A desirable search engine ranking truly is an asset for an internet-based business. The majority of traffic that is directed to websites comes through the search engines. Experts say that people using the search engines to find products, services or information rarely ever browse past the first three pages of the search engine results, so getting a search engine ranking within the first three pages is highly recommended for successful use of the search engines to drive traffic to your website.

While it is evident that a good search engine ranking is desirable and necessary, the question that most website owners have is in regard to how to achieve top search engine ranking and even more so, how to maintain it. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of achieving and maintaining a good search engine ranking, let me explain how the search engines work and what options you have for getting your website search engine ranking into the top spots of search engine results.

First off, there are different kinds of search engines. There are the major search engines - Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others. Then there are secondary search engines that draw results from the major search engines. There are also specialty search engines, directories and portals that are similar to the other search engines but are generally geared toward a specific topic or industry. Google is the leading search engine because it is the most widely used, so I definitely recommend getting a search engine ranking in Google if you possibly can. Yahoo! comes in second and recently MSN has been increasing in popularity.

The major search engines are often referred as crawlers, spiders or bots because they use a technology that "crawls" the web looking for websites that are relevant to the search terms used by people surfing the net for information, products and services. They use algorithms which is nothing more than a set of rules that determines the relevance and quality of a website when giving it a search engine ranking.

If you were privy to the proprietary information of the search engines, including the details of their algorithms, obtaining a top search engine ranking would be a breeze; however, the search engines hold such details confidential and they change the rules frequently in an effort to continually deliver the best possible results to those using the search engines to find information rather than subjecting them to poor information that somehow achieves a good search engine ranking.

Like I said before, the search engines change their search engine ranking rules frequently, so there is no "set in stone" method for achieving a great search engine ranking. The things that tend to remain constant in the determinations of search engine ranking include the use of relevant keywords and keyword phrases, relevant content, link popularity and link relevancy. By using search engine optimization techniques that focus on these constant variables, it is sometimes possible to achieve top search engine ranking organically - which means that your website gets ranked naturally through the search engines' page ranking process without you having to pay to get a search engine ranking that is desirable.

The option to an organic search engine ranking is buying your search engine ranking through a pay-per-click search engine advertising program such as Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing. When you use a pay-per-click or cost-per-click advertising program, your website will be listed in the search engines as a sponsored ad. You bid on keywords and the top bids get the top listings in most instances. Google does consider ad popularity as well as bids for search engine ranking of pay-per- click advertisements.

With both organic search engine ranking and pay-per-click advertising programs, ongoing monitoring of your search engine ranking is required in order to maintain it. This is necessary because of the changing rules for organic search engine ranking and the bidding competition for specific keywords in the pay-per- click programs. If organic search engine listing is not possible or the pay-per-click bids get too high to be cost effective, it may be in your best interest to adjust the keyword phrases you are using or to seek search engine ranking in the smaller, lesser known search engines, specialty search engines, directories and portals.