HotBot's search results are based solely on comparing the user's search query to the content of millions of Web pages. We have no list that matches certain search terms or keywords with special results.

Basic factors affecting a page's ranking include the words in the title, keyword meta tags, word frequency in the document, and document length.

We're aware that some people create pages to maliciously "spoof" search engines. Spoofing a search engine makes search engines return pages that are irrelevant to the search, or pages that rank higher than their content warrants. Common spoofing techniques include the repetition of words, the inserting of meta tags unrelated to the document's content, or the use of words that cannot be read due to their small size or color. If HotBot detects search-engine spoofing, it will significantly downgrade a page's ranking.