1. They go to the search engine site by entering the name in the address bar; for example, yahoo.com. Notice how Yahoo! appears at the top along the blue bar. That is because of the Yahoo website's Title tag.
2. Next they think about what they want to find, and they usually will put in the search terms in order of importance. The example above shows that the person is looking for a website. A Christian web host is most important to them so that is their first entry, and they'd like to see what's available for free.
3. The results page lists all the sites that the search engine matched with the keywords. The first results are paid listings. These sponsors are there because they paid a hefty fee to be force-listed according to a keyword. The "real" results are further down the page where you see "Top 20 Web Results" (regular listings).
4. The individual listing shows the title of the homepage. In this example, OurChurch.Com doubles as the name of the business but that is not typical. Next, many search engines list the description from the META tag. In this case, Yahoo! has chosen to truncate the description to show only the segment relevant to this search. The last thing
you'll notice is the domain name in green underneath the listing. See how it's in all lowercase. In most cases the domain name and the title do not match.
OurChurch.Com has been online since 1996 and we generate a great deal of web traffic. We are also heavily cross-linked. These and other factors have propelled
us to the top spot in this particular web search. Be patient. It takes time and a lot of concentrated effort to be listed in the top. Put our knowledge and experience to work for you!