When we talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) we have to start with Google.  It has by far the largest audience and therefore is the big fish if you get top rating for the search terms you choose.

Google, like most search engine companies, tries very hard to keep those of us on the outside guessing about what exactly they look for in a site that puts it at the top of their list.  But even so we know that their patented Page Rank is an important factor.  Page Rank is like a measure of the percentage of votes a site gets from other sites indexed by Google.  Most people think that votes should be given by users, but that is too easy and also is information that is not readily available to Google.  What they use is the number of links and the quality of the links to your site.  This is a gross oversimplification, but for this first introduction to the topic it will do (we will delve deeper in other posts).  This means that if you get linked to by a web site that has great popularity then it helps you alot, whereas a link from a family web site that is unknown to the world at large is relatively less helpful.

The easiest way to get to know Page Rank is to install the Google Toolbar and enable the PageRank function.  You will likely catch on quickly when you see that www.Adobe.com and www.CNN.com are highly ranked.  Most of the web sites you encounter will either be unranked ("no data" or "0/10") or will be in the 2 to 6 out of 10 range.  If you can get your websites to 5/10 you are doing quite well and you have a shot a top 10 position for moderately competitive search terms.