Factors affecting Google Rank

The illustration below explains the 4 key factors that influence a website's ranking on Google:

INTERNAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR WEBSITE RANKING

1. Content

Is your content optimized for search engines?  Are you targeted search phrases visible within your website content?

2. Technology

Does your website use the best possible technology for search engines to be able to index your website successfully?  Use of Frames is discouraged, Flash should be used in limited doses (it can be spidered by Google but on a limited basis), FireFox compatibility is a must, Ajax introduces great usability but has a negative search engine ranking impact.

EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR WEBSITE RANKING

3. The Competition

If your market is not competitive, you can do it all wrong and still rank high - the more competitive your market space, the harder you will need to work.

4. Visibility

How heavily saturated is your website on the Internet?  How many links are there to your website?  The more links to your website, the higher your Google PageRank will be, which means your website will be indexed more regularly and stand a higher chance of top rankings on Google.