The fact is, search engines can get you an enormous amount of traffic, and its traffic to your sites that are free. However, in order to ethically and effectively market in the search engines, you need to use strategies that actually work.

Below are three different ways to effectively, and ethically, raise your rankings in the search engines.

1. Optimize your site.

To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you need to make sure that you are marketing using the right keywords. This means optimizing your site to make sure that the keywords you have on your site are the keywords that your site is actually optimized for.

There are two tools that you can use to help you with search engine optimization:

a. Search Engine Optimization Fast Start EBook will teach you simple and effective techniques for optimizing your site. This eBook is now in its 4th edition, is completely up to date, and is one of the best eBooks I've seen on search engine optimization.

b. Web CEO - This is a complete search engine optimization suite that offers 10 different tools to help you optimize your site for the search engines. It offers the most comprehensive, and step by step, set of instructions I've ever seen with any software package. The free version of this software will work for most, and it also includes a $97 search engine optimization course as part of the package.

2. Develop a linking strategy.

One factor that influences how well you are ranked in the search engines is linking. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.

For each link that you have pointing back to you, that's another opportunity for your potential customer to find you. With credibility being such a big problem on the internet, to have someone recommend you increases your chance of making the sale.

To help you develop an effective strategy, I recommend that you read "Linking Matters" - This eBook shows you how to develop an effective linking strategy for your site, and do it very quickly.

3. Develop a content strategy.

The truth is, "Content is King". Most people online are looking for information. The more information that you provide for your customers, and the more valuable it is, the more likely you will make the sale.

Below are three different ways to develop content for your site.

The first and most effective strategy are articles.

Articles actually work for you in several ways.

a. Brands you as an expert so that customers come to you.

b. Provides valuable content to your potential customers.

c. Builds a relationship between you and your potential customers.

d. Creates a viral marketing strategy for your site.

e. Builds a linking strategy for you every time a webmaster publishes one of your articles.

No other strategy that I have employed has brought me more business than this one.

However, if the thought of writing your own content gives you nightmares, there's a way around this.

You can use public domain information. Public domain information is information that is free to use because it's in the public arena, or the copyright has expired.

The third content strategy you need to consider is blogging.

What a blog does is allows you to create search engine friendly content on your topic of interest. Combine this with an RSS feed, which the search engines love, and you have a winning strategy.

Not only will it help you build content for the search engines, but it can also help you raise your traffic and sales.

Finally, to keep abreast of what's happening with search engines, you need to subscribe to Search Engine Watch - This site offers tons of resources, news, and a newsletter on search engine optimization.

Apply one, or all, of these search engine resources to your search engine strategy, and you can expect a major increase in your traffic and sales to your site.

If you want to effectively market your website in the search engines, these free tools are the best for helping you raise your search engine rankings