getting started..

I answered a 'yahoo' question the other day about getting a website up and running. The questioner wanted to know how to get a website 'posted' on Google. My interpretation of that is to assume the asker has a website built and a domain to host it, and is looking to get Google to crawl it and give it a rating.
I have gone through the process myself, so am happy to share my experiences...
Right from the word go, I registered with Google so that I had an 'account', then you have the option of submitting your site to google when you feel it is ready.. Having the google account means that you can also set up 'adwords' (your advertising to gain visitors to your site) for your site and 'adsense' (adverts placed on your site to earn you revenue). You can also use Google Analytics which provides data about your site visitors (including geographical analysis). All these services are free to use (there is a naturally a charge for adwords advertising, but access to the service itself is free).
I have tried all these tools on my own little site and can report that even on a small scale, these services are very useful, I would encourage everyone to register. I don't want to sound like I think Google is the bees knees or anything, but everyone is surely aware that Google is by far the biggest player in the world of Search Engines.
Be aware though, it takes a while to get a rating and then it will be low until you have worked hard on the optimisation...
There is a host of stuff you can do to your site for Search Engine Optimisation (at no cost), and I think that will have to be the subject of a subsequent post.....