Improve Search Engine Ranking
Search engines are probably the best way to get lots of free, targeted traffic to your website. The earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.
However, improving your search engine ranking is not an easy task. There are hundred million sites on the web...and it's very difficult to get a top 10 search engine ranking.
If you want your website to rank high in search engines, you should pay attention to several SEO (Search Engine Optimization) aspects.
The first and the most important point in achieving a high rank in search engine results is the content on your web pages.
Try to write as much useful information as you can. Also, make sure your content is relevant and unique. Don't just copy someone else's articles and pretend they are yours.
Of course, you can inspire yourself from other websites, but don't just copy their content.
It is important to choose for your website a topic that you know a lot of things about, because you have to have at least 15 pages of content in order to get accepted by Yahoo, Google and other search engines in their directories.
Also, after you get listed, you'll have to regularly update your site in order to be ranked higher.
Remember, the more pages of content you have on your website, the bigger the chances that you get a higher rank in search engine results.
It is better to use HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code for your website.
There are some “newer” languages like Flash or Javascript, which might look better, but they are harder read by search engine spiders.
You should check if your HTML code doesn't contain errors.
If your HTML code has errors, it is possible that only portions of your web pages are included in the search engine database.
You can validate your HTML code or check if you have broken links for free at http://validator.w3.org.
A while ago, meta tags were compulsory if you wanted your site to be listed in search engines.
These days, they have lost a bit their value, but you should still add them to every page on your website as they provide useful information about your site.
When displaying your website in results, search engines will use the information you provide in the description to help people get a clear idea on what your site is about.
If you don't know how to add meta tags, check my article How to Create Meta Tags.
Note that search engines can only read text, not the content included in images or placed inside Flash or video files.
So, if you have any images, videos or flash files on your site, you should place ALT TAGS to describe all these non-text elements.
For example, if you have a site on "sweets" and you place a picture with a chocolate, let's say, your ALT tag should look something like this:
<img src="the-name-of-your-image.jpg" alt="Milk chocolate with almonds">
This way, search engine spiders will know your image is about a "milk chocolate with almonds" and will index this text.
You might think you know which keyword phrases are the best for the topic you have chosen, but you might be wrong.
So, don't just use the keywords that you suppose are the most appropriate for your topic.
Instead, use some research tools like Google Keyword Tool (which is FREE) or Wordtracker that will show you which keywords are the most popular for that specific topic.
Google, and probably some other search engines too, gives weight to the title of each page.
They look for meaningful titles that accurately reflect the content of the pages they are on.
Try to incorporate your keyword phrases (especially the main keyword) into each page's unique title.
Including your primary keyword in your domain name could also help you rank higher in search engine results page.
For example, if you have an online store that sells silver jewelry, your domain name should look something like this: www.silverjewelry.com or www.silver-jewelry.com instead of www.mystore.com.
I know it is hard to find a good domain name, as many are already taken, but try to find a combination so that you include your main keyword in the domain name.
When you build your internal links (links between pages within the same website), try to use keywords relevant for that page.
For example, if you want to link to a page that offers information about "swimming", write down “if you want to become a better swimmer, read my article on Swimming techniques” instead of “if you want to become a better swimmer, click here”.
This is one of the most important points if you try to build a successful SEO campaign.
After content, I would say this is the second important step if you want your site to be ranked higher.
Google and all the major search engines give weight to your site's overall link popularity.
However, it is not all about the number, but also about the quality of links pointing to your site.
This means that Google appreciate the links coming from sites in the same niche.
For example, if you have a site about “Toronto Raptors” (the NBA team), it is much better having a link from another basketball site, than having 10 links coming from "gardening", "music", "jewelry" sites.
And, of course, the higher the site pointing to yours is ranked, the more valuable becomes that link.
Here's another important aspect concerning links pointing to your site. It would be much better if the link pointing to your website would be surrounded by content and if that link would have the relevant keyword text in it.
So, tell the site that wants to exchange links with you to describe a bit your site instead of just placing the link in their “Links” page, and you can do the same for them.