I've searched all over, but I don't know if what I'm looking for exists.

Is there a way, through Google for example, to find out where your website ranks among differing search terms? What about Yahoo! and other search engines?

Ummm... Sorry, I'm not sure but hopefully someone will come along that knows.

In the meantime, different tools can be used to find out how popular different keywords are and how many times they are searched for. Something like this can be helpful:
www.wordtracker.com

Here are some links to a few online keyword density analyzers that might be helpful.

www.searchengineworld.com

www.keyworddensity.com

www.keywordcount.com

www.webjectives.com

www.ranks.nl

I've heard that reciprocal linking is important with Google. Lots of relevant sites linking to you was said to be the way to get ahead.

Thanks Deb. When it comes to high-density keywords: these are the ones you want to list in your meta tags, right?

I always get confused about this because if you choose the lower density keywords, it seems like the list of results would be smaller and your site would be put ahead more.

I guess the former is the better way to go, since it's a higher volume of users... any thoughts on that?

I'm trying.. I think title, meta and the alt's in image tags are taken into consideration... but I'm not an expert. They're trying to eliminate spammers and such.

I really need to read up more on this. It's something I've done sorta by accident on my sites I guess.

Actually, the links you posted above were some of the best webmaster links I've ever seen. They cover a lot of info that is often overlooked.

They do mention alt tags, meta tags, and title, as well as making sure your keywords appear on the actual page when possible.

Thanks for the links and your help.

Now if I could only get everyne into fishing...

Do you think I'm ready to submit my forums into the UBBDEV competition?

You're welcome, I'm glad I could help a little.

Nice! There are 90 visitors on your forum right now! Yep, I think they're ready for a little competition.

I'll check it out then.

While you're at it please check your pm's too.

Argh, I typed a 3 paragraph reply only to have it disappear in vapor due to the 'overloaded server' message

Anyway, the short answers are:

Webposition Gold is probably the best answer for those who have questions in regards to improving their search engine placement. http://www.webposition.com You can't go wrong with it, use it for free for 30 days, you'l get invaluable help in preparing your site for search engines and then you set the software and let it run.

MarketPosition's newsletter, written by the chief developer for WP is another resource that is immeasurable in assistance here: http://www.marketposition.com/ Most any question you could ever have regarding site promotion in the search engines is handled here in easy to understand language. The info you can get there is guaranteed to improve your traffic over th next few months. If people are looking, they will find you.

Other notable mentions

AWStats - Lets you know what words/phrases were used form people using search engines that came to your site. Just one of the many many features!

SubmitWolf - Site submission tool. The best I have ever seen and well worth the $$$

There is an excellent search engine resource.

Spider Food - http://spider-food.net/

With submission software it's not necessarily important that you're listed on 10,000 engines. Less than 10 engines cover almost the whole market.

Yahoo!, Google, MSN Search, AltaVista, AOL Search, Lycos, Hotbot, etc

I personally optimise my sites for AltaVista and Google but pay for inclusion in Inktomi's listings for MSN and AOL. At $39 for one URL it's a small price to pay.

Yahoo! is still king but losing ground to Google all the time. Recent changes in Yahoo! results has also meant Google's are more important.

I'd also get listed in the Open Directory Project, http://www.dmoz.org - A listing here can spread your presence around the Internet more than other single action.

Google is not that bothered about meta tags, it's link popularity as Deb suggested. It's how many sites link to yours.

Google ranks all sites out of 10 using its PageRank system. If you install the Google shortcut bar on IE it will tell you the score any page receives. If a site ranked 10/10 links to your site, it's more valuable than a site ranked 6/10.

To build link popularity I'd avoid the link farms and other underhand ways as you risk being blacklisted by Google. Just go to Google and type in your keywords, work through the list of results and write to the webmasters asking for a link. It's boring work but it works. You can also set up a 'link to us' page and encourage people to add you to their home pages and sites.

You can check your site's popularity using http://info.alexa.com which will also tell you how many inbound links you have.

You can check your link popularity on Google and AltaVista by typing 'link:www.catcherman.com'. AltaVista lists 4, Google lists 0.

According to this we have 248 links on Google to Team Nicole and 184 on AltaVista. I may have asked for 200 and got 30 or so of them added to sites but the rest came from being established a while and promotion. Useful posts on appropriate newsgroups with links to your site is another good way of building your presence. Don't say "come to my site" but say things like "I've got the answer to this on my site" and post the link. I've posted on other UBBs advertising my site using similar techniques, as long as your providing information you'll usually get away with it.

Hope this helps.