Does google use on page text for rankings?

I have heard that rankings are determined by anchor text. However, I rank #5 for 'classified ad picture' and #3 for 'newspaper classified picture' on google and have never used the word 'picture' in any anchor text. (I use the word 'photo' instead). The word picture is on my site often, though. Any thoughts on this, I am still learning here and would appreciate any feedback.

 

anchor text is only a factor, an important one though, but there are tons of other parameters in the algo.

 

Google definitely uses on-page text as a factor in rankings, as do the other SEs. On-page factors (such as content text), however, are not weighted as heavily as off-page factors (such as anchor text and backlinks). I'd be very surprised if you didn't also rank highly for keywords including "photo", as well.

Sam

 

Yes, I do rank high for 'photo' also. #3 for classified ad photo and #1 for newspaper classified photo. For photo, I have on page text plus lots of anchor text. I am glad, though, to rank for the word 'picture' as well.

 

There are lots of other factors like
[1] Keyword density in that page
[2] Relavancy of content from where you are linked
[3] Keywords in Title tags
[4] Keywords in Meta tags and Meta Description and a lot of other Factors

 

In fact Google is using on page text for ranking

 

Take a look here for all of the factors
http://www.seomoz.org/articles/search-ranking-factors.php

 

thanks for the information everyone. it has been very helpful.

 

Ya really on page text is just a factor there are other parameters that may be ranking you high.

 

allintext:www.site.com

 

I find allinanchor:keyword position gives more of a correlation to rankings.