Where can I view my website and link? Am I ranked in the Top Ten? 
Some say that if I'm not on the first three pages, I'm wasting my
money. Is that true?  If I have a poor ranking, what do I need to do
to get a ranking in the top ten?

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Request for Question Clarification by darrel-ga on 27 Jan 2004 11:24 PST

What is your website URL? Along with your other questions, are you
asking specifically about where your site is on Google.com?

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Clarification of Question by dshazo-ga on 27 Jan 2004 16:06 PST

Hello Darrel: I don't know if I add anything in the way of
clarification of my questions, but I'm mainly interested in viewing my
presence on Google (website,
link, etc.), if others are viewing them and in what numbers, if the
submission is of such quality that it might generate a lot of
customers for me, am I in a top-ten position, etc.  I hope this helps.
 Here's my website URL:
http:/www.freewebsitesofthemonth.com/500/howarddeshazo

Greetings dshazo-ga,

Your question, although it seems simple, has the potential to be very
complex, so please ask for clarification at any point if you become
confused or just simply need a little more information.

There is no simple way to find out if your website is in the top ten
search. The reason for this is because each search has the potential
to be unique, in that, a website may rank #328 for the search words
"web hosting", however, may be #6 for "php mysql web hosting".  The
reason for this, is the second search phrase is more specific and may
be more relevant to the website the search engine is indexing. There
are many websites that discuss search engine optimization, and how to
configure your website to receive the best search results for
different search engines. There are also paid search engine inclusion
sites such as Overture.com, Kanoodle.com and Inktomi.com that will,
for a fee, allow you to bid on your placement in search engine
results.  Usually though, if your site is listed, it will be
identified as a 'sponsored ad' or something to that effect.

If you are wanting to find out if your website is listed with
different search engines, including google, I would suggest the
following website as a good tool to determine this: 
http://www.marketleap.com/

They have three free tools:  "Link Popularity Check", "Search Engine
Saturation", & "Keyword Verification".  Using the "Search Engine
Saturation", I have determined the link you provided above is present
in one search engine, HotBot.com.  You can try it yourself by visiting
this link, http://www.marketleap.com/siteindex/default.htm and
entering your url in the first box, then follow the directions from
there.

The only accurate way to determine how many visitors a search engine
may be referring to you, is through the use of website statistics.
Your webhost should provide you access to your raw log files, and
oftentimes handy little utilities to analyze those files and report
things such as most common referrer, key words site visitors used to
find you, etc. From your clarification, it seems this is what you're
looking for.  If your web host does not provide that information,
there are handy utilities you can install on your website to keep
track of that for you.  One I have used and actually prefer, is called
XStat. You can find it here:  http://www.xqus.com/

Getting a ranking in the top ten of websites can be very difficult,
depending on what it is your website is offering.  For example, if you
are selling purple burmese sand rugs, then you might not have as
difficult a time as if you are selling the latest Stephen King novel. 
The reason is, there are many more people selling the second item than
the first, ergo, there are more websites about the second than the
first to be ranked. There are many factors you should consider in
determining how to optimize your site for search engines. The first
thing is, make sure you have submitted your site to all the major
search engines. Most search engines offer free submission but you may
have to wait for your site to be indexed. Here are a few links for
your convenience:

Google: ://www.google.com/addurl.html
Yahoo: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
Inktomi: http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/submit.html  [paid]
Lycos/Hotbot: http://insite.lycos.com/  [paid]

Those are a few of the major search contenders, but if you find others
you want to submit to, it's just a simple matter of looking around,
most have a "submit url" link or "submit site" or something close to
those.

Because you may not be in the top ten, does not mean you won't receive
referrals from customers.  I own a business, and we are definitely not
in the top ten, but we receive several customers a month from just
search engines.

The best thing you can do for yourself, is to read as much as possible
about search engine positioning, optimize your site, then resubmit
your site. Below are a few sites that offer advice on search engine
optimization:

I searched Vivisimo to obtain the below results :
http://vivisimo.com/search?query=search+engine+optimization&v%3Asources=MSN%2CNetscape%2CLycos%2CLooksmart%2COverture

http://www.marketleap.com/
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3303571
http://www.gorillawebsitemarketing.com/
http://www.searchenginestrategies.biz/

I hope you have found this answer insightful and useful.  Again,
please feel free to respond with a clarification request if necessary.
 Good luck with your online ventures.

--mosquitohawk-ga

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Clarification of Answer by mosquitohawk-ga on 05 Feb 2004 19:51 PST

Your webhost should be able to provide you with log files that will
tell you how many visitors you're getting, where they're coming from,
search engines that are referring them, keywords the visitors are
finding your site with and much more.

Raw log files can be a burden to sift through, so a good program to
use to analyze your log files is AWStats. It's free which is also a
bonus!

http://awstats.sourceforge.net/

I'll be glad to advise you further, sorry for the delay in addressing your comments!

A bit too technical perhaps but should prove very helpful.  I paid
Gardner Marketing Group $995 to submit my URL and/or website to over
700,000 SE's etc. but I've come to distrust him and must find out if
he's doing what he promised
since I haven't received a single order so far. He says he doesn't
know what's happening because after he turns the material over to the
list owners, he doesn't know when they submit it, how many visitors
I'm getting, etc. Is there a software that would do all this research
for me at a reasonable price?