticed a newcomer coming rapidly up behind, and this is now number 2.
I got curious, and started to see how it was worked, and guess what? - the keyword doesn't even appear on the page or in the page code, in fact it only appears once on the whole site, and on a rarely visited page at that.
How can this be, that a page with no reference to this word can feature as the number two SE result out of an 8000 plus result list?

[Brett_Tabke]

Context and theme. It depends on the engine, but the site probably has some inbound links with the keyword in the text. example: (Webmaster [webmasterworld.com]). It could also be listed in some directory with that keyword as the "directory" keyword (eg: theme).

[Rhys]

Thanks Brett -
You are spot on, :-) this site is listed on DMOZ in that keyword category, despite the fact that there is absolutely no reference to it on the site.....
I am amazed - it appears that this is a very easy way to get top ranking(and free traffic!), in a keyword you have no right to!
Just start your site Title with the letter A so as to top of the DMOZ list, and there you are.
Cheers - Rhys