There are two types of search engines: Search Engine Directories and Search Engine Spiders. Each search engine (regardless of whether it is a spider or a directory) uses unique criteria for "ranking" websites.

1. Spider driven search engines use "robots" to spider websites across the Internet. Robots "crawl" each website and "score" pages based on relevancy. Some engines score the index page while others score individual webpages. A website's score or placement within a spider driven search engine is derived from hundreds of variables such as, link popularity, click popularity, keyword density, website themes and more. Google.com is the most popular spider driven search engine.

2. Search Engine Directories rely on humans to gauge web page relevancy and search engine placement. Human editors review each website and rank them according to a set of guidelines such as website content, website functionality, and design professionalism. Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project, DMOZ are the most popular Directory Driven Search Engines.

Earning Top 10 Search Engine Placement is complex and highly competitive for three reasons:
1. The variety and complexity of search engine's "ranking" algorithms
2. Search Engines constantly modify "page ranking criterions"
3. Increasing competition on the web

Why Search Engine Optimization?
Studies have proven that top placement in search engines provide a more favorable return on investment compared to traditional forms of advertising such as, snail mail, radio commercials and television. Search engine optimization is the ONLY fool proof method to earning guaranteed Top 10 search engine placement.

How does SEO earn guaranteed top 10 placements?
Every Search Engine ranks Website Relevancy using a unique formula.

Another term for a search engine's ranking formula is a search engine algorithms. The goal in search engine optimization is to build a website that meets each search engines "ranking criterion. The closer a website matches each search engine's "ranking criterion, the higher the website scores. Higher scores equal better placement in search engines. The best scores are rewarded with Top 10 search engine placement.

Each search engine places emphasis on variable factors such as the design and layout, keyword density and the number of relevant sites linking to it. Search engines constantly update and refine their ranking criterions in order to index the most relevant sites. Other variables that have an emphasis on search engine placement include the following:

Keywords: choosing the right keywords is mission critical.
Pay Per Click Advertising: Bid on keywords.
Link Popularity: the more links pointing your site from "relevant" sites the better.
Click Popularity: the more traffic your site receives, the higher you score.
Web Themes: Create text heavy pages broken down into "themes".