Optimizing a website to bring visitors that value your specific information requires work on the content, the site structure and relevent inbound links. The trick is to develop a keyword strategy and then use the code, content and links to reinforce those keywords. Here are the areas covered.

1. Identify the keywords and phrases that will bring visitors to your site. Optimize individual pages for particular keywords and use them in the page content.
   
   Tips:
   • review keywords on websites that place well for the same subject
   • review your web stats to see what keywords find your site now
   • select keyword combinations as well as single keywords
   • use regional keywords
   • use common alternative spelling or misspellings
   • use a suggestion tool like Overture or Google
     

   When selecting keywords the trick is to balance keyword demand (how many times that particular keyword is searched) and keyword supply (how many other websites you will compete with for this keyword). Get into the mind of a searcher and ask colleagues, friends and family to tell you what keywords they would use to search for your website.

2. Place TITLE and META tags on all pages.
   
   The TITLE tag is extremely important to site promotion and the META description tag is key to looking good in search results.
   • create unique TITLE and META tags for every page rather than copying the homepage TITLE and META tag to every page
   • ensure your page content reflects the keywords in the META tag
   • the DESCRIPTION tag should be compelling and readable and not just a repeat of keywords as this is what searchers read
   • historically, key word phrases were separated by commas. You can remove or separate words with commas - search engines calculate all possible combinations of chosen words
     
     
3. Optimize your content for higher rankings.
   
   The actual content on your site is the most important factor. Make your site useful and information-rich and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
   Search engine spiders can only read the text in your page and are unable to view pictures or Flash. Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would (try Lynx viewer).
   
   Search engines use mathematical algorithms to calculate the importance of each word in your pages - "keyword density" or "keyword weight" (free keyword density analyzer).
   
   The search engines pay more attention to certain parts of your site. Words in those sections are seen as more important. This "keyword prominence" is given to:
   • Title and meta tags
   • Headings
   • Hyperlink text
   • URL text
   • Top - words on top of your page, in the beginning of your tags, first in paragraphs and at the start of your sentences are regarded as more important. Make sure the keywords are among the first words on your page. Making your keywords underlined, bold or otherwise highlighted also help to emphasize the importance.
     
     
   A text-based site map is important if your site uses dynamic menus because spiders may have difficulty following links inside JavaScript menus, Flash files, or applets. Ensure every page contains a text link to the site map and update your site map to reflect any new web pages.
   
   
4. Optimize your code for higher rankings.
   
   Use correct HTML code as HTML errors negatively impact search engine promotion and turn away human visitors. The W3C offers a good free online validation tool that spots coding errors. Of particular importance is the H or heading tag that tells search engines how you have structured the importance of your content.
   
   Remove extra code. Replace lengthy JavaScript functions and CSS definitions with calls to external files. This moves important page content to the top of the page, makes maintenance easier, and decreases page file size.
   • External CSS file linked to all pages that use styles
   • External JavaScript file linked to all pages that use JavaScript functions
   • Minimal use of FONT and other deprecated formatting tags to reduce page file size
   
   Do not depend on the DHTML menu alone for navigation – provide additional links throughout the body of the page, through breadcrumb and footer navigation links.
   
   Dynamic URLs and frames - best not use frames at all and keep dynamic URLs to a single ? parameter.'
   
   Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server to tell crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled. Visit http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html for a FAQ answering questions regarding robots and how to control them when they visit your site.
   
   
5. Add your URL to the top search engines, directories and via paid listings (PPC or pay per click).
   
   "Search engine" and "Web directory" are two different search services available although they are often mistakenly confused. Search engines have indices that are built up by robots or crawlers; whereas Web directories build up their indices through human editors. Many search engines and directories contain both a computer-generated index and a human generated index, and are referred to as hybrids.

   Google: free Submit your site ; paid Premium Sponsorships
   Open Directory (ODP): How to suggest a site - Free (and very important!)
   Yahoo: free Yahoo! Directory - How to suggest your site for non-commercial sites ; Free URL submission for inclusion in Yahoo! Search (Yahoo! registration required)
   Inktomi: Add URL - Free (currently used by MSN and also Yahoo)
   Ask Jeeves: Answer Link - PPC ; Premier Listing - PPC ; Site Submit - Paid inclusion
   Looksmart: Submit URL - PPC ; Zeal Add URL - Free for non-commercial sites
   Overture : Pay-for-Performance - PPC ; Site Match - PPC ; Content Match - PPC
   Fast: AdBuyer - Paid Placement ; InSite Search Engine Submission - Paid inclusion
   Mamma.com: Collection Submission - Paid inclusion
   InfoSpace: Add URL - Paid inclusion
   

6. Increase your inbound links. Beside the overall content and structure of your site, links from other popular sites are the most important factor in determining how search engines will rank your website. Google has a useful tool to check how many sites link to a site. In the search, type link: www.yourdomain.com and see the number of links to the site. Keep in mind that link: yourdomain.com and link: http://www.yourdomain.com will all give different results. You can do this search for any domain.
   
   Link popularity is the number of links to your site and search engines view sites with many links pointing to them as more important. Not all links are equal. Links from a more popular site than your own will give your site a higher boost. Links to you should be on the same subject as your site/page and the link text should be the keyword you wish to emphasise. Linking your site to other popular sites on the same subject as your own site can also improve your search engine placement.
   
   Pagerank is a measurement visible with the Google toolbar that shows in a scale of 0-10 what Google evaluates as the 'value' of a site based on link popularity and quality of incoming links. Trying to understand and tweak Pagerank has been one focus of the search engine optimization business and has spawned a wide Pagerank related literature analysing in part how internal and external links reinforce or dilute Pagerank.
   
   Since Yahoo and Google separated, there is much speculation about how Yahoo ranks sites differently to Google and one author suggests that Yahoo prefers more keywords on a page but gives less importance to link text than does Google.
   
   
7. Avoid spammer tricks! Search engine algorithms are wise to many spammer tricks and easily detect them. Your site rank may be penalized or you may just get ejected from the index.
   • Do not hide text or links by coding them in the background colour of the section that they appear
   • Do not load pages with irrelevant words
   • Do not create multiple pages or domains with duplicate content
   • Avoid 'link farms', websites whose sole purpose is to aggregate thousands of links
   • Checkout search engine advice on SEO such as Google Webmaster tips
     
     
8. Monitor and improve your site's ranking after submitting your site.
   
   Important areas to monitor:
   • Web site inclusion: Is your site indexed by all search engines? Are all pages in your site listed?
   • Search engine ranking: How is the search engine ranking for popular keywords and key phrases related to your products?
   • Visitors: How many people actually visit your site? Which pages do most people read?
   • Results: Which search engines and keywords draw targeted visitors to your site? Which traffic sources are proving to be most effective? Where are your highest search engine ranking?
   • Changes: Do the number of unique visitors change on a monthly basis? Are your search engine ranking falling or rising from month to month? Why is that?
     
     
9. Analyze and understand web log files.
   
   Your web stats can tell you:
   • Which are your most popular pages?
   • What search engine spiders have found your site?
   • How many unique users visit your site?
   • What keywords people use to find your site?
   • What search engines bring you the most traffic?
   • Who is linked to your site?
   • How many people have book-marked your site?
   • What is the effectiveness of banner ads and pay per click search campaigns
     
     Your web stats can also suggest the relevency of your site (by how long people stay) and why people leave (from the top exit pages).