SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the primary goals of any website owner. Once you’ve designed and published your site, you want to get as much traffic to it as possible. More traffic = more sales = a fatter wallet. Outlined below are five simple steps to take to help your site rank higher in the search engine listings.

1. Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization refers to the process of “tuning” your website so that the words and phrases used on your site, when queried in the search engines, bring in the largest amount of traffic. This one of the most important aspects of optimization as you want to draw in traffic from your target niche, i.e., those seeking out your site’s particular content, products and/or services.

One way to optimize your site with keywords is to place site-specific words into the title of your web document as this will be the first thing someone searching for your content or similar will see. For example, far too often people make the mistake of making the title of their homepage “home.” This is what the search engines will show. It is much wiser to insert site-specific keywords into the title. “Home,” while perhaps accurate, doesn’t draw in potential visitors like a keyword-optimized title would. And more importantly, it does not raise a website’s search engine ranking.

Related to the above, if possible you should also aim to place as many relevant keywords as possible into the domain name itself when you select and register your web address.

In real estate, everyone knows the importance of “location, location, location.” On the web, equally important is “content, content, content.” No site is truly optimized apart from a healthy dose of content — content referring to information related to your keywords (which in turn are related to your products and services). You have the option of producing the content yourself by writing articles related to your products and services or you can borrow relevant information from any one or more of a growing number of online article directories. Regardless how you go about obtaining the content, no site is complete without it.

People find your site by searching for specific keywords in the search engines. The more content your site has, the more keywords you’ll have and consequently, the more search engine visitors you’ll receive.

Another SEO methodology that has proved itself quite effective is that of adding keywords to a site through the use of alt tags. ALT tags are used in standard HTML to provide descriptions of images. If an image is on a website, then the odds are great that the image is relevant to the content. Add as many keywords and key phrases as possible within the image description or ALT tag. This will help boost your keyword density which will result more visitors though the SE’s.

One final keyword-related SEO tactic worth mentioning is the use of keyword optimized meta tags. Meta tags are html tags between which sits the meta description of a given website. It used to be that meta tags were relied heavily upon by the search engines in ranking a site but this is no longer the case, especially with Google (though MSN and Yahoo still rely upon them). In any case, it would be wise to include as many keywords and phrases in the meta description as possible. It can only help.

2. Build Quality Backlinks

Aside from keyword optimization, another great way to boost your site’s search engine ranking is by obtaining numerous, relevant and quality links back to your site from other sites.

The key here is to obtain links back to your site from sites with content relevant to what is found on your site. The search engines, particularly Google, don’t look too kindly upon bulk backlinks from irrelevant sites or directories. This type of practice may in fact lower your search engine ranking, or even get your site banned.

Many webmasters offer a link exchange program. Visit sites that you are interested in exchanging links with and follow their procedure for link reciprocation. Create a link reciprocity policy and form for your website as well. And avoid link farms or FFA sites at all costs.

3. Optimize Your Site’s Navigation & Add a Sitemap

Search engines spiders find the pages on your site by following links from other pages on your site - and they only go so deep. Google usually won’t go through 10 layers of links to get to a page on your site. Neither will your visitors. They usually it only venture 2or 3 layers deep – so make sure that all pages are 2 or 3 clicks away from your home page. Or better yet, add a sitemap.

A sitemap is just that - a map of every page on your site. Essentially, this “map” provides a link to every page on your website. Sitemaps make it easy for your visitors to locate exactly what they are looking for at a moment’s notice. More importantly, however, sitemaps make it easier for the search engine indexing bots to crawl a website, indexing as much information about a site as possible. Below are some key sitemap optimization strategies:

1) Use plain text for your sitemap links (not CGI or image links).

2) Use your primary keywords in your sitemap links for more keyword density.

3) The sitemap should be easily accessed from the “index” or “home” page.

4) Submit your sitemap to Google to help get indexed faster with this search engine giant.
Site maps are vital to a good ranking with the search engines, especially Google. You can build a simple site map yourself from text links or you can do a search for free sitemap builders that will crawl your site and build one for you (those will typically have to be edited). And be sure to register your sitemap with Google through their “Webmaster Tools” account option.

4. Site Design

One of the most often overlooked areas of search engine optimization is that of overall site design. In part, this is related to the sitemap (discussed above). It is vital that a website be constructed so that pages link together in a logical hierarchy. An optimized site is an easily navigable site.

Several of the most important factors to consider when creating an optimum site design are:

Themes: As irrelevant as it may seem, it is important to have a common theme or topic throughout the entirety of your site. It also helps to keep a similar layout for all pages – consistency is key. Not only will your visitors appreciate the professional look and feel, but so will the search engines – and they’ll reward you for it.

Frequent updates: Search engines frown upon stagnant content. Supply your site with either new or reworked content on a regular basis. Keep your content fresh and relevant. Remember, content is king with the search engines and the more you update it, the better your ranking will be.

Also, and let’s face it, chances are that your website didn’t (or won’t) turn out to be the best possible website that it could be upon the initial launch. Rework the basic structure occasionally and seek to optimize the site so that it is easily navigable by both visitors and search engines. There is always room for improvement.

5. Things to Avoid with SEO

Above discussed were the primary “do’s” of website optimization. To follow, we will briefly discuss the “don’ts,” which are equally, if not more important.

1) If at all possible, avoid using frames in your website construction as most of the search engines have difficulty indexing framed pages. If you must use frames, use them for navigational purposes only and not overall web design.

2) As well, utilize Flash as little as possible as Flash files are also difficult to index (and pose a problem for some visitors with slower internet connections). If Flash must be used, be sure to add your primary keywords to the text file name as this will be picked up by search engines as it is with images.

3) While you may choose to sell advertising space on your website (ie. Google AdSense, banner ads, text links etc.) you will want to keep advertisements to a minimum. While some of the ad content may in fact help with search engine optimization (this will be minimal at best), most of it won’t and it will also take away from the visual appeal of your website. If you must run ads, be sure to update them frequently so that your visitors will have something fresh to view at regular intervals to avoid the increasingly common “banner burnout.”

4) Avoid duplicate content and the overuse of keywords and phrases (keyword spamming). Though content is indeed, you cannot use the same content extensively on any one site. And it’s best if the content on your site is unique from the content on any other sites; most search engines penalize your ranking for duplicate content. The search engines have long since caught on to such spamming and thus sites are now penalized for utilizing this tactic with much lower search engine rankings. An effective keyword density runs anywhere from 2-5%.

5) You have built your website, published it, and have submitted it to the search engines. A common mistake made by people hoping to have their website indexed sooner, or simply because it has yet to be indexed, is submitting their website URL to the same search engine more than once. NEVER do this. At best, your website’s indexing may be delayed. At worst, your site may not be indexed by the search engine at all! Only submit your URL once and no more. It can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months for some search engines to crawl and index a new site. So don’t worry if yours doesn’t show up in the search engines immediately.

These five tips and tactics for optimizing your website will help you improve your website’s search engine ranking and thus bring more traffic and, subsequently, more profit. If you apply any one or more of these techniques today, your site will be the better for it tomorrow.

Justin Michie is an Internet Marketing specialist, small business consultant and author of the best selling Internet Marketing Book, Street Smart Internet Marketing . If you’re interested in learning more about making money online, you can pick up a copy of his brand new Internet Marketing Book here.