When we talk about site optimization, we are talking about making the site more search engine friendly, that is allowing it to rank better in search engines. When you optimize your site, you mainly optimize it for some keywords you are targeting. Keywords are the words people search for when using search engines, so for example, if your site is about natural disasters, you might be targeting the following keywords: earthquakes, volcano, tsunamis, nature disaster.

In this article, I shall concentrate on some few important tips to optimize your site and make it more search engine friendly. Be very careful when optimizing your site, there are some techniques used out there that might get your site banned from search engines and we don't want that to happen. These techniques are considered illegal since they are used mostly to trick search engines and show them something different that what is shown to normal visitor.

Ready? Let us start:

Content

There is a very popular saying: 'Content is King'. Search engines (SEs) like to see content, they like to read text. SEs are not friendly with images and animations! I know that those flash animations and presentations might look great for visitors, but for SEs they are seen as empty space! The richer content and text you have the better. Try to fill your site with valuable and important information. In addition, your content should contain your keywords for better targeting.



In-page Structure and Optimization

When you write your page, be careful to optimize it, the following are some general tips to follow:

- Write a good title containing your most important keywords. Don't make it too long and write it so that users can understand what the page is about.

- Generate your meta tags (keywords and description). Make sure you include your keywords in the description.

- Use and tags! Enclose your main titles with H1 and H2 tags. Be sure to include your keywords in it.

- Use alts in images (especially if an image is used as a link).

- Make sure that you have no borken links.

- Try to write your most important content (and keywords) at the top of the page and not at the bottom.

- Focus to target only one or two keywords per page.



Backlinks

Backlinks are all external links (external to your site) that point to your site. I should state here that this is one of the most important factors to consider when optimizing your site. From here on, it is your duty to find places where you can put your link. Here are my tips to get links:

- Don't ever spam.

- Find free directories and submit your site to them.

- Exchange links with relevant sites.

- Write important articles and content so that will want to link to you.



Tools of the trade:

Here are some tools that can be used to see your progress:

- Webmaster Corner Forum: http://www.webmater-corner .com/

Forum dealing with all aspects of site optimization and marketing

- Search engine rankings: http://www.webmaster-corner.com/services/search-engine- rankings.php

Use this tool to find out your rankings on major search engines

- Google Page rank: http ://www.webmaster-corner.com/services/pagerank.php

Use this tool to discover your Google Page Rank (PR).

About the author:

Webmaster corner forum is the place for webmasters and programmers to gather and discuss IT related topics such as search engine optimization, general business and marketing techniques, and web design and programming issues