You have three options at that point.

Number one - You can keep on trying. Who knows, maybe eventually you will get it right. Stranger things have been known to happen.

Number two - You can hire a search engine specialist. They do exist and I have heard that some of them are very, very good. These high priest of search engine world can get you a nice high ranking and keep you there. I have also heard that their fees are very, very high. Of course, it may be worth money.

Number three - You can turn to pay-per-click type of search engine.

The frustration of trying to get a decent ranking on traditional engines has given rise to a new breed called pay-per-click. It only takes a few minutes to get listed on these guys. You open an account, make a deposit of from $10 to $25.00 ($50.00 is now required amount on GoTo.com) and then you list your keywords.

Your ranking under each keyword is determined by how much you are willing to bid on each listing (bids can be as low as 1 cent on most of these sites, 5 cents on GoTo.com).

The great part is you only pay for results. Plus, all of pay-per-clicks I have seen, have a members area where you can log in and check on amount of traffic each keyword is delivering to your site. If any of your keywords are not producing, just change it to what you think will be a better choice.

As you can see pay-per-clicks do cost a little money, but it is money spent on results, not on speculation. Here are URLs of a few you should check out if you are thinking about exploring this avenue.

http://www.GoTo.com http://PowerSearchExpress.com http://www.SearchFeed.com http://SearchHound.com

Regardless of what you decide to do about your quest for a high listing on search engines and to rid your life of those search engine blues, don't ignore them. They are too important to keep out of your marketing mix. If your decision is to keep on banging your head against "big boys," God love you, I admire tenacity. I just don't have time for it. But, let me know how you do.

These are some of basics to consider when designing a web site.

Consider also, 'who will submit your site to search engines once design is complete?'. Some of design companies offering this service use 'bulk submission' software, which in many cases can be ineffective. We recommend that first time you submit your site to 'leading' search engines you do it manually. Take time to follow instructions carefully. On directory sites like Yahoo and Open Directory, you should only submit your site one time, so get it right.

The last point is 'Hosting'. If you are serious about your web business, try to avoid free-host sites. Most of them use redirection scripts that some of search engines cannot follow. If you are considering a 'Mall' site, or any site that is 'template' based, find out constraints that they impose on information you can post to site. Many will allow only basic text, product and image loading to site, and may not allow you to load 'optimized' HTML pages.

Having a web site is all about 'exposure', and search engines provide most effective vehicle for delivering your site to masses. On average, businesses spend around $1500 on improving search engine rankings, usually following a period of being 'lost in wilderness' of Internet. In many cases, careful design is all that is required, and it need only add around $200 to initial design cost of web site.

If your site is already online then above techniques can still be applied retrospectively, though making changes is more difficult than getting it right first time.