This article will teach you the top ten ways to optimize your web site for the search engines. ÂÂ

1. Unique Title:
Make sure every one of your web sites has a unique title so you can have a variety of keywords/phrases to rank higher in on the search engines.

2. Use Keywords In Your Title:
You should use keywords in your title but appropriately and correctly. It is best to place your keywords at the begining of your title so they will be read first by the search engines.

An example of a good and bad title is below:

Good Title: “Man Gangster Halloween Costume”
Reason: The title is easy to ready and stuffed with highly searched but non competitive keywords/phrases.

Bad Title: “PinkWorld: Free Porn Picture & Movie Galleries”
Reason: There is no such thing as free porn. Alright, that was just a little joke to help you along this learning process. Basically, do not try to deceive your potential customers.

3. Use Keywords In Your Title:
Use this free keyword tool to find the best keywords for your title.

4. Domain Name:
When looking for a domain name make sure you get one with the keyword/s you are looking to optimize your web site for. For example, I created Mankato Web Design . com for the city of Mankato, MN because I wanted to capture the top spot on Google for the term. I accomplished that goal of course.

5. Use Header Tags:
H1, H2, H3,…. tags can be added to your web pages. You should put your keywords in these and use a CSS Style Sheet to define the size and color of your different H1 tags, or heading tags. Search engines regard any words in a an header tag to be the most important. Placing keywords in these tags will greatly help improve your ranking.

6. Internal Keyword Linking:
When you link to various areas of your web site from the main page or any subpages to a different part of your web site be sure to use keywords in the links. For example, if I wanted to send you to my article about Search Engine Optimization Tools , I would use that link. I used the keywords for the link that goes from this area of my web site to another.

7. Proper Copywriting For Your Web Site:
Be sure to put plenty of keywords in your web site’s content. In addition, never forget to make your web site content rich with plenty of information. In a few places, make sure to bold the keywords to signify importance to the search engine robots crawling and indexing your web site into the search engines. You can use the keyword density tool to check on the percentage of occurrence for any keyword or keyphrase that you choose.

8. Keyword Placement:
Be sure to find out how the search engines will index your page. You need to place your bolded keywords at the very top and very bottom of your web site. This is because the search engine robots placing your web site in its’ database will read the very top of your web site and bottom as the most important.

9. Keywords In ALT Image Tags:
Every single time you put an image on your web site you need to place a

In your < IMG > tag place the following

ALT=”your important keyword”>

Into your coding. This is very important. Otherwise, the search engine will not know what the image is.

10. Title Attribute Tag:
Include your keywords in the title < A > attribute of your web site.

Matthew Peschong
Minnesota Search Engine Optimization Services