How to make your website top ranked?
As the web keeps getting richer and deeper, and Google increasingly uses human review for demoting spam, all the aesthetic things matter:
- Branding and public relations
- Domain name
- Content formatting
- Site design
As search evolves so too will spam. Some spam sites will LOOK and FEEL better than most non-spam sites. And so the remote quality raters will be given more data to look at - perhaps eventually even a sample of back links or other related data.
Unless your site is of social importance (you are a big corporation, a non-profit organization, a government institution, an educational institution, a top blogger, an official Google partner, or Youtube/Google house content) then part of the optimization process revolves around not only creating sites that pass a hand review, but also trying to create sites that do not get flagged for review - especially if you are a thin affiliate site.
How do you not get flagged for review?
Build enough quality signals and direct traffic that your site looks like a real part of the web.
Build something people keep coming back to.
Do not make drastic changes to your site unless you are comfortable with it going under review.
How do you pass a review?
Short term I think the aesthetic things matter a lot. Longer term it is best if your site satisfies a few criteria
Exclusive content that people value and keep coming back to (Google loses if they remove the best content from their index)
A brand that people care about and search for (Google looks dumb if they do not rank your site)
A meaningful and reliable traffic stream outside of Google (many quality signals may stem from this exposure, which will help keep your overall profile more organicY
You could cause public relations harm to Google and diminish their brand value in the eyes of thousands of people (removing your site has real opportunity cost)