What variables determine a page’s rank?

While search engines consider hundreds of different elements when determining a page’s rank, they generally do not disclose the specific variables, or how heavily each factors into the final rank.

• Keyword density & proximity – how many times keywords show up, and where those keywords appear on the page
• Meta data – information included within the header of an HTML page that describes the content on the page. The meta tags most frequently used by the engines are the TITLE, KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION tags.
• Link popularity – Perhaps the most significant factor in a page’s eventual rank. The search engines consider all pages that link to a specific page. In many cases, the relevance and importance of these linking pages are also considered.