Official Google answer: As far as big brands go, why is it that they seem to do well regardless of relevance, content or links when analyzing keyword placement in search engine results pages?

Question:

As far as big brands go, why is it that they seem to do well regardless of relevance, content or links when analyzing keyword placement in search engine results pages?

Google's Matt Cutts answers:

Summary of the answer:

The summary of the answer is available to paid members. Become a member now. It's fast, easy and risk-free.

Question	Views
What impact does "page bloat" have on Google rankings?	968
Can you verify that Google is putting more weight on "brands" in search engine rankings?	2,079
How much does the size of a web site (# indexed pages/content) have an effect on its authority in Google's eyes?	823
Many SEOs are obsessed about your speed comments, but I get the feeling speed will be a very minor component in ranking. Am I right, or should I be obsessing about load times as well?	893
Websites lose backlinks due to other websites going out of business or closing (Geocities, AOL member pages). Does Google remove the back link juice that once came from these pages?	815
We got rid of a profitable pop-under ad (since we thought the concept was user unfriendly), but then pages-per-visit and time-on-page dropped - along with our rankings. Does Google reward or penalize for a pop-under, directly or indirectly?	708
HTML sitemap vs. XML sitemap. Which one is yummy for Google search engine spider?	974
Google announced page load speed matters for ranking. Should we be doing content-only pages for Google bots?	831
I'm seeing Google PR for some Twitter profiles, even a PR of 4 for someone with less than 50 followers and 100 tweets, whereas for some more meaningful profiles there is no PR. Does PR of Twitter profile pages matter?	836
Is it a good thing to put 'nofollow' in links to a disclaimer, privacy statement and other pages like that with the internal PageRank in mind?	913

Question

Views

What impact does "page bloat" have on Google rankings?

968

Can you verify that Google is putting more weight on "brands" in search engine rankings?

2,079

How much does the size of a web site (# indexed pages/content) have an effect on its authority in Google's eyes?

823

Many SEOs are obsessed about your speed comments, but I get the feeling speed will be a very minor component in ranking. Am I right, or should I be obsessing about load times as well?

893

Websites lose backlinks due to other websites going out of business or closing (Geocities, AOL member pages). Does Google remove the back link juice that once came from these pages?

815