Google Search algorithm and important factors for ranking higher...

While there could be a bunch of factors that can help you rank higher in search engines here is a set of some very important factors that could influence your rankings on search engines.There is a very intresting article by Ann over at search engine land.While some of these factors are pure speculation, some have been widely accepted by the industry to be critically important.

Domain factors

• Age.
• Domain Length.
• Domain name relevancy to content.
• Domain extension.
• Domain modifications , drops , ownership changes.
• Subdomains.

Content Factors

• Quantity of content.
• Relevancy throughout the website.
• Duplicate content.
• Freshness of content (Frequency of content addition).
• Keyword Citations.
• Keyword density.
• Keyword affinity.
• Comment relevance
• Content Served VS Content targeted geo region.
• Content translation.
• Keyword spamming.
• Blackhat techniques.
• RSS feeds.
• Subscribers.
• Meta tags
• Page title.

Link factors

• Outbound links.
• Inbound links.
• Source of links.
• Link originating page rank.
• External link anchor text.
• Link source relevance to the linked domain.
• Internal keyword linking.
• Cross linking across a network of sites.
• Bi-linking/ mutual linking.
• Authorative linking.

Server / Network Factors

• Server location.
• Website speed.
• Geographically targeted region (In context to site speed).

Structural Factors

• Navigation structure.
• Content organization.
• Taxonomy usage/ organization.
• Tags.
• Sitemap.
• 404 pages.
• Redirects.
• Permalink structure.
• Semantic structure.
• Use of Javascripts.
• robot.txt.
• about us page, disclaimer , privacy policy.
• .htaccess.

Local factors

• Local listings.
• Local citations.
• Directory listings.
• Reviews.
• Website.
• Location.
• Categories tagged.

Visitor trending

• Loyalty.
• Origin.
• Bounce rate.
• Pageviews.
• Unique views.

Application usage

• Webmaster tools.
• Analytics.

Feel free to add/append , criticize , provide opinion , debate as u wish.