I want to be #1 in the search engines!
Period.

It is no longer true, if it ever was, that "if you build it, they will come." Nowadays, your website must be promoted or, simply put, no one will know about it.

For most websites, unless the company already has name recognition ("branding") or has ample promotional dollars to invest, the major search engines — such as Yahoo, Alta Vista and Excite — are the prime source of visitors, at least at first. And everyone wants to be number one.

Well, unfortunately, there's a problem with that.

If a search for your search term (or, "keyword") turns up 2 million listings, logic dictates that 1,999,999 pages are not going to be number one ... or anywhere near it.

This article is not intended as an instruction on how to get good search engine placement, but simply as a statement that it can be done.

But first, some