Search engines differ! Consider:
How long does it take for a submitted page to appear?
Does it use metatags to index?
Does it index all pages or a sample?
Does  it do searches that are case-sensitive or stemmed?
Does it index comments?
Does it visit frequently linked pages more often?
Does it visit frequently changed pages more often?

Some notes on different search engines:
Infoseek: Sidewinder       one minute to index   uses metatags
 indexes SAMPLE pages indexes comments
 case-sensitive, stemming visits changed pages often
 

AltaVista Scooter  1 day-1 week to index uses metatags
 case-sensitive visits changed pages often

HotBot  Slurp the Web Hound  three days to index uses metatags
  indexes comments  indexes comments
 visits changed  pages often visits popular pages often

Excite Architext Spider  2-3 weeks to index NO metatags


Webcrawler Spidey 2-4 weeks to index NO metatags
 indexes SAMPLE only visits popular pages often

Northern Light Gulliver  2 weeks to index SOME metatags
 visits frequently changed pages often

Lycos T-Rex   takes 3 weeks to index SOME metatags
 SAMPLE only   stemming   visits popular pages often

Open Text  takes 6 weeks to index, NO metatags
 

The most commonly used search words
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/facts/searches.html
http://eyescream.com/yahootop200.html
http://www.eyescream.com/dogpiletop200.htm
http://www.pointers.co.uk/pointers/search.htm

Yahoo: 1997 sex, chat, chat rooms, xxx, playboy, netscape, software, nude, porno, porn, games, weather, pamela anderson, penthouse, pussy, persian kitty, maps, halloween, music, adult, erotica, microsoft, jokes, shareware, magazines
Dogpile: 1997  of, in, for, to,  free,  new, pictures, pics, women, chat, sex, nude, gay, adult, xxx,
software, internet, web, search, canada, university, music, school, home
Forum One: 1997  sex, chat, gay, black, free, religion, teen, enema, genealogy, women
Pointers (U.K.): 1997  hotels, sex, training, adertising, accountants, antiques, jobs, schools, wine, weather
 

Metatags: Links
 

How to Use Metattags    http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/meta.html
Crash Course on Metatags
 http://www.netscapeworld.com/netscapeworld/nw-08-1997/nw-08-metabackground.html
WDVL HTML's Metatags    http://www.stars.com/Authoring/HTML/Head/meta.html
WDVL Metatagging for Search Engines   http://www.stars.com/Search/Meta/Tag.html

Search Engine Submission   http://www.northernwebs.com/set/
HTML Metatags (detailed, technical)    http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/
Back to Basics    http://www.webdeveloper.com/categories/html/html_metatags.html
Infoseek Metatags  http://guide.infoseek.com/Help?sv=IS&lk=noframes&pg=meta_tag.html

How Search Engines Work   http://webreference.com/content/search/how.html
Webmasters Guide to Search Engines
 http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/index.html
Search Engine Comparison    http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/features.html

Metatag Generators
http://www.websitepromote.com/resources/meta/
http://www.northernwebs.com/set/setsimjr.html
http://vancouver-webpages.com/VWbot/mk-metas.html
http://www.siteup.com/meta.html
http://www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm
http://metatag.webpromote.com/
http://www.websitegarage.com/

<PRE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Short description of Web site content,
keep around150-200 characters.">
For search engines that respect this convention, this allows Web authors to specify a short description of their site when a robot indexesit. If the search engine's robot doesn't respect the the tag, or if the tag's not present, the robot will take the first few hundred characters of the index.html or index.htm document.

<META NAME="keyword" CONTENT="Keywords separated by commas, case
insensitive. Keep around 750 characters.">
For search engines that respect this convention, Web authors may specify which keywords should be associated with their site. If the search engine's robot doesn't respect the the tag, or if the tag is not present, the robot will scour the entire document and decide based on the number of repeated words, which are the keywords for the document.
</PRE>

150-200 characters for description
750-1000 characters for keywords,  case insensitive
order of keywords counts
be careful with tricks:  (e.g. adding keywords  in same color as background)
use same keyword no more than 7 times (includes different versions of the word)
TITLES: first 20 characters may only show in some bookmarks
TITLES: try a NUMBER in front IF relevant to your page (e.g. bookstore3.htm
        could be titled 3 Bookstore)
put stop words in quotes
Choose strategic keywords for your page and use them high on page.


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