Building a search engine friendly site can seem like a daunting task, but there are some parts of search engine optimization process that are quite simple and quickly done. These seemingly simple tasks can make a big difference in the results you get in your efforts to attain top search engine positions. If you are in the process of building a new site take a look at the easily done optimization points explained below, and if you already have a site, you can use this list as a way to check your site.

1. Name your files properly. Just as it is important to put keywords in your metatags and in the copy of your site, it is also very helpful to have keywords in the names of the files. If have a website for the Electronic Widgets Company, your “About Us” page could have the file name “aboutus.html” but then you would not have any keywords in it. It would be better to have “electronic-widgets-aboutus.html” or “about-electronic-widgets.html”. If you make a sub-directory also make sure that its name incorporates an important keyword. Never make a file such as “page1.hml” or “page2.html”, you are throwing away an opportunity to place your keyword.

Some people carry this point to the nth degree and choose a long domain name with many keywords put together. I don’t think you need to do this, as these kinds of domain names are difficult to remember. However if you are building a secondary domain, one that is content-rich and designed to get traffic which is then directed to another site, you can opt for a keyword-rich domain name.

2. Put your keywords in hyperlinks. Another important place for keywords is in the hyperlinks which lead to other pages on your website. If you have a navigation bar at the top or the left that is made of gif or jpeg images, you can add a text navigation bar at the bottom of the page and make sure that your keywords are in these text links. So, instead of having a text link that says “resources” it could better be written as “electronic widget resources”. Similarly whenever you find a place within the written text of the page where you can highlight a keyword and link it to another part of the site, take this opportunity. You can even make a hyperlink that jumps to a bookmark on the same page.

3. Make sure you have your own domain name. It is more difficult to promote an interior portion of a site, than the main domain name. It only costs from $8.00-15.00 to get a domain name, and your own webspace can be obtained for as little as $100 per year. So, if you already have a site, but want to start a completely different product line, start a new site with a new domain name rather than set up a subdirectory of an existing site, or , worse, use a free site.

4. Check to see that your are emphasizing the right keywords. While keyword research is a large task, and maybe doesn’t qualify as a little thing, it will not take you very long to visit this url (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion ) and see if people are really searching for what you are talking about. Take a look, and modify your web copy to reflect the actual searches that people make for your products.

5. Use the alt tag for images. Here is another opportunity to place your keywords. Search engines cannot “see pictures” or graphic files. Whenever you have a graphic image you have the option of adding alt text. This alt text will be visible when surfers put their mouse over the images, but more importantly it will be visible to search engines. So instead of just having a photo of a widget, you can put a description with your important keywords. If you have a navigation bar with images, you can put descriptive text for each navigation item.

6. Make sure that you have a title tag for each page. This may seem like an obvious point, but have you ever reached a web page which had a title, visible in the blue strip at the top of the browser, that said "new page" or "untitled page"? In this case the person building the site forgot to put in the title tag. These kinds of pages are usually found on the inner pages of a web site, a place where many people, mistakenly, pay less attention. So check all of your pages, make sure that there is a title tag, and make sure that your keywords are in the title tag.

Taking advantage of these search engine optimization opportunities will not take you much time or cost you much money, but your gain in a better position in search engine results will be well worth your effort.

Copyright 2003

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

The great and often-quoted baseball player Yogi Berra once said: “You can observe a lot by just watching.” That’s what I have been doing with the new MSN search engine that was recently launched with a lot of fanfare.

I observed two interesting things which I would like to pass on to you.

If you put a keyword rich paragraph near the top of the page, either in the first or second paragraph, then your page “may” do well in search requests for the keywords in that paragraph. I put “may” in quotation marks because it is not guaranteed.

If a page is well optimized in all aspects, this initial paragraph can give you the oomph that is needed to make a good showing at MSN. That is what happened in the case of a few of my new client’s sites.

Stating exactly what you are doing and describing it plainly right at the start is good practice in any case because most people spend only a few seconds on a web site. If the first paragraph is clear then it is to your advantage if you want to keep a restless surfer on your page.

I did some more keyword searches and then noticed another preference of the new search engine. When searching for some keywords I found one or two sites highly placed in the rankings, but their main contents had little to do with the keywords. However, at the very bottom of the pages they did have links to another site with those keywords in the clickable link text.

There are two things that can be learned from this:

1. keywords placed inside link text are considered important by search engines, because they indicate that your page is genuinely dealing with those keywords by giving more references to them.

2. keywords placed at the very end of a page are important because it tells the search engine that a page which started out describing a concept such as “search engine optimization” is still talking about it even at the very end.

Putting keywords in a strong paragraph at the beginning, putting keywords in link text, and repeating keywords near the end of a page are not new ideas. This has always been part of good optimization practice, and it also makes good sense in terms of providing solid information for website users.

However, it is the emphasis on these elements in the new MSN search engine that is interesting. In any case, try your hand at it and see if you can tweak your pages so that you do well in the MSN engine, and the others as well.

Copyright 2005

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Organic search engine optimization is a process that involves analysis of your website’s structure, code, content, links and tags. Based upon the current algorithms used by the major spider-based search engines, such as Google, changes and enhancements are made to your site in order to push your site up in the rankings and deliver it earlier in the search results delivered by the engine. For your site to rank in the first page or two of sites delivered in a search, it’s pretty much essential to use optimization software or a consulting service that keeps up-to-date on this fast changing industry.

So what will they do for you? Constantly monitor and adjust, things you don’t have time to do if you’re going to be marketing and advertising your site, adding content, blogging, creating partnerships and adding other merchants. By collecting site data and analyzing a huge number of sites, they identify patterns in the way pages are evaluated and achieve rankings. They understand the changes in the algorithms used by the major search engines. Your site and others receive continual reviews and updates, and changes in statistics are monitored.

These companies will identify the keywords that will bring buyers to your site. They will take care of submitting the pages of your site to the major search engines and online directories. They can also advise you and make changes to your linking, as links to other quality sites will help your ranking by the search engines. Because they see how so many sites rank, some can also help you in increasing the usability of your site and use and placement of ads, and merchant links. They may be able to advise you about reducing your drop-off rate (those who don’t buy) or conversion rate (those who click to a merchant and buy).

It’s an option worth real consideration you need to monetize your site to the best of your ability, and can’t do everything. There’s no sense in doing all the work related to maintaining a site and having nobody find you.

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:
http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don’t get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic. What is their problem? They have the content. What is left?

The problem is these sites aren’t optimized for the search engines. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SE Friendliness, however you refer to it doesn’t matter, the fact is it works and I’m going to tell you what’s involved.

Before we continue let me familiarize you with some relevant terminology in my own words.

**Search Engine Optimization**

Search engine optimization can be referred to as the addition and modification of all variables and extended variables of a web site in hopes of achieving a better position in the search engines. By variables I mean components of a website such as META tags and content. By extended variable I mean things such as links from other sites.

Different SEOs, search engine optimizers, may have different opinions on this but alas this is only my own.

**What is a Search Engine Optimization Company? **

A search engine optimization company is a company that offers the service of creating and adjusting all the variables involved in search engine optimization in order to get your web site the best ranking they can achieve, during the designated project period, for all the major search engines.

**Search Engine Optimization Hurdles**

Back to the question of why these sites rich with content aren’t bringing in the numbers. There are several reasons why sites small and large aren’t optimized for the search engines, fortunately these can be remedied.

1. Many webmasters/site owners believe in "If You Build It They Will Come". This attitude will get your web site no where fast. Sure if you build it you will get users maybe even a decent amount of users but you will not be unleashing the real potential of your web site.

2. Not feeling that your site can do better than it is. Websites can always be further optimized. Search engines change their algorithms all the time so what worked 2 months ago may not work as well or at all in present times. For any of you that fee you can get your site optimized better, think of the story of the Little Engine and don’t think you can, KNOW YOU CAN.

3. Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization.

This is partially true. Search engine optimization is not easy but then again, anyone can do it. It does take time though and time is a precious commodity. In situations where you just can’t devote the time to search engine optimize your site I would recommend seeking the services of a professional search engine optimization company. You can choose one here http://www.lilengine.com/seo-companies.php

4. Time + cost = a deterrent. For a situation like this I would recommend optimizing little by little on your own. Eventually you will become better and better at it and be able to accomplish more in less time.

5. Another problem is many people think "Well my site is only a small site, there is no way I will be able to compete with the larger sites that have top spots in the search engines". If you think like this I’d like to say this to you. It is possible that that if you optimize your web site you may not be able to compete with the larger sites and may not be able to get a page 1 or 2 ranking in any of the search engines, BUT, what if you did. Always shoot for the stars so if you fall short you will at least hit the sky.

Now for those of you who plan to better your websites via Search Engine Optimization here are the stages you need to follow in order to have an efficient and effective SEO campaign.

**Planning Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign**

Planning is an essential factor in your SEO campaign. Knowing exactly what steps you are going to make and in what order and how you are going to go about achieving each of those steps will save you not only time but it will save you frustration as well. Planning is essential.

**Researching the Most Effective SEO Strategies**

What works and what does not. You will need to learn as many optimization strategies as you can that are currently effective with the search engines. This will be one of the most time consuming steps in your SEO campaign as you will have to sift through information as well as participate in SEO related forums to get additional information from professional. You can take this process in stages and apply your newly gained knowledge as you get it. There is also some useful software available both free and paid that will greatly help with this effort. WebPosition Gold is one of the more popular ones.

**Search Engine Optimize Your Site**

This should be done in stages so you can see the effectiveness of the applied strategies you are using. Don’t change your entire site all at once, instead, change a few areas at a time and see what results they produce. If you are satisfied with this then move on and optimize another section.

Search engine optimization does not only deal with your site it also deals with the relationship other sites have with yours and yours with theirs. Keep this in mind when utilizing your link building strategies.

**Monitor Your SEO Progress**

There are many ways to do this you will have to find the best method for you. You will need to monitor your search engine ranking for the keywords you are targeting after each update. Changes should be recorded and used as references to monitor progress and for strategy adjustments. There are many tools for this process as well. I recommend SEOCount.com for monitoring your progress on the Google search engine as it is very easy to use and you can monitor several domains and keywords all from within the same account. It also gives you the option of viewing the number of backlinks.

These steps follow the Plan Do Review methodology which is a proven strategy for engaging in any task. It is again unfortunate that there are so many webmasters who overlook this entire process; hopefully this article will stop you from making this same mistake. For more information on search engine optimization visit http://www.lilengine.com

Copyright © LilEngine.com 2003

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of Li’l Engine a search engine optimization site. Get more great SEO tips at http://www.lilengine.com and visit their new Web Hosting Resource at http://webhosting.lilengine.com as well as http://www.grindinggears.com for Open Source Development information.

ald@lilengine.com

The importance of search engine optimization cannot be stressed enough. High rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and the others ranks amongst your top priorities when putting yourself or your business online. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is exactly how you do this.

The first thing you need to know about search engine optimization is what search engines are exactly and how they work. Frankly, I have no idea. From what I’ve heard and from what I’ve observed, Google and its inner workings rank up there with the greatest inventions of all time. It might even possibly be a greater invention than the entire universe.

Kidding. Just seeing if you’re with me.

All we really need to know is that search engines have a little spider, or bot (short for robot) that goes out nightly or daily or whenever and scans sites on the internet. In the case of Google it’s "Googlebot," while Yahoo!’s robot is called "Slurp!" and MSN uses "MSNbot."

These little bots go to your site and “read it” in much the same way as a human does, left to right, top to bottom. What these robots find they bring back to the "mothership," the search engine database. If Googlebot finds your site about kittens, it will report the site, its location (URL), its contents, etc. to Google’s database where it is stored. When someone then does a search through Google for kittens, Google looks to its own database for search results. This is what makes search engines so fast. All the searches you do call upon data already in the search engine’s database, not from a brand new search of the entire internet.

There is something else to mention as well. Search engine bots will search your site whenever they darn well feel like it. You can go to Google and tell it to search your site by telling it manually that you exist, giving it your URL, etc. That doesn’t mean Google will go check it out right that instant or even that night. In fact, sometimes it takes weeks or months for Googlebot to actually go and sniff out your site. And when it does all it means is that you are now in Google’s database which is HUGE. You may not even show up in Google’s listings for a while.

That’s where Search Engine Optimization comes in. Search Engine Optimization has two purposes really.

To make the search engine bots happy by providing them relevant information,
To make the search engine bots happy enough to place you high up on search rankings.

See, Google and Yahoo! and all the search engines make money on relevant searches. If every time someone searches for kites Google comes up with a bunch of pages on iguanas, nobody is going to use Google anymore as the results just aren’t accurate. This explains a couple things: what the bots are looking for when they sniff your site (good and relevant content), and why search engines will penalize you, sometimes for life, if you try to fool them.

We’ll get to all this in the next few pages, but suffice it to say now that the bots are looking for tasty subject matter, good writing, relevant content, etc. If you want to know how to really make Googlebot happy, give it what you’d give any human visitor to your site. Think of Googlebot as your best friend and design with him in mind.

C. Pabst is an author, entrepreneur and the owner of Work From Home Business Source. He is also the creator of the revolutionary money-making system Internet Triple Header, based on simple, applicable and practical concepts, not positive thinking or luck.

A few years back businesses were throwing 20-30k a month on search engine optimization; at least the bigger businesses were. The small business was hard pressed to find search engine optimization for much less that actually worked.

As of today the landscape of search engine optimization has changed. Many of the once coveted secrets of seo are now common knowledge. More and more people know how to do search engine optimization and since supply increased the prices have dropped.

Another factor is that alot of the grunt work of seo that would have increased costs has been diminished via outsourcing to India and other countries who can now do this mind numbing work for much less thereby allowing seo firms to lower their costs even more.

As an seo with around 7 years of experience I find that most of my time these days is spent in research. Google is pretty good at keeping us all on our toes with each update they make to their search engine algorithm. Scouring forums, chatting with colleagues and investing time in experimentation seems to fill many of my days lately.

Having relegated much of my own firm’s grunt work to freelancers I am able to provide more and more value to my own clients for less dollars. In fact I find that my clients keep getting smarter and smarter and more confident about doing their own seo that I many times simply play the role of a consultant or seo coach.

As a consumer though I advise that people still be very careful about what they purchase even if it is cheap. Money is money and after all you still want results. The old rules apply here when searching for affordable search engine optimization and are as follows…

Get case studies from any prospective seo you might hire

Get testimonials

Check references

Look for a proven track record and at least 3 years of online history in the industry

Always make sure they have a money back guarantee

Try dealing with a local firm based in the U.S. whether or not they use outsourcing is no matter as long as the actual company itself has a U.S. base. The reason being is that if something goes wrong it’s very difficult legally if you were dealing with a company based somewhere like Bulgaria.

Honestly a lot of seo really isn’t that hard but it does require an attentive eye and a lot of patience. There are tried and true strategies to achieve top rankings but the don’t happen over night.

We actually just created a mentoring package for folks who just want to do it themselves and save money and do it the right way. It seems to be working well and I encourage those who are not happy with their current website traffic or search engine rankings to consider such a program as a viable alternative.

Charles Preston is an Austin based SEO and President of click response where you can get affordable search engine optimization that gets results.

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by achieving a high ranking in the search results of a search engine (i.e. Yahoo, Google, etc.). The higher a website ranks in a search, the better the chance that a website will be visited. Most Internet users will not click through multiple pages of search results, so a high ranking in a search is necessary to direct more traffic to your website.

While a top listing is not guaranteed, there are a number of small steps that you can take to improve your chances of gaining a top ranking. We recommend the following 5 basic steps to produce a more desirable search engine listing:

1. Content Writing/Keywords

We’ve found that content targeting seems to be the most successful strategy. Search engines are beginning to use algorithms that identify the main themes of entire websites instead of just single pages. In order to create a main theme for search engine optimization, you must identify a focused group of keywords that exist on and are relevant to the content on most pages of your website.

In practical terms, if you’re writing an article, service description or sales copy for your website, focus on creating informative and interesting content, but factor in keyword phrases that are more likely to give you a better ranking with the search engines.

Key word selection can be a rather complex process as there are many different factors that come into play when search engines decide the ranking of your webpage and how well your keywords rank. You may wish to spend some time educating yourself about this process. A good rule of thumb is to choose 2 to 3 word phrases from content that appears throughout your website that you expect to have the greatest appeal to the visitors you want to attract. We suggest that you consult with other colleagues as your create your list.

2. META Tags

Meta tags are special HTML tags that provide information about a webpage, such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page’s content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices.

Meta tags should contain your basic content terms. We recommend that you do not use too many words (less than 25) and that you do not repeat keywords as this could cause the search engines to overlook your website. You can use Overture Term Suggestion Tool http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/tools/index.jhtml to find the highest rated keywords.

We also offer a simple free Online Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/tools/meta.html to create your own meta tags. Once you’ve created your meta tags, you can use this Meta Tag Analyzer http://submitexpress.com/analyzer/to see how search engine robots analyze your web site. This data will help you to determine if your web content or meta tags need any changes. Please keep in mind that search engines avoid sites with multiple unrelated meta tags.

3. URL Submission

Once your website is complete, its time to submit your site to the search engines. We strongly recommend using Promotion World’s free search engine submission tool. It’s a terrific service that allows you to submit 10 URLs at a time and to receive accurate and descriptive results on the submissions. As you review the results, it’s likely that you will find some failed submissions. For the failed submissions, Promotion World provides information on how to submit your site manually.

4. Site Ranking

Search engine optimization doesn’t end with submitting your website to search engines. You still need to determine the popularity of your site and make any necessary changes. In order to check how your site is ranked, go to Alexa.com. If your site ranking is between 1 and 100,000, it has a solid ranking. If you are ranked over 100,000 or you’re just not happy with your site ranking, a popular way to increase your ranking is to trade links to your site with other sites. This typically works because external links are the main criteria for Google’s ranking and Google is being used by such powerhouses as Yahoo, AOL, Infoseek, etc.

5. Website Promotion

Your search engine optimization endeavors should always be reinforced by other forms of promotion and marketing. One way to do this is to use a newsletter to deliver useful and informative content that will drive visitors to your website. Other methods of promotion include online advertising, print advertising, a special promotion (i.e. chance to win a digital camera), surveys, and word-of-mouth promotion through friends and family.

Website promotion is a crucial part of eBusiness. Success in sales is a numbers game and without serious web traffic you will not have the numbers you need to prosper.

About The Author

Milena Sotirova is the Editor of DevStart http://www.devstart.com/. To find more articles, tips and tutorials that will help you to find the best hosting and to promote your site, visit HostReview.com http://www.hostreview.com/ and PromotionWorld.com http://www.promotionworld.com/. Discover the secrets for your guaranteed traffic increase. Send to the author your feedback at msotirova@devstart.com.

editor@devstart.com

Hi All!!

Website promotion can seem confusingly complicated. There seem to be so many, sure-fire new ways to get thousands of hits to your website. Whilst some of these methods work, most just waste your time. The most important strategy is to rank high for your preferred words on the top search engines. Search engines send robot "spiders" to index the content on your webpage, so let’s begin with steps to prepare your webpages for optimal indexing.

Write a Page Title: Write a descriptive title for each page of 5 to 8 words. Remove as many "filler" words from the title, such as "the," "and," etc. Plan to use some descriptive keywords along with your business name on your home page. Words people are most likely to search on put first in the title (called "keyword prominence"). Remember, this title is your entire identity on the Search engines. The more people see in the blue highlighted portion of the Search engines that interests them, the more likely they are to click on the link

Write a Description META Tag: This sentence should describe the contents of the body text of the webpage, using the main keywords and keyphrases used on this page. If you include keywords that aren’t used on the webpage you could hurt yourself. Place those words at the top of the webpage, between the tags, in a META tag in this format:

Include Your Keywords in Header Tags H1, H2, H3: Search engines consider words that appear in the page headline and sub heads to be important to the page, so make sure your desired keywords and phrases appear in one or two header tags

Make Sure Your Keywords Are in the First Paragraph of Your Body Text: Search enginesexpect that your first paragraph will contain the important keywords for the document. Other places you might consider including keywords would be in ALT tags and perhaps COMMENT tags

Develop Several Pages Focused on Particular Keywords: Develop several webpages on your site, each of which is focused on a different keyword or keyphrase. For example, instead of listing all your services on a single webpage, try developing a separate webpage for each. These webpages will rank higher for their keywords since they contain targeted rather than general content

Submit Webpage URL to Search Engines: Next, submit your webpage to the important Web Search Engines that robotically index the Web. Look for a link on the search engine for "Add Your URL." In the US, the most important are: Google, Inktomi, Alta Vista, and Tehoma. They feed search content to the other main search engines and portal sites.

Submit Your Site to Key Directories: Be sure to list your site in the free Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.com), overseen by human editors. This hierarchical directory provides content feeds to all the major search engines. Plus it provides a link to your site from an information hub that Google deems important.

Swap Links With Others: Identify sites with similar content to yours. Get in touch with the site’s webmaster (use their name). Politely ask for a reciprocal link, then create a "Links" section on your site and put the links there. Not everyone will respond, but it is worth your effort as search engines can rank sites based on how many other sites link to it!

For more info kindly visit our website http://www.bluent.co.in

BluEnt eSolutions-your one stop destination for all your professional web related requirements catering to website design, web development, SEO, corporate training, web hosting, VoIP services, flash presentation and other web related applications.

You may not think there’s a connection between proper search engine optimization and site maps, but you’d be surprised. Think about what might happen to a visitor of your site. If he gets lost he may go looking for your Sitemap link, and if you’re a good designer you’ll have one for him. Not only do human visitors like sitemaps, so do search engines and there lies another ingenious way to beat your competitors in search rankings.

Search Engine Optimization, remember, has everything to do with both your human customers and the search engine spiders as well. In fact, while the code that search engines use to seek out and index your site is quite complex, what they’re actually looking for is the same thing as your visitors: good relevant content.

So where do site maps come into play with search engine optimization? Well, a number of places actually but probably the most important thing is the simple fact that a sitemap tells the search engine spider what your site looks like and it does so by holding its hand all the way through and up and down your site.

You’ve surely already discovered that anchor links (those usually blue underlined ones that lurk within content paragraphs) should be keyword rich and logically named.

For example, an anchor link at the end of a cooking tips page shouldn’t read “Next” or “Part 2.” It should read, “Next Step – How to Cook Fluffy Eggs.” See the difference?

Now imagine that ALL of your sites pages are appropriately named, all of them keyword rich and logically named for your human visitors. When you put all of these into your sitemap page, search engine spiders will “read” every single one of them. They’ll find all of your aptly named pages in all of their keyword splendor and index them exactly as such.

So…long story short, when people search for content in Google, for example, your site could come up because one of your pages is optimized and named for that particular subject. You might not have ever even manually submitted that page to Google, but because you gave Googlebot (the spider that searches your site) a site map and all those tasty names, he knows exactly where to find what your customer is looking for.

Instant gratification, both for the search engine and your customer as well.

C. Pabst is an author, entrepreneur and the owner of Work From Home Businesses. He is also the creator of the revolutionary money-making system Internet Triple Header, based on simple, applicable and practical concepts, not positive thinking or luck.

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing tool for any website. With most websites looking forward to increasing the online sales of their products/services, search engine optimization can be a very cost-effective tool to target and procure your customers online. In this paper, we will discuss about search engine optimization, its benefits and how you can optimize your website for top search engine rankings.

What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (also known by various other names like search engine ranking, search engine promotion, website promotion, SEO etc.) is a method through which a website is given top rankings in various search engines. According to a recent industry study, 1 in every 20 people go to the second page of search results pages, but only 1 in every 100 people go beyond that. So, by top search engine rankings, we mean that your website should be within the first two pages of the search results, preferably in the first page (i.e. within top 10 rankings).

2. What are the prime benefits of search engine optimization?

§ Top search engine rankings result in more pre-qualified business leads coming to your website which in turn can convert to greater sales for your organization.

§ Search engine promotion is one of the cheapest methods of advertizing for your organization. Compared to advertizements in the newspapers/magazines or in the television, search engine promotion costs many times less and can bring more traffic to your websites, thereby providing greater ROI.

§ Search engine optimization enhances online brand identity of your organization.

3. What are the key factors for your website to have top search engine rankings?

Search engines change their algorithms frequently, thereby forcing the search engine optimization companies to re-strategize their search engine optimization techniques. However, the following attributes are basic and play a major role in procuring top search engine rankings.

a. Keyword Research – Keywords play the most vital role in your search engine optimization campaign. Keywords (can be 1, 2, 3 or more words) are the search terms which a surfer types in the search box of a search engine to reach your website. Let us consider that you are an “India-based Outsourcing consultant” interested in optimizing your website for top search engine rankings. The following are some of the keywords which surfers will type to reach your website -

Keywords

bpo

bpo india

bpo outsourcing services

business outsourcing services

business process outsourcing

offshore companies

offshore outsourcing

offshore outsourcing services

offshore services

outsource india

outsourcing companies

outsourcing consultants

outsourcing india

outsourcing services

outsourcing services company

Keyword research tips –

b. Title of the webpage - …… - Title has a deep impact on your website’s search engine rankings. Experience shows that most companies use the following as title of their index page which can prevent them from getting top search engine rankings.

Welcome to the website of XYZ.com

For example, let’s continue with the above example of “India-based Outsourcing consultant”.

An ideally optimized title should contain the top 3-5 keywords of your business, e.g. outsourcing consultants, outsourcing india, outsource india

Optimized Title - Outsourcing Consultants, Outsourcing India, Outsource India

c. Description Meta tag of the webpage – Description of a webpage also plays important role in getting top search engine rankings.

Optimized Description - Develop a suitable description based on your top 3 keywords

d. Keywords Meta Tag of the webpage - This meta tag was of great importance at one time. But rampant manipulations (i.e. multiple, often non-relevant keyword stuffing in the “keywords” tag), leading to abuse has resulted in search engines giving lesser importance to “keywords” tag while ranking sites. Nevertheless, you can always place top 3 – 5 keywords of your site in the “keywords” tag.

Optimized Keywords -

e. Importance of Content/Keyword-enriched optimized pages for top search engine rankings –

Well, if there is one aspect which holds supreme importance in search engine, specially in Google ranking, then it is this. Yes, content! The popular industry say – “Content is King” was perhaps devised by watching Google’s love for content. Develop content based on the top keywords related to your business. While developing content for your web pages, keep in mind the keyword density (KD).

Mathematically speaking, Keyword Density is the ratio of the total number of time a keyword is repeated divided by the total content words. Since KD is normally represented in percentage, the above figure is to be multiplied by 100

For example, if you have developed a web page of around 250 words on the keyword “search engine optimization”, and that particular keyword (search engine optimization) is repeated 10 times, then

Keyword Density (KD) = 10/250 * 100 = 4%

As a thumb rule, Keyword Density of an optimized page for top search engine rankings should vary between 2 – 7 % (this figure varies among different search engines)

4. Submission of Keyword-enriched optimized pages – After you have finished content development for the optimized pages based on the keywords targeted for top search engine rankings, submit those pages to various search engines.

1. Google - http://www.google.com/addurl.html
2. AlltheWeb - http://addurl.alltheweb.com/add_url
3. AltaVista - http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new
4. MSN - http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

5. Role of Link Popularity in top search engine rankings –

Link popularity has assumed tremendous importance for getting good ranks in Google now a days. In fact, what started as a friendly reciprocal link exchange program among various webmasters has now become a sub-industry within the SEO industry itself, with thousands of link farms popping up every day! Yes, if you are interested in getting top ranks in search engines, especially Google, then you must pay effort in building up links for your site.

Create a html page, preferably named as “Resources/Links/Partners” and place a link of this page from Index Page of your site. This page should never be more than 1 click away from the index page of your site, else webmasters won’t be interested in participating in the reciprocal link exchange program.

Target both “industry-related” and “non-industry-related” websites as your link exchange partners. For example, if you are providing outsourcing services, then try getting links from “industry-related websites (i.e. websites dealing with outsourcing services, maybe your business rivals!). This is important, because if 10 of your rival sites give links to your site, then Google will surely pay importance to your site, because getting links from rival companies are difficult. Your site MUST be of some high caliber, else the other 10 sites won’t have linked! Also, try procuring links from top ranked general informative websites as well.

Always exchange links with websites which have high Google PageRank (PR) of at least 4, the more the better! (both Index Page as well as Resources/Links Page of the Link Partner’s site should have PRs of >=4) [PageRank is a proprietary tool that Google uses to determine the importance of a page and varies in a scale of 0 (least important) to 10 (maximum importance)].

Have a link code ready for participating in link exchange program. Here is a sample link code for an India-based Outsourcing consultant.

- Indian outsourcing consultant providing guidance to companies willing to set up outsourcing centers in India.

Always prefer a text link (as given above) in comparison to a banner link, where your chance of Google and other search engine spiders finding the potential keywords is limited only to the “alt tag” of the banner. Also, Google pays importance to the text of the incoming link/anchor text (i.e. the incoming link text must contain high potential, relevant keywords), so develop a link text with title (”indian outsourcing consultant“) which will help you in Google Ranking.

Refrain from javascript link code because Google spider finds it difficult to index.

Key SEO Factors

Conclusion -

With Google’s numero uno position in the search engine market being threatened by arch-rivals Yahoo! [bought Overture, the largest PPC search engine recently, who in turn bought Altavista and Alltheweb] and Microsoft’s MSN [believed to be developing its own search engine], it is no doubt that the search engine industry is going to experience tremendous changes in the next few months. The recent Google “Florida” Update is just one of the many upheavals that we may be witnessing in an industry where the only constant factor is the “change”. However, the various techniques outlined in this paper are basic and are we believe that following them you will be able to achieve top 10 ranks in Google and other search engines.

About The Author

Prabuddha S Raychaudhuri is the Founder & CEO of Search Engine Optimization Guru Pvt. Ltd. (http://www.searchengine-optimization-guru.com), a premiere Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO/SEM) consultancy firm, catering to clients which range from Fortune 500 to small home business start-ups. Our services include Top 10 Google and other search engines rankings, Pay Per Click (PPC) targeted traffic campaign, Paid Listing Management, Keyword Advertizing. Prabuddha holds a Bachelor Of Engineering (B.E.) in Construction Engineering and can be contacted at prabuddha@searchengine-optimization-guru.com.

prabuddha@searchengine-optimization-guru.com