Search engines are a business just like everything else. Some are even listed on the stock exchanges and their stock is bought and sold. The object of search engines is to make money by helping people find the products, information and services they are looking for.

They SELL advertising to businesses that want to sell these products, information and services to people who are looking for them to buy.

The key word here is "sell". Now when a person types key words into the search box of a search engine and hits search, the search results that are displayed on the first page are mostly paid or sponsored advertisements.

Look carefully next time you do a search. At the top of the page and on the right side of the page you will see what are apparently bought advertisements.

They say "sponsored links". The top of the page ads are the ones that cost the most….the ones on the right side cost slightly less.

The top few results are most often directly related to those paid advertisements on the top and right side of the page. Of course, search results are bought and paid for.

That really shouldn’t come as a big surprise. What is that saying? "It’s a material world!" and just like always, money does talk.

Website owners buy AdWord advertisements and then the search engine spiders determine at what number those advertisements are seen in the results.

That’s why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is so important and why it is the battle cry of all Internet entrepreneurs.

Every single one of the millions of people who are surfing the Internet as we speak are using the search engines to find the "stuff" they want or need.

If they don’t find our business in their search results, we don’t have a prayer of making them into our customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to our very survival.

The key to search engine optimization is the use of key words and phrases in the content on our websites. If we use them wisely and to our best advantage we get listed in the results when people use our key words in their searches. If we use them poorly, we won’t be found.

Key words and phrases need to be in the title of our home page….more than one time. They need to be included in our Meta tags, as well.

The density key words in the first 250 words on the home page needs to be between five and seven percent. If we use less, we won’t be listed and if we use more, we will be seen by the search engines as spamming.

It’s a fine line. This means that out of the first 250 words on a home page and including the title, the key words and phrases should be used between 12 and 17 times. No less than 12 and no more than 17 is about right and don’t forget this includes the title.

It is important that key words are used on every page of a website. They should not be as dense as they are in the first 250 words but they do need to be used.

Blatant and unrelated use of key words is not a good idea. That will be seen by the search engine as spamming.