How Search Engines Determine Your Rank

Before you try to add your site to the search engines, you should understand what they look for

when they decide how to rank your site. Just because you're listed doesn't mean you'll get traffic. You have to make sure your site is search engine ready.
The general rule of thumb is that most engines use a "formula" to determine keyword relevancy. The technical term is called an "algorithm", and each search engine has its own unique algorithm that it uses to rank pages.
Generally, this magic formula consists of your page title, overall body content and the number and quality of links pointing back to your site, how long people stay on your site, etc.
It's important to note that every engine is different. Some may look at inbound links (number of people linking to you), others may place more emphasis on your body content. These days, meta tag content is becoming less and less important.
In case you don't know, meta tags are hidden descriptors that appear at the beginning of your HTML code, inside your tag. They may be invisible to your visitor's eyes, but search engine spiders can read them.
They usually consist of a title, description, and keyword tag and they look something like this:





Because of abuse, many search engines no longer use these tags to help rank pages, but you should still include them because they do use them to display information about your site.
For example, whatever is inside the