Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is commonly overlooked as a way to boost website ranking among the major search engines. Search Engine Optimization is best explained as the process where a website is designed and developed to best meet the seach criteria established by a major search engine so that it is more easily found by a specific search term.

Most search engines do not charge for adding a site to a search engine, although many service providers will submit your site for a fee. Often this additional fee is justified by calling it an “express submission”. Unless you are submitting a large and complex site these additional fees may not offer value for money.

It is more important for webmasters to:

1. Choose an effective domain name. Selecting a domain name that adequetly describes your business is really the most important step

 2. Ensure that your website desplays the appropriate meta tags. These tags will help the search engine properly catergerize your web site and will boost your page ranking

3. Pay attention to keyword density and layout.

Every webmaster knows the end objective of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to make it easier for the target audience to find and navigate a given website. This objective can only be accomplished through careful site design and continuous site tuning to adhere to specific search engine guidelines. Some suggestions that will help improve your site’s ranking within many search engines are listed below. 

• Design the site structure in a way that is easy for search engines to locate and navigate. This may necessitate the use of text-based hyperlinks instead of Flash menus. Site-maps can also be very useful. 
• Decide in advance the specific keywords that your target audience will most likely enter into the search engine to find the type of content hosted by your site. You may choose to experiment with variations of these keywords to gauge audience response. The selected keywords should be used liberally within your web pages as well as in any URL’s and/or incoming links directing users to your site. Be careful to only use your keywords in context as meaningless lists of random keywords may force your site’s ranking lower on the search engine. 
• Review available web sites that provide similar content as your own and attempt to negotiate the placement of a link to your own site from these existing sites. Links to your site from websites offering closely related content will be highly valued by search engines.