Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

So you've decided to create a website. The first thing you'll want to think about is search engine optimization. Using proper SEO will ensure your site gets great placement in search-engine results. You can hire someone to help you or use SEO yourself.

Here are some tips on improving your search engine rankings:

1. Select and use strong keywords. You'll want your content to be rich with keywords, but don't go overboard. If you use too many keywords search engines will pick up on it and your site won't rise in the rankings. If you use too many keywords, your site could be excluded altogether.

2. Compare to other sites. You'll want to see what those with great placement are doing on their sites. Search for sites that are similar to yours. Take a look at the sites that have received high placement in the search results. While on the web page select "view" and click "source." This will give you the opportunity to analyze the keywords and tags that were used.

3. Use keyword tools. A keyword tool is helpful in determining how visitors search for sites related to yours. By using a keyword tool you'll be able to see how many hits a site would get using certain search terms. You can use the popular search terms you find to get better search engine placement.

4. Have working links. Make sure all the links on your web site work. If you have dead links on your site, it negatively effects your site's placement in search engine results.

5. Submit your site to directories. There are several free directories you where you can submit your site. Others charge a fee. Don't overlook paying this fee though because this increases your changes of having search engines list your site.

6. Create a sitemap. Creating a sitemap and submitting it to search engines will guarantee that all the pages of your site will be included when the search engines crawl the site. You can use a free program to create a sitemap.

7. Create backlinks. It can take awhile for search engines to find your Web site. One way to promote it is by using backlinks. Backlinks are links that point back to your web site from a different web site. Ways you can get backlinks are to write articles related to your site's topic and submit them to free article sources such as EzineArticles. At the end of the article, write a little bit about yourself as an author and link to your site.

8. Use reciprocal links. Find sites that are related to yours and ask the web site owner to place a link to your site on their site. In return you'll do the same. You can contact sites that are complementary to yours. For example, if you have a site that sells a variety of hats, you can have links placed on sites that sell coats and jackets. You can get in contact with the website owner by looking for the contact information on the site. Send an email and ask for a reciprocal link.