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The recent upheaval in Google's listings has brought to light a major change in its ranking methods. In late 2003, many online companies saw a huge change in their search engine position, some of them dropping from first place to complete oblivion.

The "Florida Update" has now taken its place in Internet history. The newsgroups were alive with conflicting theories as to Google's methods and motives, culminating in a public apology from them in December.

During the Florida update, it became noticeable that Google was ignoring content completely.
The following test shows how this works:

Open Google's search page and type Exit into the search box. If you tried this in late 2003, the top ten results were all search engine homepages. Even now, the top two are Yahoo and Google. Why would this be, given that neither of them makes a feature of the word?

While the post-Florida algorithms have lowered this rating, the fact remains an extremely important part of the strategy.