Search engines are still one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your web site. This is because it is highly targeted traffic. A person searching for a particular phrase on a search engine, gets taken to your web site.

It makes sense then, to make your site as attractive as possible to the search engines, so your rankings will improve, giving you more visitors which leads to more sales - your ultimate goal.

1. Keyword Density

the ratio of keywords on your visible page to non-keywords is called Keyword Density. i.e. if you have 100 words on your page and 3 of those words are "boat" or "boats", then you will get a keyword density of 3% of your text for the word "boat".

Try to aim for a keyword density on your site from 3-20%. This will give you a good range. You can analyze your keyword density by using these online tools:

http://www.KeywordDensity.com http://www.KeywordCount.com

2. Keywords in your domain name
try to incorporate one of your keywords or a keyword phrase in your domain name. i.e. http://www.isitebuild.com (building web sites) or http://www.ihost-websites.com (hosting web sites). This may also help people to memorize your name when they are looking for this service.

3. Page Title

write a short descriptive title of 5-8 words for your web site, containing your primary keywords or keyword phrase.

The page title is the first thing that people see when your site appears in the search engines. Begin your title with a capital letter, then follow with lower-case letters. This makes it easier to read than titles with all words capitalized. Place your most important keyword phrase toward the beginning of your title tag.

4. Description Meta Tag

some search engines will include this below your title. Choose 20 of your most important keywords and write a 200-250 character sentence about your site. Don't repeat your title description but write a different one with different keywords. Some search engines will just take this description meta tag, some will use both the title and description tags.

5. Keywords Meta Tag

research 50-100 keywords people would insert in the search engines to find your site. A great tool for doing this is the keyword suggestion tool or Wordtracker. Refine this list to your 20 best keywords or keyword phrases.

Leave out the commas between your keywords, so the search engines can group the words into any phrases that seem appropriate. This positions your words for minimum space with maximum combinations.

6. Header tags -

search engines tend to place emphasis on the header tags so make sure you have your H1 tag at the top of your web page. Use CSS (cascading style sheets) to avoid the problem of your text appearing too large when just using html for this tag.

Use the other header tags (H2, H3, H4) throughout your web copy.

7. Comment Tags 

these are mostly used by web designers to remind them of how to structure web pages. Write a sentence using some of your most important keywords, place it in a comment tag and insert the comment tag in your body copy.

8. Use the ALT Tag for Images 

some people surf the Web with the graphics turned off. Placing ALT tags in the html code for your images enables them to see the description of that image.

Incorporate keywords in the alt tag of your images. WARNING: Make sure the words relate to the graphic, otherwise you could get banned for "keyword stuffing".

9. Image File Names 

change your image file names to your keywords.

10. Page Link Names 

place a primary keyword in your page link names. Rather than using a link in your navigation bar like "services", add a keyword to that page link. If you offer web hosting services, it could be "webhostingservices.htm"

Also use keywords in the page links throughout your copy. Instead of writing a paragraph about your testimonials and linking to a page labeled "testimonials", create a link to a page called "marketing successes".

11. Create a Site Map 

create a site map that contains links to all the sections of your site. Write a description for each section. Place this site map on your homepage as some search engines will only index the homepage and not deeper pages in your site.

12. Quality Content 

provide web copy of 250 to 300 words which are targeted for your web site visitors. Sprinkle your most important keywords throughout your text, particularly in the first paragraph. Be careful not to overstuff keywords in your copy so that it sounds strange when you read it. Get some others to review and edit your pages before you submit them for the world to read.

13. Repair Broken Links 

most search engine directories will not list your site if it has broken links. Also visitors get frustrated when they reach a broken link page (404 error page) and will click elsewhere. Make sure you do a link check before your site goes live http://www.AnyBrowser.com

14. Create a contact page 

the search engine directory, Yahoo will not index your page if you don't have a real address (don't use a Post Office Address).

15. Reciprocal Links 

search engines (especially Google) place high relevancy on links to your site in assigning a good ranking.

Create a links page that includes links to sites with similar content. Make sure they don't compete with your site and that they are quality links. Preferably, find sites that already have a high search engine ranking.

Ask sites that link to your competition to link to your site. To find out which sites are linking to your competition, visit a search engine and enter "link:" before your competitors URL. For example: link:mysite.com or link:www.mysite.com

16. Cross linking multiple sites 

if you have multiple sites, cross link all your sites and include a description on your web site for each link.

17. Keep your file size small 

if you use dynamic html (i.e. javascript, DHTML) it will often push your web copy (containing your keywords) to the bottom of your page. Since search engines read the text that is near the top of your page, that nice piece of javascript you have placed before your web copy, will affect your search engine rankings.

You can keep your file size small by storing your JavaScript and CSS code in an external file.

Create a simple, clean design for your web site that is easily navigable. Focus on good quality content with well-written, keyword rich copy, based on how it will benefit the visitor.

Implement the powerful strategies outlined above and the traffic to your web site will increase dramatically.

Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Affordable Web Site Redesign and Hosting 
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