As of now we have heard that “content is the king”, though there were opinions opposite to it. But those were not strong enough to override it. Recently Google’s Matt Cutts’ video on how many changes to search algorithm were made in 2009 has incited the controversy further.

According to Matt Cutts “Google makes at least one change per day” to its search algorithms and in 2009 alone the total number of changes was somewhere between 350 and 400. However, contradicting Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search, Udi Manber revealed that a total of 550 “improvements” were made to search algorithms during the last year.

It is true that your site’s ranking highly depends on the external link popularity of the site. But then why do other sites link to your site? It is only when your site contains good resource to offer. The quality of your site’s content helps you earn good number of back links. And now we know that there are more than 200 factors that Google search algorithm takes into account while determining the rank of a website with use of keywords in the anchor text especially from external links, number of unique domains from where the back links come and the use of keywords in Meta title of the pages being some of the top positive factors.

There are factors such as cloaking that cause negative impact on the ranking sometimes as grave as penalization and ban. As per Google Webmaster guideline – “Google’s aim is to give the users the most valuable and relevant search results.”

Google’s becoming synonymous with the word “web search” does not only imply its dominance over the internet but it also points to the tough competition that the web search pioneer is facing from its close competitors like Yahoo and Bing. Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site has introduced the concept of real time search. And all of them together pose a threat that keeps Google busy in constant upgrade and refinement of its search algorithm.

Therefore, you cannot sit back in satisfaction that your site is rich in content and that it will remain in the top ten once you are done with the job of search engine optimization for your website. Even though Google is putting emphasize on contextual link building which requires relevant and good webpage content other factors can not be ignored. The debate whether content is the king or not will continue but if you want to be in the top 10 on SERPs you cannot just be content with good resources only.

In the evolving world of SEO Google’s algorithm design is an ongoing process to serve users better and better. What is most valued today can become less important tomorrow. Therefore, you need to keep an eye on Google’s changing policies in order to stay on the top.