What is your own theory on how pages are ranked in Google? I'm not talking about what you've heard, or what Google has said ranks well, I'm talking about your own personal theory of how pages are ranked in Google? I have been building websites for 10 years, some of my own projects that I have started and ended up selling soon after because I have never had the time to run my own sites really. But what I have found and what my whole theory about ranking well in Google is to offer content that is natural. Don't worry about keywords, don't worry about titles, don't worry about what every other tom dick and harry are doing, don't worry about keyword density, don't worry about how many internal or external links you have on each page, just create content for your site and have a little patience. I have never targeted a single keyword in any website I have built, I have never purchased back links, I have never submitted to any directories. I have never done any advertising. I have always let the robots and spiders do their work and then show the content in the search engines as they see fit - and for being patient any website I have built has always had 70-80%+ of organic traffic. Of course, there are plenty of methods people implement into their websites to achieve better results that give them an advantage, but natural content provides a lot more in my opinion - certainly no instant advantages but in the long run people who write natural content will see the many benefits, such as having a high percentage of organic traffic which everyone knows converts no matter what PPC program you're using, or what products you're selling. The reason behind my theory is this, if I was a professional in the 'Gardening' niche and I basically knew everything about 'Gardening' and I wanted to build a website that provides helpful knowledge to other 'Gardeners' but I knew nothing about websites, why should someone with less knowledge in the 'Gardening' niche but with extensive knowledge in 'web development' have a better ranking in Google than me for the term 'Gardening Tips'? Surely Google want to be able to provide the best quality website for the search term "Gardening Tips" and my theory rests on this, what if Google are a lot more clever than people already know they are? That's just my theory on the subject, if you write natural content you will get rewarded for it in the long run. Too many people these days only offer content they think Google will like, rather than what they think their users will like - so basically what I'm trying to say is don't worry about Google or any other search engine, because the results will come with patience.
My theory is this: Decent ranking: quality (relevant) links and decent (relevant) content. Great ranking: quality (relevant) links and great (relevant) content. Been experimenting a little with this and found that a site with no links and decent content is useless for ranking. Not saying this is true but it's my theory atm