I am trying to figure out how to get my website further up the Google lists. I have added key words to each page as per various online tutorials, but that seems to have little or no effect. I have discovered Google Webmaster tools, which apparently show all sorts of information which could be useful, but which I am having problems trying to access. If anyone id familliar with these tools, perhaps you can help. I am not an expert web designer, and am learning bits and pieces as I go along.

At the moment I am having problems getting past the "verify ownership" (of my website) section. It gives 4 options to do so, and I don't understand any of them. Google doesn't provide any proper description on how to carry out each form of verification, it appears to just assume that you know what to do.

The 2 options that seem to fit the bill are:
"opload an html file to your server" and
""add a meta tag to your sites home page"

Can anyone provide me with an idiots guide as to how to do either of these please - or indeed how to improve my Google ranking, which is the whole object of my going through this process.

Many Thanks