More and more frequently, sites that are ranked #1 aren't particularly amazingly optimised, they're there because they have been slightly optimised and are old sites. If they've been around 4 years or so they get better rankings than a site that's been around 6 months, correct?

Well it obvisouly helps. In 6 years a site should have more natural and exchanged links... than one that is 6 months old.

Well the site i'm using as an example has about 1 paragraph of text on its main page. It is top for a HUGELY competitive keyphrase. It doesn't even have many links.

Well text amount is not really a factor since it falls in the onpage stuff.
What is not many links ? 10 , 50 , 200 ?
What is the PR of the page ?

maybe they are hiding/framing text and/or links, but jocelyn Q is important- how many backlinks do they have?

PR4 jocelyn

I have an authority site that places higher than other higher PR sites. There are also authority sites that place higher than us where they have a lower page rank and lower BLs. IMO, I think an authority site (older sites), almost regardless of PR or BLs, will place higher than a newer or non-authority site as long as they are the index page or internal page of what Google considers an authority site.

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can you post the site your are referencing and the kw you are checking? just put spaces between characters so you don't give them a link. thanks!

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unitedhosting.co.uk keyword "uk webhosting"

I reckon thats a pretty decent site, Pagerank 5 with decent links ...not especialy themed though but hey thats another thread....nice and light n friendly. I quite like it.

I know what you mean though I see loads which have crap dated sites, sometimes even unrelated getting good results ....

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