Hey. My church website is http://www.cedarvalley.ca (Cedar Valley Mennonite Church) but it's not #1 on Google Search--yet it is on Altavista/Yahoo!. How come? And how can I make it so that it is? P.S. I have many spellings/variations on the name in the meta tags. Any suggestions?

Google is much better when it comes to ranking web sites. One of the main factors the decide your rank is the number of links TO your web site. It is logical, isn't it? The more people link to your site the more popular you are. Things such as keywords aren't as significant as links. By putting a link to the web site in this topic you have raised your google page rank a bit

META Tags are a thing of the past, but so are Yahoo and Altavista, so it's best you keep them.

As pyost said, Google PR (Page RANK) is based on inbound links. This, increases your prestige.

But there is also another thing. A school of thought is now that Google PR is also based on QUALITY. The variables on which this act may be similar to the credits system at this site, or they could even be more sophisticated. But whatever it is, it is something that other SE (search engines) have not utilized.

Also you should keep in mind that people reach your Website after searching for certain keywords. Perhaps the keywords that score highly for your Websites on Altavista and Yahoo don't do as well on Google, but remember that some other keywords will work wonders on Google and yet Yahoo or Altavista won't be so kind to them.

The point is that you should tweak your pages from time to time, and check how your ranking for various keywords changes. But if you're scoring highly on a couple of SEs and not on others.... don't sweat it. SEs regularly change their ranking algorithms. Those pages of yours that don't come up in the first page on Google today may very well be tomorrow's #1. As long as your pages offer solid content for your visitors, sooner or later the SEs will pay you your dues .

Another variable may be the person's language / languag of google. For example, if you type microsoft on a computer in France, it'll most likely show mostly french sites.

I have also read that bylinking to other sites, it can decrease you page rank, e.g. if you like to a site with a high page rank, it ok, but if you link to a site with a page rank of 0, then ou get less 'points' aswell.

Also, if a site with high page rank links to your site, you get some extra points. I think updating your site (and adding pages) has some influence on you PR also, but I'm not sure.

It's very complicated. Google it up and you'll find a load of page long articles.

it is not very clear from your post that whether you have submitted your url to Google or not, as I have seen that your site is not indexed in Google ( please correct me, if my observation is wrong) . Secondly, it has been stated by Google very clearly that your website must link to atleast one website already indexed in Google. So far as your site goes, you require to improve in this issue.
Now a major question is that where to find a website that will link to your site. There are different strategies, may be known to you also. I can suggest one for you.Type link: <CurrentlyTopRankingSitesName> to find out the sites that they are linked with. And then you have to approach those webmasters with the request to link back to your site. Sometimes it works. So far as your listing in Google, I think, the linking is playing the key role. So promote your site harder and increase your link popularity. That way it will definitely improve.
Regards,
Sid

I have a blog called sudburyrestaurants.Blogspot.Com
Would the same rules apply ie, referral from another website, in order to increase page ranking or do blogs follow another pattern?

This whole page rank thing kind of confuses me...

-Phil

Page views
How To Increase Your Google Page Rating ?

You can post a link you your site on random bulletin boards, like so:
<a href="thedignityofstruggle.Blogspot.Com">The Dignity of Struggle<a/>

Or instead of titling the link the title of your page, title a link a word or phrase you think people might search on google, like so:
<a href="thedignityofstruggle.Blogspot.Com">Live without money</a>.

These links increase your page ranking far more than keywords will.

-reply by HUNTER/GATHERER