Google Page Ranking - Relevance and Importance

We've covered how to get pages into Google and how to prevent private pages from appearing in our search results... but webmasters also typically want their pages to rank higher in Google's search results.  Although we once joked that we employ diligent pigeons to rank pages, the reality is that pages get listed in our search results based upon two core principles:  Relevance and importance.  A page is deemed relevant if it matches both the query and the interest of the user.  The first is rather intuitive:  if a user searches using the query "swing dancing," for example, we're likely to list resources associated with swing dance venues, shoes, teachers, etc. -- queries relevant to the phrase typed.  Personalization also plays a role, however... both in the aggregate and at the individual level.  We tailor results by geography; for instance, on a search for "Banks," we'll show primarily Canadian banks to Canadian searchers and British banks to folks in the UK.  Search results may also be slightly customized to each individuals' search history.  But with so many web pages out there and, for many queries, millions of relevant pages, Google has to further narrow down and prioritize results, and this is done by evaluating the importance of each page.