SEOMOZ recently release their results for search engine factors for 2009. As any good SEO experts know already, but these were the top 5 ranking factors that SEO experts around the world have found in their day-to-day optimisations.

Top 5 Ranking Factors:

• 73% – Keywords within anchor text from external links
• 71% – High quality external links
• 67% – Links from unique root domains.
• 66% – Keyword use any where in the title tag
• 66% – TrustRank

On the flip side the top 5 factors that may harm your site were:

• 68% – Cloaking with malicious intent
• 56% – Buying links
• 51% – Links from spam sites or pages
• 51% – Cloaking based upon user agent
• 51% – Downtime and inaccessibility

I think most people by now realise that the Blackhat techniques might not get you too far with the Big G, but it seems that its now is very important to ensure that you host your site with a reliable hosting provider. For a full breakdown visit SEOmoz