Search Ranking Factors 2009 Released

Finally SEOmoz has released the latest ranking factors for the year 2009. 72 search engine optimizers participated in the survey which was used to create the latest ranking factors report, released this week. You can read the search ranking factor report here and SEOmoz’s blog post with comments here.
The survey document contains the factors used in search ranking by major search engines. According to the survey report:
Top 5 Search Ranking Factors:

Anchor Text with Keyword from External Links
External Link Popularity (Quantity & Quality of External Link)
Diversity of Linking Domains
Keyword in Title Tag
Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains

Top 5 Negative Factors:

Cloak with Malicious/Manipulative Intent
Link from link brokers/seller
Link from spam website
Cloaking by User Agent
Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility

Top 5 Most Contentious Factors:

Cloaking by Cookie Detection
Cloaking by JavaScript/Rich Media Support Detection
Hiding Text with same/similar colored text/background
Cloaking by IP Address 15.3% moderate contention
Cloaking by User Agent 15.2% moderate contention

This report shows that there was very little change from the 2007 search ranking factor document. SEOmoz changed the structure of the above survey.
The primary factors in SEO have not changed very much according to SEOmoz despite the fact that search engines improve their features and technologies continuously. Hopefully these search ranking factors for 2009 will help search engine optimizers who are serious about managing any changes in search engine optimization for 2009.