Google’s VP of Engineering recently offered an introductory peek at the ingredients list of Google’s ranking algorithm’s secret sauce.

According to the post by Udi Manber, it’s estimated that over one thousand programmer/scientist years have been invested into the development of Google’s ranking algorithm and last year over 450 tweaks were made.

While Google will never give away the real nuts and bolts of how they rank (for obvious reasons) Udi’s posts in the time might offer some tips and hints at how to rank better on the Mighty G.

I was talking to someone tonight about the concept of quoting on how much it would cost to gain no. 1 ranking on a key term and the answer is - how long is a piece of string? One well written article might do the trick, or it could be years of writing, tweaks and inbound link hunting. Even then you may never reach the no. 1 spot. There’s just so much at work within Google’s algorithm and on top of that, you’re also battling your competitors who aren’t sitting still either in their optimization efforts.

Search engine optimization is part science, part magic, part art.. and part luck. If any of us knew exactly how the major engines worked; we would have retired long ago.

My opinion remains that some of the more exotic optimization techniques are best left to the gamblers who can afford to burn domains. Sure, sometimes the grey-er and black hat tricks work, but usually only for a short time before Google detects it’s being tricked and then slams the domain - forever. Sometimes there’s also collateral damage from the changes Google’s make and that’s where part of the luck factor comes in. By the way, if you’re having trouble getting listed or ranked decently in Google - this guide may be of some value.

There really isn’t any secret short cut to success aside from following the basics - information that is freely available, including in my beginner’s guide to submission and optimization. What is needed if you don’t have the cash to hire good writers or folks chasing links for you is time and effort. Be patient - adhere to the basic principles, create valuable content on a regular basis, build inbound links with relevant anchor text from quality sites, tweak, watch, tweak, watch, rinse and repeat.