i want to position my sites well with the mains search engines that i
would use if i were looking for something, google, yahoo, alta vista
and so on.

i don't really understand how to get my sites listed and would like a
simple method to follow. i have seen search engine positioning
software but don't know how good this could be.

can anyone help?

Hi,

Your questions really has two types of answers.

Search engine optimization is a phrase for the way to get started
making your site show up in prime positions in the search engines.
Optimizing your site means making your title tags and meta tags clear,
concise and compatible with the page content. For example, if you
produce an article on butterflies in California, the title should read
something close to "Butterflies in California".
The keywords tag should use up to fifty or so related words that
appear in the content, i.e., California butterflies butterfly Painted
Lady skipper lupine praries pictures
There is some debate as to whether or not to use commas between the
keywords. If the service does not require to use commas, omit them.
That way, two keywords that are not side by side can be joined. Using
the above example, butterflies and praries could be used. Also, insure
that the keywords you use are in the content. There are some search
engines that penalize you if you pack your meta-tags with irrelevant
keywords.

Please note that not all search engines use the keywords metatag. For
example, Google uses the title and content as the basis for its
search.

In face, Google differs from other major search engines in a variety
of ways. Getting Google to list your site is rather easy. However,
securing good search engine placement in Google is a bit tricky.
Google uses a search algorithim that incorporates a few different
factors to determine which sites to rank higher during the searches.
One of the factors is links to your site. Google ranks sites on a 1-10
scale depending on both the quality and quantity of links going to it.
The higher the site ranking, the higher the probablility that its
pages will show up in prime search positions (i.e., on the first page
of the search).

Here are some very good resources on search engine optimization:
From Search Engines "Introduction to search engine optimization"
http://www.searchengines.com/intro_optimize.html

From Danny sullivan's Search Engine Watch
Intro to Search Engine Optimization
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/intro.html



At the introduction I mentioned two basic ways to obtain prime
listings for your site. The second way is paid placement. There are a
variety of different ways to go about this.
1. Google ads: ://www.google.com/ads/
They put your site/link on the first page right hand corner for every
page you purchase keywords. So, for eample, if you have a site on
butterfly pictures and purchase those keywords, evertime individuals
search on butterfly pictures, your site will show up on the top right
hand corner of the search (Please note, research shows that the top
right hand corner is a prime placement for advertisement and will help
drive traffic to your site.
2. Overture - ://www.google.com/ads/
Overture is another primary pay for performance company. Again, you
pay money for keywords and when those keywords are searched, your ad
and link show up. Overture partners with many different sites,
including Alta Vista.
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/web?q=butterfly+pictures&avkw=tgz&kl=XX
The above link is for the key words, "butterfly pictures". As you can
see, the first three links that show up, under the "Products and
Services" title are served from Overture. To insure that you get one
of the first three placements in Alta Vista, then, you would need to
purchase key words from Overture.

There are many pay for performance deals around, to get a better
understanding of the plusses and minuses of them, see the discussions
at Webmaster World.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum33/index.htm

or try this series of reviews from a site called
PayPerClickAnalyst.com
http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/

Relevant search terms:
search engine optimization
pay for placement
pay per click

Best of luck in building your soon to be high volume web site.

---

Clarification of Answer by pm3500-ga on 27 Jun 2002 19:02 PDT

My apologies for providing an improper link for Overture. Here's the correct link.

http://overture.com/

ensure you have plenty on indound links to your site.
decide what words people looking for your site would type into a
search engine and incorporate those words into the page title, and use
them often in the text on the page.
add alt text to your images - describe the images using KEYWORDS.
submit your site to google,altavista,alltheweb (all free)
Job done!

Hello ,

Here i am giving the Following Suggestions For The Web Sites To Be
added into the Search Sites.

There r 3 ways to perform it 

1.

The Information about your Meta Tag to be described as follows

For Eg


<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Description of the California Live
Oak with pictures, range map and growth patterns.">



2 

By Meta Keywords Which is to be Described as Follows

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="California Live Oaks, Coast Live Oak,
liveoak,
Quercus Agrifolia, oak woodlands, range map, native plants, native
trees">

This Will Bring The Sites With THe Keywords Specified in the Content


3.

Based on the Information Provided in the Title Tag.

The Site Will  Search For the Information Presented inside the TITLE
tag.

4. 

Based on the Information Provided on the HEAD Tag.


The Information Provided on the HEAD tag is also been retrieved

This is the area I have fight with several years. Probably most
complete/easiest documentation can be found from I@Banners tips page:
http://iexploiter.com/iebanners/tips.asp - It's kind'a members section
but no password needed. There is not only some engine tips but other
promotional stuff aswell.

I also agree with matt about using the "alt" comments with images.
(The more text in your pages the better.)

But anyway the more links you get pointing to your site the better.
Once there is 1000+ links in other sites mentioning your site with
wanted keywords, you may count your promotion as well done. Count of
sites linking to you can be checked by writing for example
"link:http://test.com" into googles etc. search words.

Luck, To0d

There is an excellent article that tells it like it is:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/23/index1a.html?tw=e-business

In addition, you might want to submit your site to the Open Directory
Project:
http://dmoz.org

Then you are guaranteed that a human will look at your site and rate
it.  If it is the best in a category, it could earn a recommendation
from an editor and be bumped to the top of the list in that category. 
However, they have specific guidelines for submission that you might
want to take a look at first:
http://dmoz.org/add.html

They also add that it may take 2 weeks to get your site reviewed and
listed. However, they say they provide content to major search engines
(such as Google, AOL, Netscape, and Lycos) so it's definitely worth
the price (free).