Let's quantify what we've observed about how we search so we can begin to apply these lessons to improve our own site's search engine performance. Our mini-case study demonstrates that searches are usually determined through a process of trying and refining until we narrow the results down to what we're looking for. Here are a few principles we can distill from this experiment...

1. We search with phrases, not with single words.
   
2. Often, an indirect approach gets better results...we guess at how our target website would "think about itself."
   
3. By adding specific qualifiers to broad categories, we can refine our results.
   
4. Our refined search terms tend to lead us to website's subpages rather than its home page.
   
5. The closer a link's title matches the phrase I've used, the more likely I am to click it.
   

Now that we know how we search, how can I use this knowledge to increase the likelihood that my site will show up in results and lead visitors to my site?

1. I shouldn't use one word descriptions to describe my pages; phrases are much better.
   
2. I should use phrases that are similar to ones that would be used in an actual search process...which is not always the same kind of phrase that describes my page from my own perspective.
   
3. Since subpages are more "specific" in their content than a home page can be, I should pay even more attention to my title phrases on subpages than on my home page.
   
4. I should create lots and lots of subpages with search-oriented title phrases since each page represents another opportunity for people to find my content by doing narrow searches.
   

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