I am updating this website for a sunglasses company

It's not done, but my boss wants to get it out there.

The sales will pretty much be determined entirely by the search rank when someone types in "sunglasses" or "ray ban" or whatever.

So any good software recommendations? My boss is willing to spend money. Besides that, any basic tips for raising the rank?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

You are targeting very c0ompetitive keywords. You will be looking at years before you even have a chance at being successful. I highly suggest that you try to target less competitive phrases if you want to have any hope for short term success.

Getting an ecommerce site to rank well in the search engines is very difficult. After all, the only content they tend to have is products which are the same products everyone else has. They've have a head start over you and that's very difficult to overcome. You will need to add content that they don't have usually in the form of a blog or article. Product reviews and step by step instructions for care and usage are always helpful.

Don't waste your money on software or SEO companies. They're a waste of money. You may want to consider paying someone to submit the site to some directories, though, to establish some backlinks.

Overall keep promoting it and seeking links to the site. You have an uphill battle on your hands but the sooner you start the sooner you'll get results.

Why do you feel that SEO companies are a waste of money? I've noticed some are offering web "reports" for around $200. Do you consider these worthwhile?

Then go for some good paid directories having lots of traffic such as Yahoo paid directory...

And why not you use PPC advertising for your website, if its done...Its may help in instant hits to your website...(but not useful in organic ranking)..

No. Those reports they offer are not special and you can get the same information yourself for free and quickly.

For high search engine rankingo Directory submission
Blog commenting
Forums Discussion
Article marketing
Press Release
Link exchange
Classified Sites
Digg

Most of those will have no effect on your rankings.

Do you tell me which factors helps in high search engine ranking .
Please send me suggestions.
Thank you .

Follow these basic guidelines:

Before you write one line of code:

• Do keyword research to determine what keywords you want to target.

While constructing your website you should do the following:

• Use markup to indicate the content of your site
  • Optimize your <title> tags on each page to contain 1 - 3 keywords
  • Create unique Meta Tags for each page
  • Use header tags appropriately (H1 > H2 > H3)
  • Use <b> and <i> tags if appropriate
• Optimize your URLs
  • Use Search Engine Friendly URLs
  • Use keywords in your domain (http://www.keyword1.com/)
  • Use keywords in your URL (http://www.example.com/keyword2/keyword3.html)
  • Use dashes or underscores to separate words in your URLs (keyword2-keyword3.html)
• Optimize your content
  • Use keywords liberally yet appropriately throughout each page
  • Have unique content
  • Have quality content
• Use search engine friendly design
  • Create a human sitemap
  • Do not use inaccessible site navigation (JavaScript or Flash menus)
  • Minimize outbound links
  • Kept your pages under 100K in size
• Design the navigational structure of the site to channel PR to main pages (especially the homepage)
• Create a page that encourages webmasters to link to your site
  • Provide them the relevant HTML to create their link to you (make sure the anchor text contains keywords)
  • Provide them with any images you may want them to use (although text links are better)
• Make sure your website is complete before launching it

Immediately after launching your site you should do the following:

• Create Webmaster Accounts
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  • Yahoo! Site Explorer
• Submit your site to all major search engines
  • Google (Use a Google SiteMap)
  • Yahoo (Use the page list option)
  • MSN
  • Ask (Finds your site via incoming links)
• Create an XML sitemap
• Submit your site to all free directories
  • DMOZ (also powers Google Directory)
  • JoeAnt
• Submit your site to relevant directories
  • Find more at ISEDB
• Begin a link building campaign (attempting to get keywords in the link anchor text)
  • Put a link to your website in your forum signatures (hint hint)
  • Reply to relevant blog posts (Don't spam please)

If you will pay to promote your website:

• Submit your site to pay directories
  • Yahoo
  • GoGuides

Finally, as part of an ongoing strategy:

• Continually update your website with quality, unique content
• Continually seek free links preferably from sites in your genre

Do NOT do the following:

• Make an all Flash website (without an HTML alternative)
• Use JavaScript or Flash for navigation
• Spam other websites for incoming links
• Launch your site before it is done
• Use duplicate content
  • Do not point several domains to one site without using a 301 redirect
  • Do not make a site of duplicated content from other websites
• Use markup inappropriately
  • Style <H>eader tags to look like regular text
  • Hide content using 'display: hidden' (for the sake of hiding text)
• Use other "black hat" techniques (unless you accept the risk - Banning)
  • Doorway/Landing pages
  • Cloaking
  • Hidden text

Additional Tips:

• Usable and accessible sites tend to be search engine friendly by their very nature
• Be patient! High rankings don't happen overnight
• Don't obsess with any one search engine. They are all worth your attention.

I agree that in most cases SEO companies can be a waste of time, there is plenty of good information out there and if you have 1-2 hours a day to spare dont waste the dough...

BUT... If you have a day job and family you might want to use a REPUTABLE service, Definitely do your homework by:

Researching their rankings and listings
Look to see where their clients rankings are and see how they have been moving.
Get a checklist of everything they will be doing to promote your site and research that.

For most people, there are a lot of good free tools checklists that you can work your way through for an hour or two a day. For larger sites you can try find and replace for small simple adjustments like to create H1 tags or correct keyword placements and adding simmilar wording.

I have added a quick beginers checklist to my new php help forum.

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If you have any questions about SEO let me know, I will happily answer them to the best of my knowledge.