Optimizing your website or blog for the search engines is a really great way to get some free traffic. And while many people are confused about the proper way to optimize their website, the formula is really pretty simple and straight forward. You need to have the proper tags, update your site consistently, perform some on-page optimization and most importantly, get incoming links. The persons who commit to this formula, will have the most success with the search engines.

1. Proper Tags: You will need to be sure that your site or blog has optimized meta, description and header tags. This simply means that these tags should include the keywords that you are looking to get ranked for. Don’t stuff them, just make sure that they are there.


2. Update Your Site: The search engines will reward your site if you update it consistently. A couple of times a week is good. If you have a blog, you should try to post to it everyday. It doesn’t have to be an incredibly long post, but you do need to continually add to it.


3. On Page Optimization: On page optimization is still important when trying to achieve high search engine rankings. Be sure to place your keyword at the very beginning of the web page and also throughout the page and at the very end. Again, don’t add your keyword over and over. The search engines are rewarding sites that provide value to the reader. You also want to be sure to use words that are related to your main keyword.

For example, if you are trying to get ranked for the keyword “weight loss,” be sure that words like “diet,” “lose 10 pounds” or “lose weight” appear in your text. Because many search engines are incorporating Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) into how they rank websites, it is important the you stay cognizant of it. LSI is meant to counter keyword stuffing by ensuring that related keywords occur in any web copy.


4. Incoming Links: Incoming links are probably the most important part of search engine optimization. Incoming links are like votes to the quality of your website. The rational behind this is that you must have a really great site, if it is receiving lots of “votes” or incoming links. You can get links from a number of different places. Other websites, article directories, blogs, social book marking and networking sites are good places to begin.

Search optimization is a great way to drive free and targeted traffic to your website. And although the formula to achieve good rankings is quite simple, the competition is fierce. Everyone wants those top spots because it means 100% profit. For this reason, you should not totally rely on SEO to market your website or blog. Instead, have a more well-rounded plan that includes both free and paid advertising options. You may want to consider driving traffic to your website by writing articles, using forums and even pay-per-click. It will help to safeguard your business. You could be in the top 10 in Google one day and be gone the next. So it is best to diversify your advertising methods.