How do search engines calculate ranking?

[MobileDay]

On SEOMoz, I can see that when people type in X keyword, my website comes up at Y place. For example, if someone googles "Mobile Productivity", a page on my website comes up at #10.  How is that #10 ranking calculated?

I would've guessed it's based on some combination of linking root domain and page authority, but I see sites that rank below mine that have higher scores on both. For example, on the aforementioned 'Mobile Productivity' search, my site comes up #10 with a Linking Root Domain score of 2, and a Page Authority of 29. But Honeywell Products and Services comes up #13 on the same "Mobile Productivity" search (ie, BELOW my site), even though they have a Linking Root Domain score of 40 and a Page Authority of 72. Similarly, Mobileproductivity.com comes in at #1 for that search with scores of 7 and 31 respectively, but mpifix.com comes in at #2 with scores of 61 and 47 respectively.

How are the search engine rankings calculated?

Thanks in advance,

Julian

[TommyTan]

Hi,

Search Engines caulculate ranking by using many different factors and that is how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play.  A few of the well known factors Search Engines use are on-page SEO (Title Tags, Keywords in Content, URL, Anchor Text, Image Alt Text, Image URL, Content above Fold, and minimum ads above fold) and the infamous backlinks from authority sites.

There are many more factors Search engines use but what were mentioned above are only a few examples.  Google has 200+ factors they use to determine a site's ranking on the SERP.

Here is a SEO guide from Seomoz that might help you understand SEO better and how search engines determine ranking http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo