Websites that are not in the top 10 search results miss out on more than 90 percent of the traffic going to those sites buying products and/or services. Those who have done research on search engines are aware that they rarely, if ever, go past the top 10 listings on the first page. Research tells us that only 10 percent of people have the patience or desire to go to page 11 and beyond. Therefore, if you want to increase search engine ranking, you must know the basics. First, it costs money to get top 10 rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) firms usually charge $1,000 to $10,000 a month to obtain your website top 10 search engine rankings.