Search Engine Optimization Tips: Rank High in the Search Engines for Your Keywords

Every internet marketer or webmaster aims to have their websites in the first page of the organic search results for their targeted keywords. In this article, I’m going to reveal some vital search engine optimization tips that will boost your chances of being listed in the Top 10 results for your chosen keywords.

SEO has its advantages. It’s free, unlike pay per click where you have to pay every time someone visits your site, regardless of whether they buy anything or not. Being listed in the organic search results may also attract more visitors to your site than the paid listings; people are not inclined to click on ads and prefer to click on natural search items.

The downside of SEO is that search engines change their algorithms often; but don’t worry. By following the search engine optimization tips below, you’ll stand a much bigger chance of being listed in the Top 10 for your desired keywords and keeping your position for a long time to come.

Keywords must be in the anchor text of incoming links.

A different site linking to you counts as a vote in the eyes of the search engines. And if the anchor text of the incoming links has your keywords in it, then you will have better chances of ranking for those keywords.

Keywords must be within the title tag.

The search engines place great emphasis on the title tag; it tells them what your website’s topic is about. Place your keywords at the start of the title tag for best results. The title tag must not be longer than 60 characters.

Your link should contain your keywords.

Having your keywords in your link will help you get ranked for those keywords. For example, if you want to rank high for the keywords "website copywriting," your link should look like this: http://yoursite.com/website-copywriting.htm.

Play it safe with your keyword density.

There is no specific rule regarding the "right" keyword density, because the search engines change their algorithms often. There have been theories that Google considers a keyword density of more than 2% to be spamming, but Yahoo and MSN are fine with up to 5%.

Different SEO experts have mixed opinions on the ideal keyword density; so don’t focus all your energies on this. Just mention your keywords near the beginning and write naturally. To be on the safe side, aim to have no more than 2%, but space out your keywords from each other so they would look natural in the eyes of the search engines.

Put your keywords in headings (within the H1 tags, H2 tags, etc.)

The search engines place great emphasis on words between headings (H1, H2, etc.) so it would be a smart idea to have your keywords placed within them. Just make sure that the keywords are suitable to the content and you’re not “forcing” them.

Put bold, strong, or italicize tags between your keywords.

The search engines take more notice of words that are either bolded or italicized, so placing your keywords within the bold, strong, or i tags can help you rank higher for those keywords.

Put your keywords near the start of your content.

Although this does not count as much as the search engine optimization tips above, putting your keywords at the beginning of your content (not necessarily html code) is a good SEO strategy because the search engines place great emphasis on the first few parts of your webpage.

Put your keywords in metatags.

Google overlooks metatags, but Yahoo and MSN still read them. So spend a few seconds putting your keywords in metatags to add to your search engine credits.

Put your keywords within alt tags.

The search engines can't read graphics or images, but they can read the text descriptions within the alt tag. If you have images on your site, fill in the alt tag with your keywords, but don't overdo it.

Target specialized keywords.

Some keywords have very high competition that you have lesser chances of ranking for them. If you have a target audience or niche, it might be a good idea to focus on those keywords that are more targeted and have less competition. For example, instead of having a competitive keyword phrase like “jobs bartending,” you can focus on “alabama bartending jobs” if your target audience is in Alabama.

Observe LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing).

Don’t let that technical-sounding phrase put you off. To explain it simply, the search engines look for synonyms or words related to your target keywords to determine the relevancy of your content to your keywords. The search engines place more emphasis on those pages that have words related to the keywords as opposed to pages having only the targeted keywords. For example, if your target keyword is “self-hypnosis,” your webpage would have better search results if you have related words such as “auto-suggestion” and “visualization” rather than having only “self-hypnosis” in your document. For LSI suggestions, use Google Sets at
http://labs.google.com/sets

Observe keyword proximity.

Keyword proximity is the closeness of the keywords to each other. For example, you're optimizing your webpage for the keywords "marketing strategies." If you have "marketing" in the first sentence and "strategies" in the 4th sentence, it still counts but doesn't have as much effect as having "marketing strategies" together without any words in between. Keyword proximity is used for keyword phrases that have 2 or more words.

Never engage in keyword stuffing.

Don’t fill your content with keywords unrelated to your topic. This will have a negative impact on your search results for other targeted keywords. Never stuff your content with keywords deliberately, especially those unrelated to your content. If the search engines see you filling keywords in an unnatural way, you might get banned from the search results.

Hope these search engine optimization tips help you get first page rankings for your chosen keywords. Best of luck to your SEO efforts!

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