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May 11, 2009

Seven Crucial Steps to Increasing Search Engine Visibility

Search engine optimization mainly calls for you to establish two things: relevancy to targeted search queries and high quality incoming links.  Some make it seem more complicated but it's really that simple.  Following the essential tips in this article can help you achieve both.

1.) Simple Coding

Search engines prefer pages with simple code structure opposed to more graphical elements such as Flash and Javascript.  The simpler you keep the code and the design of your site, the better.  Doing so will make it easier for the search engine spiders to detect the HTML-based content they are looking for and enable them to index your site.

2.) Proper Keyword Usage

Keywords are perhaps the most vital component of SEO but only when used properly.  Experts suggest using keywords at the start of the viewable web page and sprinkling them throughout in a manner that makes the flow appear natural.  It is also recommended to place keywords or key phrases into the last 25 words of the page.  This gives you a strong closing that helps to reinforce relevancy and ultimately strengthen your SEO ranking potential.

3.) Keyword-Rich Domains

The domain name you choose also plays a role in SEO.  However, many believe that this technique is the most effective when separating terms by a dash.  For example, the domain name of my-site.com carries much greater search engine value than mysite.com.  When it comes to this route, you may want to consider the branding value of a domain name that is easy to remember opposed to one that is strictly intended to achieve high search engine rankings.

4.) Keyword Treatment

Search engines have been known to reward websites that show special treatment to their keywords.  What we mean by this is utilizing words and phrases in larger, bold and italic type to encourage additional value.  When used appropriately, particularly for headlines and paragraph heads, keyword treatment can be an effective strategy in SEO.

5.) Optimizing URL Extensions

If you want to increase visibility, you should also incorporate relative keywords into the URL extensions of your internal web pages.  As we touched on above, you would be best served to separate keywords with dashes.

6.) Interlinking Internal Pages

While you want to get out their and establish links coming from other sites, building link popularity all starts internally.  When interlinking your web pages, you want to do so in a manner that provides the most links to the pages you have targeted for ranking.  So, if you want your homepage to show up in the search engines, direct most of your links there and minimize linking to irrelevant pages.  Utilizing a site map is a great way to interlink your internal web pages and increase search engine ranking potential.

7.) The Title is Key

Many don't realize it, but the implementation of keywords in the title of a web page has a tremendous impact on search engine rankings.  The sooner your chosen keywords are displayed in the title, the stronger ranking value they will have.  When doing this, try to keep your characters to a minimum and avoid words such as "and" or "but" as they consume valuable space while contributing little to no value.

Tags: links,  keywords,  seo ranking,  SEO,  search engine visibility,  search engine optimization