According to SEOmoz Co-Founder & CEO Rand Fishkin, every two years, SEOmoz surveys top SEO experts in the field worldwide on their opinions of the algorithmic elements that comprise search engine rankings. This year features contributors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, the Ukraine, the Dominican Republic and many more.

I have to agree with him that his document, representing the collective wisdom of expert practitioners, is probably one of the most useful resources for SEO practitioners of all varieties, helping to provide transparency into what matters (and doesn’t) for best practices in search engine optimization.

Overall Ranking Algorithm

1. Trust/Authority of the Host Domain
2. Link Popularity of the Specific Page
3. Anchor Text of External Links
4. On-Page Keyword Usage
5. Traffic and Click-Through Data
6. Social Graph Metrics
7. Registration and Hosting Data

See more detailed SEO opinions about these ranking factors.

Top 5 Ranking Factors

1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)

See more detail about the indiviual ranking factors.

Top 5 Most Contentious Factors

1. Cloaking by Cookie Detection 16.3% strong contention
2. Cloaking by JavaScript/Rich Media Support Detection 15.4% moderate contention
3. Hiding Text with same/similar colored text/background 15.3% moderate contention
4. Cloaking by IP Address 15.3% moderate contention
5. Cloaking by User Agent 15.2% moderate contention

Note: Consensus and contention percentages are calculated based on the standard deviations of contributor answers.

So, bookmark the original post over at SEOmoz (or here) and check back every so often to share your experiences and make sure that you’re on the right track to great rankings for your chosen phrases.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions here, or provide feedback via the original blog post at SEOmoz.

Here at SEO Wushu I am working towards several objectives, one of which is the development of an extensive e-learning product, a How to guide for installing, building & optimizing a WordPress based website.

In order to create the most valuable WordPress guide, I encourage you to leave your comments or questions about WordPress & let me know what you would like to know about building websites with WordPress.

I look forward to building this resource with you and look forward to providing a quality reference work to help you in your WordPress development efforts.

Kind Regards,
Bronson Harrington

Here at SEO Wushu I am working towards several objectives, one of which is the development of an extensive e-learning product, a How to guide for installing, building & optimizing a website using the popular Joomla! CMS.

In order to create a valuable guide to the  Joomla! Content Management System, I encourage you to leave your comments or questions about Joomla! & let me know what you would like to know about building websites with it.

I look forward to building this resource with you and look forward to providing a quality reference work to help you in your Joomla! CMS development efforts.

Kind Regards,
Bronson Harrington

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