If you sell products or services on your website, or you just want greater brand recognition, you need to think about increasing your search engine ranking. Essentially, this means getting your site to show up on the first page of listings on major search engines.

The top search engines, are Google, MSN -- now called Live Search -- and Yahoo, with Google getting far more traffic than the other two. This makes Google the search engine to focus on first. Here is what you need to do:

1. Decide on the keywords you'd like to rank on in major search engines. For example, if your business is a pie shop, you'll want users searching for the word "pie" to be able to find you.

2. Get more specific with search engine placement. Expand into key word phrases and inbound links.

3. Consider niche search engines, like pay-per-click, also known as PPC search engines, and career search engines for more specific needs.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use keywords to boost your search engine rank

When you first start trying to drive search engine traffic using keywords, otherwise known as search engine optimization, think about who you want to attract to your site. Then come up with a list of keywords that you think those people commonly use in their searches.

I recommend: Visit Trellian's site for its article on coming up with and implementing keywords. Then check out Google's own page on boosting your ranking on the search engine. Once you have a couple of keywords in mind, use the keyword suggestion tool on Wordtracker to come up with more.

Go more in-depth with your search engine optimization

Once you've got the hang of search engine basics, take your optimization to the next level. Instead of just using single keywords, incorporate phrases into your page's content. For example, if your customer favorite is open-faced cherry pies, add those three words in addition to pie by itself. Then, try to get inbound links, as they can also boost your ranking. Have sites linking to yours include your keywords in their anchor text.

I recommend: Try to think of phrases that are slightly different than your competitor's so you can capitalize on exact searches. Search Innovation has an article that can help. Submit your site to online directories (Yahoo's is very popular) and try to get bloggers in your industry to link to your site.

Use a niche search engine for special purposes

If you want to attract a very specific customer, consider submitting your site, or a page of your site, to a niche search engine. This can help you recruit new employees or attract individuals in a specific profession or community.

I recommend: Go to SearchEngineWatch for a list of search engines. This list includes a good number of lesser-known generic search engines plus community search engines. It also contains information about how to submit your site so it has a better chance of coming up in results. Then visit Indeed's page on how to submit links to your site to job search engines to garner good results.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Search engine optimization was not built in a day. Give yourself three to six months to see your rankings rise before deciding if you need a new strategy.

Major search engines are the way most people access the Internet. Google is the biggest but not the only search engine on the Internet. Learn how the search engines work so you and your business profit from the Internet.

Search engines work by completing the following steps:

1. Web crawling, or searching the Internet in an organized way, to find new sites and pages or updated content on existing pages;

2. Indexing, or storing the data collected by the web crawling, so the search engines have an organized list of web content by topic;

3. And searching, or matching the search term a person enters to the topic index it has collected, to come up with a customized list of search results.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a comprehensive list of search engines for searching or advertising

The top Internet search engines have the most visitors every day. Consider advertising on specialized (also known as 'vertical') search engines relating to your industry. Search for the keywords related to your own business website to see which websites place highest.

I recommend: Find a list of top search engines broken down by category at Pandia by P&S Koch, where they also have free newsletters about Internet searching and search engines. Read short reviews of all the top search engines from Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC and find search engine submission tips and other information about Internet searching. Choose from a categorized list of Internet search engines at Cyndi's List by Cyndi Howells.

Discover the search engine ranking of your website and how to improve it

Find detailed reports about your search engine rankings as well as 'big picture' trends at web analytic sites. Assess your search engine placement and learn what you can do to improve it.

I recommend: Learn how people find your website and how they navigate through it with a free membership to Google Analytics from Google. Compare the site stats for three websites side-by-side at Compete, Inc., where they list the top search terms driving traffic to each site.

Advertise your job openings on career search engines

Job search engines fall into the category of vertical search engines, which means they search in a specific narrow range of web content. Look for sites that allow employers to advertise their jobs, rather than sites that are just aggregators of various jobs advertised elsewhere.

I recommend: Post your job opening quickly on Monster, where it's easy to filter and organize responses. Search through existing resumes or post a job opening at CareerBuilder.com, where they also have helpful articles about hiring, recruiting and human resources in general. Find a long list of Internet job search engines and concise descriptions of each site at Index of The Web.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Improve your search engine ranking by submitting a sitemap file to sites like Google. This file helps the search engine understand the organization of your site and tells it when you add new content.
• •  Learn how to optimize your website to place higher by conducting specialized searches on popular search engines and analyzing the top-ranked sites.