Search engine optimization (SEO) is both art and science. You can spend lots of money and end up with minimal returns if you don't know what your doing. Here are some answers to questions you might not have asked, but need to.

There are site submission services that promise to submit your site to thousands of search engines. Is that a good tactic?

First, there aren't thousands of search engines on the Internet. There are many free-for-all link sites, and many special interest sites, but not thousands of search engines. Second, it won't do you any good to submit your site to directories that have nothing to do with your business.

Which search engines should you submit to?

Currently, there are only three major players: Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. They are responsible for the bigger part of the search engine traffic you can get because they also power other search engines.

What about directories?

Directories are different from search engines because all web site submissions are reviewed by humans. The most important one is The Open Directory Project at www.dmoz.org.

You should also submit to topic specific search engines. If your web site sells garden equipment, you should submit your web site to specific garden directories. Even if they don't send you some visitors, they could improve the link popularity of your web site which helps your ranking in other search engines.

Of course, none of it means anything if your web site is not optimized for search engines. Search engines see your web pages with different eyes than web surfers. Search engines crawl your site looking for text. If your site doesn't have keyword and description metatags, if the title tags aren't keyword optimized, and if the content in the body of your pages is either not keyword optimized or of sufficient quantity, then it is simply not ready to be submitted.

As I said at the outset, SEO is both art and science. To do it well, you need to be armed with some knowledge and the right tools. Let me recommend two resources to you that can help.

The first is an ebook called the SEO Book. This book, written by SEO expert Aaron Wall, has wide acclaim, and is kept current with the latest, most relevant information. It will give you the knowledge you need, and comes with a money-back guarantee.

The second resource is an SEO software program called IBP. It's a suite of 10 professional web promotion tools that help you with all aspects of web site promotion and search engine optimization. You can download a trial version at no cost.

Search Engine Optimization is not an option these days. If you want to compete either locally or on a global scale, it's a necessary component.