Ten Proven Tricks to Try

#10 - Write Keyword Rich Content.

This one is a given, agreed? Write the content of your website using rich keywords. Be specific, be concise and take time to optimize each page to the very best of your ability. Make sure you do your research before taking pen in hand to see which keywords will offer you the best bang for your buck. Resources like goodkeywords.com will help you determine the best ones to use for your content.

#9 - Avoid the Use of Flash, DHTML or other SEO Killers.

When the ‘skip intro' was created during the height of the Flash craze, with it went the reason to use an animated splash page. While flash is fun, cool and entertaining, search engines see it as a big waste of empty space because there isn't an effective way to tag the information nestled inside. Similar effects can be accomplished by other means so why not go that route instead.

#8 - Quit stuffing keywords in the background with hidden text.

I remember the first time I did this - I thought it was ingenious. However the search engines didn't find it nearly as great. This practice has been deemed "out of bounds" by the SEO giants and they'll ding you for it every time!

#7 - Write Keyword Phrases.

Focus on a few specific keyword phrases in different variations. Avoid one word keywords because they are too general. If I was looking for a new motorcycle, I wouldn't type in ‘motorcycle', I would type in ‘Heritage Springer' because that is the information that what I want. I wouldn't want to wade through 1000 pages of motorcycles hoping for a specific match to the type I want and neither will your end user. Think like an end user when you are defining your keywords and use the necessary phrases.

#6 - Always use Alt Tags for links and Images.

Let's face it, a little extra work on your part will return to you a hundred fold. Use descriptive words for both links and alt tags. ‘Click here' will do nothing for you. Instead use ‘Talk to Felicia for more on Business Continuity Plans' with an Alt tag that contains one to eight keywords... do the same for your images and you will have a leg up on your competition.

#5 - Use important Keywords in your Page Title.

This is the sentence that shows up at the top of the web browser so celebrate it with your most important phrases. Use keyword phrases of what you think people will be using when they do a search. Effective title tags include only one relevant keyword or phrase. Above all, avoid non-indexing filter words such as a, an, the, welcome and homepage!

#4 - Use The Social Networking Sites to Drive Traffic.

Here's your argument to use Facebook while at work. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have mega traffic. If you can capture a niche audience on those sites and direct them back to your site this will help search engines see your site as worthy enough for higher placement. Plus, through these sites you have the capability to microblog about your companies activities and news thus reaching hundreds of fans all at once. It's the hot thing right now so why not take advantage of it today?

#3 - Fresh Content.

I can't stress this enough... Fresh content, fresh content, fresh content... it's what the keeps the web crawlers coming back to catalog your site. Why spend the resources crawling a site that hasn't changed for a month... or worse, a year. Try a blog, post press releases, post your company's announcements, random thoughts... anything that will give the search engines a reason to keep coming back to your site.

Another benefit of fresh content is that it also increases return traffic from users. Clients and customers will make it a point to come back to your site to see what topic you've blogged about this week or what training will be taking place this month. The more traffic you have, the higher you rank in the organic searches. Sounds like a double edged sword, but remember to be successful with your website, you must make an investment of both time and money.

#2 - Submit Your Site to Google and the rest will come.

Don't wait for Google to come and find you, invite the massive search engine to come and crawl your site. Once you're on Google well, then your golden! It's easy, it's free and it's found here: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

And now the number one trick of the trade...

#1 - Never stop optimizing your site and researching the best way to stay on top.

SEO is like a fine wine, it's expensive, it's impressive among your peers and if it's not used correctly it causes headaches! SEO giants constantly change the way they catalog and categorize sites to stay on top of the information overload. In a world where everyone has a website the way we get on top of the search page changes as frequently as the Google daily logo. Today's SEO matrix will become yesterday's news soon enough... the only way to stay on top? Keep an eye out for tips and tricks and do your homework!