Rome wasn’t built in a day. A successful search engine optimization plan isn’t either. The amount of tricks out there to raise your rankings in the major search engines is seemingly limitless. This article will try to hit on some of the highlights to get you on your way to the top.
Optimizing your site
Although there are many search engines out there, you should focus on the big three and leave the rest alone, to start. Google, Yahoo and Bing are the big boys on the block, with Google controlling the lion’s share of the market. So when optimizing your site, stick to the types of things a search engine like Google appreciates. There’s no sense in optimizing for Ask or MSN, when there’s really no money there.
In order to know if your efforts to optimize your site’s appearance in web search results, it is important to monitor your page rank, which can be done with the Google toolbar. It is also important to monitor what keywords your visitors are entering in their search to find your site.
Always use SEO friendly URLs
Always use SEO-friendly URLs for your websites. If you use keywords in your URLs then your website will show up in a higher position in search results. Remember, hyphens in URLs are treated as spaces, but underscores or not, so for search engine purposes it is preferable to use hyphens in URLs and file names.
Even though you want to search engine optimize your website, write for readers first and search engine bots second. Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc., now have some very intelligent bots crawling the internet, but bots don’t buy goods in online stores, sign up for newsletters or inquire about your services. Humans visits have the potential to do all of those things, so while you need to include keywords in your text for SEO, keep the page readable.
This doesn’t even begin to cover all of the ways to increase your chances of getting to the top ranks for your chosen keywords. Start applying these tips to your internet strategies and you will start to see a difference. Effective SEO plans require constant learning and adjustments, so keep your ear to the ground and a solid hold on your strategies for success.