A few tips about search engine optimization (SEO).

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1. Myth #1: If you purchase a new domain with maximum information per square inch, you'll rank higher in the search engines. Answer: Yes and no. Domain names are the first things a search engine looks at, so if you have the name of your product or service in your domain name, kudos to you. Google, on the other hand, uses what's known as an "aging delay" for all new domains. This allows them to weed out many of the fly-by-night's and give priority to the sites that have remained staples the longest (thereby making Google a more valuable resource to those who use it.)
   
   
2. You must strike the balance between optimizing your website for the search engines and optimizing your website for your target audience. Yes, construct your content with keywords and search engines in mind, but always write for your customer. What keywords are they going to use to find what you're offering (read: What are they looking for?) The keywords your customers are using are the ones you want to appear on, so once you know what those keywords are, work them into your site. You will do this a number of ways:
   • Domain name
   • Your title
   • Meta tags (description, keywords, et cetera)
   • Copy (your content)
   • Your links (use descriptive links instead of "read more" or "click here"), and
   • Your image "alt" tags
   • (There are still more items to consider, but we'll go into greater detail on that in another subject.)
     
     
3. Continually refine your keywords. You must know what your customers are searching on. It doesn't matter if you sell the best widget in the world. If your customers call your widget a thingamabob, they will never find you. Worse, they will find your competition who may make a very find widget as well, but they refer to their widget as a thingamabob, which brings them up in the search engines in front of YOUR clients. To see what people are searching on, use keyword research tools such as Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Create lists of the most relevant keywords for your website and choose different ones to embed on each page (in the meta data and content.) The more specific you are, the more qualified your visitors will be to buy from you.
   
   
4. Construct (or reconstruct) your site with your keywords in mind. Once you know what your clients are looking for, now you can ensure your site offers it in the way they would like to see it presented. For instance, if we go back to our earlier widget example, you might consider that people may be looking for a particular brand of widget, type of widget, size of widget or widget genre. The more you know about how they're searching, the better you'll be able to set up your site to show them what they're looking for.
   
   
5. Back to optimizing your site for the search engines. There are certain things most search engines choke on.
   • Flash
   • Frames
   • JavaScript links and menus
   • Image maps
   • Dynamic URL's
   • (They also can't read graphics, so without descriptive alt tags, the graphics are simply ignored.)
   When search engines get caught on these things, they will stop indexing your site and not dig deeper. This, obviously, doesn't win you any customers. You can certainly use these components on your site, however you also need to ensure a search engine can find what it's looking for. Using text links, linking images to web pages (and using appropriate alt tags), including ROR.XML and ROBOTS.TXT files in your website's home directory, and using sitemaps will help search engines make sense of your site.
   
   
6. Make every page title unique. It's terribly easy to use the same title for every page as you're constructing a website. Take the extra time, however, to vary the title for each page. Ensuring that each title is different and uses the keywords used within that page will take you far. The search engines rely heavily on page titles, so use them wisely. The title will be what the search engine presents as a link to your site (providing it even appears.)
   
   
7. Ensure people want to link to your site. If you've worked to make your site helpful, informative or just plain cool, you may earn the links from other websites that will increase your standing with the search engines. If your site is lame? Well.. it's likely your search engine ranking will be as well. Don't be afraid to approach other webmasters with an offer of "link reciprocity". If your websites compliment each other, a reciprocal link campaign may be just what the doctor ordered to help drive traffic and rankings. Just be sure to link to only the best and the brightest; your links are a reflection on you and your site.