Contrary to what many shady companies will offer you (over the internet, especially), being listed with 1,000 search engines for $20 will only make you $20 poorer. And if a company ever GUARANTEES that you’ll be listed at the top, they are liars!
There are only about 20 search engines that you want to be listed on, because they are the ones everyone uses. You probably use them already... places like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AltaVista...
But how do you get your site listed on those engines, AND come up in the first few results? Unfortunately there isn’t a specific answer. Search engines use powerful software to critique and rank your pages. And, those methods change regularly! Every major page on your site, in addition to the home page is a potential target for a search engine. Therefore every major page is another chance you have at being listed in a search engine again and should be optimized.
Search Engine Optimization refers to the act of building your web pages through strategic copy writing, word placement and link structure so they have a better chance of ranking well for particular search terms. And further, code the pages to encompass what all of the various search engines are looking for...That's a very simplified explanation as there are many tactics employed by a good optimizer, but that's what you're doing to your pages.
In a bit more detail, an optimized site consists of three elements:
Content-
Search engines love content. It's like an open field where the little search engine spiders can play and run around through everything in sight. What is content? Content is good writing about your business or whatever topic you want to attract people to your site. The more you give people and search engines to browse about your subject matter or related topics, the higher your search results will be.
Links-
There are thousands and thousands of articles and theories about links (to and from various pages on your site). But basically, the second element to optimization is getting links back to your site from other web sites. Generally, those sites should be related in subject matter. Directories of similar services for example. When a search engine finds a link to you on another site, it can raise you higher in a specific search inquiry. Links within your own site are also important.
Optimize-
This is the actual process of taking your content and links and making sure you've used targeted key words enough, but not too much. It's rewriting the copy around your links to further attract search spiders. It's rearranging some sentences to put the most important searchable words towards the top of the page.
Together, these three components, Content, Links and Optimization comprise the outer shell of Search Engine Optimization.
No one can guarantee where you'll come up in a search, and it's a never ending process, but by optimizing, you will see a dramatic increase in rank of your search terms, and probably in ones you never even thought of.
To learn more about the optimization process, see How We Optimize here.
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