Amit Singha, a Google Fellow, has offered an explanation on Google’s ranking algorithm. It gives a clear insight into what Google considers important to end users and how they calculate their result pages.

“Google ranking is a collection of algorithms used to seek out relevant and useful results for a user’s query.”

“….we do take action on sites that are in violation of our policies or for a small number of other reasons.”

Sounds simple right? Well it’s not. Whilst it may seem obvious to you that your site is relevant to Google, the chances are it’s stuffed full of irrelevant and distracting information. What about penalties? It’s not always apparent if your being penalised by them, and you should start by adhering to their policies. As for the ‘small number of other reasons’, if your not ranking as highly as you think you should be, the chances are your doing something wrong.

You can read Amit’s full post on Blogspot.