How do the search engines determine for any given query which websites to show, and how do they determine which order to show them in?  As we mentioned in our previous tutorial, we are interested in these two questions because the answer will provide us with the knowledge of what it is that we need to do in order to give our site the best chance possible of appearing in the search engines for relevant searches (and not just appearing, but appearing in the top spots).

There are, in general, two factors which the search engines take into consideration when determining their search results.  The first is the content of the actual website itself (in particular, the content of each and every page).  The second is the number and quality of links coming into the site in general, and each page on that site in particular.  These two elements are generally known as on-page factors (i.e., the content of the site) and off-page factors.  Let’s start with the on-page factors.

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