SEO - Increase Your Websites Rankings on the Search Engines

Your websites search engine ranking is no doubt one of the most vital aspects of broadcasting your website to a worldwide audience. When searches are done online, search engines look for specific things before returning results. If you want your website to get more traffic, you should consider optimizing it so your site appears on the first page of the search results. It has been proven by many researchers that web surfers usually only review the first couple pages of search engine results. Below are a few basic ideas to help you accomplish getting on one of these pages that people actually see.

Keyword research is the first step to any type of website optimization project. Compile a list of keywords that relate to the content of your website. Take a look at your competitors? Which keywords are they utilizing? Ask yourself a simple question: Do I need to reevaluate the keywords I am planning on using? Don't copy their keywords, compare them! After you have decided on a list of keywords you need to ensure that these keywords are included in your content. It's not necessary to stick them all on one page. In fact, you shouldn't do this (this is called "keyword stuffing" and is frowned upon by the search engines). Create a plan of action and spread them throughout your websites pages. Some of the top sites on the Internet have thousands of pages and these pages are filled with a variety of keywords. A good rule of thumb is to include three to five major keywords per page.

Speaking of your websites pages, make sure your site is both interesting and easy to read. This is where your website structure comes into play. Confirm your sites navigation, or menu, is easy to follow (for both search engine spiders and actual people). Additionally, use simple color backgrounds and stay away from using backgrounds that are too busy. Don't add too many flashy graphics or scrolling images. Search engines look for words, like the keywords we discussed above, and can't see the actual images. For the images that you do add, be sure to optimize the file names and alt tags.

Once you have done the work on your site, it's time to start link building. Work on creating as many inbound links to your site as possible. An inbound link is simply a link coming from another website. You can do this through article submissions, profile creation, social bookmarking, banner exchange programs and multiple other techniques. Utilize your keywords when linking to a particular page on your site. Stay away from link building scams that promise thousands and thousands of "free" back links. If it sounds too good to be true. well, you know the old saying. The last think you need is to get your site banned from one or all of the search engines!

Track your websites progress as you further optimize your pages. Google Analytics is a powerful tool that works with the process used to find websites by search engines. Utilizing this program, or any other related program, will help you find areas to further optimize your website.

There are numerous other SEO methodologies that can be utilized to increase your ranking on the search engines. The above steps should help get you started moving in the right direction.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aya_Sioco

Source: Ezine

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