Google's working

[pc_noob]

I'd like to know the way Google works for searching websites and their relevance. For example, my website is www.floridastreetscene.com a forum for the car enthusiasts in my state, what would I need to be the first link for exmaple when someone would type in "florida car forum". Is it something in the header, perhaps $$ with Google?

Thanks,

[mikezel]

its not really that easy ;) . Google calculates page relevance based on its 'PageRank' system, which basically makes the assumption that the most relevant pages are those that have the most links pointing to them. (and the higher the pagerank scores of the sites linking to a site, the more value is given to a link).
its a little bit hard for me to explain, but i have seen many recent articles on the topic, such as in MaximumPc and the New York Times. if you do a Google search for Google Pagerank (ahaha), you should be able to find more detailed info.
basically, to appear highly in Google, you need a high Pagerank, to get a high Pagerank, you need a lot of sites linking to you. Its actually a very smart way of doing it.
btw, this is how these Google 'scams' are set up; someone tries to get as many people as possible to link to a certain page. for example, try typing 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', 'unelectable', or 'Miserable Failure' into Google and click the top link.
mike

[yellowsnow]

The miserable failure things is great. My friend showed it to me a while back.

[pc_noob]

I'm still a bit confused...

This is the first link that comes up to the query mentioned;

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146849

What on that page is causing it to be the first? I don't see why so many links would be pointing to that thread it's not even that huge...

[kstatefan40]

thats not always true. If you notice, there is almost always an Ebay link and an amazon link on the first two results. Thats Advertising $$$. They also have a paying system that will get your link higher, i think...

[mikezel]

this (http://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html) is Google's official page explaining how the pages are ranked. basically all it says is that Pagerank is the major factor in ordering the pages. This is how Google explains Pagerank:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
mike

[Sphegdave]

They also have a paying system that will get your link higher, i think...

Actually, the advertised links are on the right of the search results

One way of getting a higher page rank is to write the words "florida car forum" a whole lot of times in white text against white background at the bottom of your page.

Another way is to ask a website like car and driver or some other popular website to link to you. This would give you a very high page rank.