Bankrate, Inc. (Nasdaq: RATE) is one of the top financial sites on the Web. And one of the main reasons it does so well: organic traffic.

Huh? Well, this means that when you search on popular terms and phrases on Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), Bankrate's site is often on the first page. This is essentially free traffic.

So, how can you benefit from this? Of course, there are many strategies. But, there are some things you can do to get started. Let's take a look:

Optimize your page: You want to make it easy for search engines to index your pages. This means making sure that each web page title is unique and reflects the key search phrases that your users enter (the process is known as "search engine optimization" or SEO).

One of the most powerful ways to market your company is through search engine optimization (SEO). This refers to what happens when users enter certain queries into online search engines. The idea is to ensure that your website gets high placement in the results, ideally being on the first page of results.

So what are some strategies for effective SEO?

Well, let's use an example. Suppose you operate a retail store based in Newport Beach, California, which sells chocolate. But when you search for "chocolate" on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), you see that major companies rank high on that word. It will probably be impossible to get any traction on such a generic term.

"When selecting your main keywords," said Don Deveau, the SEO Team Lead at Register.com, "It's usually better to start with more specific ones. You will have much less competition."

As a result, you might want to look for keywords like "handmade chocolate." Or, you might be more specific by listing your store's location ("Newport Beach chocolate").

It actually takes quite a bit of brainstorming to come up with keywords. And yes, there are some online tools to help things out, including Wordtracker, which helps identify optimal keywords.

Next, you want to place the keywords into your website content. For example, it's a good idea to have each page focus on one or two keywords. Thus, if you have a page on handmade chocolate, then you should mention this a number of times in the descriptions. This helps search engines find and rank the pages.

I'm pregnant, with my third child, and the ultrasound gods did not smile upon me. So whereas I was able to select my previous sons' names (Everett, a family name, and Truman, a presidential name that was distinguished by being both unusual and easily pronounceable) by the time I hit five months, with this baby, I'm lost in a sea of uncertainty -- and I only have a little more than two months to go. I have a girl's name, but for boys, what to do?

So, I've been Googling. A friend suggested "Miles" and "Lowell" and (when paired with my husband's name) I quickly eliminated "Miles Hanson" as far too popular, so much so that it appeared on an IRS publication. Ick. And this is the top result for "Lowell Hanson" ... hmmm. While I ultimately discarded "Lowell" for other reasons, the Google factor was definitely in there.

When other bloggers read the Wall Street Journal's report on baby name Googling, they showed a bit of skepticism; Brian White didn't really believe that brands are competing with baby names, while Marc Perton thought Googling for unique names was, most importantly, not a good SEO strategy.

Haha. When I saw the article I just Googled "Kohler Hanson." Hmm... not bad...

If you have any good ideas, by all means, send 'em my way. You might want to Google first.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shares have outperformed Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) so far this year and I couldn't care less.

For one thing, it's only March. The fact that Yahoo is up 19 percent and Google is down 5 percent tells us more about market expectations than the companies.

Yahoo is currently trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 42. Google is trading at a multiple of 24. Analysts are expecting Google's revenue to rise 63 percent in the current quarter to Yahoo's 11 percent., according to Thomson Financial. That doesn't matter much since analysts usually underestimate Google's earnings.

Google's stock has been held back by general unease about the economy, worries about Google's growth rate slowing from double warp speed to warp speed and concerns about competition from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) . Moreover, Wall Street also has heard so many great things from the company that now it will only bid up the stock for extraordinarily great news.

The sentiment around Yahoo is more complicated.

Wall Street falls in and out of love with Yahoo about every six months or so. The media makes it sound like Google will drive it out of business tomorrow. While I am not attempting to minimize the threat the search engine giant poses, it's important to remember that Yahoo can still deliver huge audiences for advertisers.

Project Panama will improve Yahoo's search business, but the company will still be under siege from specialty sites and YouTube. It continues to benefit from the shift of display advertising onto the Web. Even though it's a distant second to Google in search, it's still attracts plenty of users. Advertisers also don't like to spend all of their money in one spot even Google.

Remember that investors will turn on both stocks at the slightest sign of trouble.