Whats the best, (FREE), way to get your website at the top of the search engines?

The most effective way to advertise on the Internet is to first set up a website and publish its domain name on major search directories such as Google.com, Yahoo.com [at http://www.google.com/addurl/?... and MSN.com since 85% of Internet shoppers rely on these search directories to provide them with goods and services. In a sense, these search directories are a very large Internet Yellow Pages. Nevertheless, should your website or opening webpage fail to contain "generic" keywords, then anyone using such "generic" queries will not be able to discover your website. Your domain name [URL] of your website, in a sense, will be invisible, undiscoverable. You may want to consider some simple algorithms which, when observed and committed in designing of a website with placement of various critical metatags that can surely achieve a high search engine presence and increase Internet traffic to your website. These metatag strategies work well with published webpages at Google and Yahoo. Design: Should you create an extensive Flash-based website, make sure to fill-in the property entries such as the Title, Description and Keywords. Failing to do so, leaves no hard HTML or ALT resource that can be readily indexed by search robots. Also consider the Internet audience and their incoming setup. For example, if they are on analog/dialup, Flash webpages take too long to load up and therefore analog users will likely lose interest and discontinue entering the Flash site. On the other hand, anyone on hi-speed DSL lines, will welcome Flash pages which load quickly. So before designing a pure Flash websitge, ask the simple question, "Who's my end user - is he on dialup or DSL?" And if you had to choose between these two users for maximum marketability, then select analog users since 80% of most resident users are still analog Internet subscribers and pure HTML designed webpages is best for them. A non-Flash-based website which relies on hard text, is far easier to be indexed by search robots. Limit the use of stylized text saved as .gifs since as a graphic, they are not indexable by search robots. Avoid use of frames since any number of search robots are unable to properly classify textual material. Placement of Metatags: A ranking or search order does take place with Google and Yahoo and it begins with the "Title" metag which should consist of no more than 65 characters separated by commas. The "Title" should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the "Title" is not appropriate, unless your domain name is a major recognizable brand name. The second metatag is the "Description" which is usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which best describes one's goods and services. And the very last category - "Keywords" are also somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which is defined as the loading, and submission of repetitive words into a particular metatag category. "Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported to Google's spamreport.com can result in the elimination of your website from their search directory. Here's an example of a very highly-placed website on Yahoo.com: Begin with the search query "pizza downtown los angeles." It will bring up some 1.4 million+ websites as results. Check out where "Pizza Next Door" is ranked. It's in the Top Five! Again, Pizza Next Door's high web presence was achieved by proper web design and placement of relevant metatags according to Yahoo's publication guidelines. Good luck!

This program explains all the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques in great detail. Off page SEO is the most important thing. http://www.usallstarmedia.net/seoelite/ya4 -- Alex

Three steps: -On-site optimization: re-write your metatags with the keywords you are targeting in mind, improve your site content keyword density for the same keywords, clean your html code, use CSS etc. -Content update: make sure to add very often new content to your site. Google loves blogs and if you can get one with links pointing to your main site that would be an instant booster. -Offsite optimization/Link Building: Get new quality links with your keywords in the anchor text. Link building takes time and you need to avoid black hat SEO techniques such as link farms which may penalize your website or even have it banned from the search engines. Reciprocal links have less value than one way links nowadays. It is almost useless to submit to the search engine around, only Google, MSN and Yahoo really count. Submit also your site to DMOZ and to other directories. Don't forget to participate in your industry forums, reply to blog posts of other similar sites (with your link in the signature), and take advantage of the new social networking sites. Another alternative of course is to hire a SEO consultant who will work you through all this. Hope it helps, Patrick A. Hong Kong-based SEO Specialist http://www.seo4china.com

I have several websites and they are always close to the top. Write your content using all the keywords people will use when searching for that item. Get lots of people to link to your site from theirs. .

besides having uniqe tags... there is no free way... google goes to the highest bidder...