The Google Search Engine

Without search engines like Google it would be practically impossible to find the information you need on the web.
In truth the real technical specifics of how Google generates its results are a secret for 2 main reasons - this is what makes Google different (and many say better) than other search engines and secondly reducing the chance of people working out how to abuse the system.

However we do know a fair amount of less technical stuff about how Google works - enough to assist anyone making a web site to provide Google with the kind of data it needs to give you a high ranking.

Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers (as do most search engines) that roam about the web gathering information about each web page they come across.
Google keeps a huge index of keywords that it matches against web pages with a ranking system. This system uses a few key factors for the ranking - the frequency and location of the keywords within the web page, how long the page has existed and the number of other web pages that link to that page to determine its relevance and this is one of the most important of the ranking criteria.

In other words LINKS are considered a critical key factor by Google. The web got it's name from the phenomenon of hyperlinks giving people the ability to jump from strand to strand of information within a system that was completed linked up. Web pages are not designed to be a single bit of information sitting out in the middle of nowhere.

So what does this mean for you starting out in e-commerce?

PLANNING!

You are obviously already aware that just jumping in feet-first is not necessarily a very smart move and are hungry to learn before you leap.
This is fantastic as planning to succeed is the most important step to take towards real success.

You may be hoping to make your own company web site or you may be budgeting to pay someone professional to do this for you.
Either approach is fine, the most important point is that you plan well.

Don't forget to take yourself through the set of question in the Are you ready for e-commerce section as this will assist you with some of important parts of the planning.

However you also need to do some technical planning such as how you will make sure that you know what keywords are relevant to your product or service, how you will use them inside the text on your site, and how you will get people to link to you.
It is more important to ensure you choose a good handful of keywords and use them well through your site, than to choose a huge list of keywords that never get used more than once.