Have you ever had a friend call you and say, ?Hey, I googled myself today and actually found me!? Cool, you think. You go to your computer and try to google your friend as well. Nothing comes up. You tell her. ?Oh, well, you have to click ?next? at the bottom of the page. Keep clicking that until you're on like, the forty-seventh page'do you see me yet?!? Of course, just keep clicking ?next,? why didn't you think of that?

You didn't think of it for the same reasons millions of other people searching the Internet don't think of it. They're either in too much of a hurry to pay attention to anything after the first results page, or they've come to believe that anything after the first results page isn't as interesting or helpful.

Getting your website and business on search engines is a good way to help promote yourself, but getting to the top of the search engines is where you want to be. After all, people aren't going to keep clicking until they find your site on the forty-seventh page. People don't even know they're looking for your site. It's your job to put it out there so it's easy for them to find, and one way you can do this is by getting to the top of the search engines.

Before you submit your website to a search engine you want to first make sure your site is rich in content and that you are avoiding all spam and html tricks. Then, once you're listed, keep these keep points in mind:

-the higher your number of inbound links, the better
-pay loving attention to each page of your site
-keeping keywords at the top of your page is the best place; matching search phrases is more effective than matching single words
-elaborate graphics are not helpful

Once you've been successful in getting to the top of the search engines, you must keep working to keep yourself there. It is crucial to monitor your status on a regular basis, and pick up the step if you position on search engine result pages starts to slip.