Every entrepreneur wants to rank high in the search engines for the word or phrase she wants to "own" in the mind of the target market.

But landing the top position in search results is like owning beachfront property: If you ever get it, you better hold onto it because no one is making any more beachfront. Similarly, only one company can occupy the No. 1 slot.

And any time you have a scarce resource--like beachfront property or top search engine rankings--the hucksters usually aren't far behind.

So what's a business owner to do? You want top billing, but you don't want any wooden nickels.

Some companies are so committed to achieving and maintaining their search results that they hire a full-time employee just to manage their company's search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. SEO is such a mass of moving parts, variables, tactics and strategies that hiring someone full-time isn't a half-bad idea for companies that can afford the expense. The employee would certainly have lots to do.

However, there are some tasks and tactics you can handle on your own:

1. Text trumps graphics. It's great to have a slick-looking website with pictures of smiling people on the homepage and Flash animation that gyrates to up-tempo "business beat" Musak--but that does squat for your website's SEO. Make sure that your homepage and all the other pages on your website have plenty of natural--not forced--flowing text. And, speaking of forced text . . .

2. Don't phrase cram. Perhaps you've seen websites that shove in the company's coveted marketing term so often you wonder whether you're reading the same paragraph over and over. This is known as SEO cramming, and the more you try to game the system, the more your website's ranking decreases. Search engine robots are programmed to spot SEO gaming.

3. Be a headliner. Be sure to make ample yet smart use of headline tags (e.g., H1, H2), and be sure to format subheads in bold. Content inside headline markers and bolded subheads are indexed quickly and rank highly in search results.

4. Get out of your own head. When choosing keywords and page titles, think of phrases and words that your customer would use. You might be tempted to use your brand names and coined phrases. Unless your coined phrase is as popular as "The buck stops here," stick to phrases everyday businesspeople would use to describe your products and services.

5. Explain services well. Do a thorough job of outlining your products and services, without phrase cramming. Explain what your company does, how you do it and what benefits each product or service gives to your customers.

6. Color inside the lines. In an effort to snatch higher rankings, many companies go hog wild with meta tags, keywords and title tags, but this is more harmful than helpful. For example, the title tag of a webpage should be from six to 12 words; the meta description tag should come after title tag and before the keyword section. It should be 12 to 24 words. When you play by the rules, you reap the benefits.

7. Map it out. Site maps outline where information can be found on your website and help search engine robots find your content. Submitting your site map page directly to search engines is also an excellent idea.

8. Go local. When people search for business resources--especially professional services such as legal assistance and accounting--they tend to add their city or state to the search. For example: "lawyer, New York." Make sure your site mentions where your office is located and lists the addresses of additional offices in other locations.

9. Submit. Most of the popular search engines have pages where you can submit your website. This might seem longhand and a bit old school, but it's quick and effective, particularly when paired with a site map.

10. Launch a blog. Search engine indexing robots are fond of two things: a website that's full of text and sites that are updated consistently. That's the very definition of a blog. Blogs aren't as mysterious as they once were, and they are user-friendly. It's worth it to learn how to blog the right way: The rewards are enormous.

11. Link up. In this day of Web 2.0, interactivity links between websites might seem a bit 1980s. But the tactic is still effective, especially when the links pointing to your site come from a popular, highly trafficked website.

There are loads of websites, software and companies that offer great SEO assistance. Steer clear of anyone who promises you any position on a search engine results page--no one can promise that--and think about all purchases before plunking down large sums of cash. Some SEO firms charge tens of thousands of dollars. That's a big gamble if you turn out to be unhappy with the results.

Abate some of the risk and add a little TLC to your SEO. If you are consistent, you'll beat the odds and come out on top.