how does a search engine select the first result in a search?

Answer 1

Search engines try to set up mathematical equations (known as algorithms) which determine the most relevant site for any given search query. There are hundreds of factors which go into these quations, but some of the most important one's are the words and phrases used on a particular web page, the number of sites which link to that page, the quality of the sites which link to that page and the content of the sites which link to that page.

Here is a short introduction to the theory behind the process (the second tutorial more directly relates to your question):

http://www.sembasics.com/sem-blog/taking-the-search-engine-point-of-view

http://sembasics.com/sem-blog/how-do-the-search-engines-determine-relevancy

Best of luck.

Answer 2

For legit search engines like Google it is based on how much searching and clicking on a site is done. The more searches and traffic to the site determines it rank in the listing. This ranking can be improved by a technique known as "Bombing". Thousand of searches and clicks on the link to a site will improve its standing. The Democrats use this technique to direct people to their sites that put down Republicans. Since Google is run by Liberals and has ALGORE on its Board of Directors it is easy to understand why they allow this. When a Dem become President this "Bombing" technique will be prevented.

I am not making a political statement. This is a fact. The dems set up a site call Stupid. It is about GW and when you type Stupid in the Google search it come up as the first site. This was accomplished by "Bombing".

Non-legit search engines like Yahoo now ranks sites by who pay the most to be listed first. This is usually done for the advertiser on Yahoo sites. This is a bogus way of doing it and doesn't produce the site that help or provide the info you need. It give you a site of an Advertiser first.

Answer 3

Google's search results, for instance, are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. Due to the way that Google's algorithm works, a page will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page use consistent anchor text.

Answer 4

They pay for the position