by Charlene Davis

Created on: August 17, 2008   Last Updated: August 25, 2008

When conducting an online search, you've undoubtedly noticed that particular sites will often pop-up in the first or second page of the search results. This is because whenever specific keywords or phrases are used, these sites have been optimized for higher rankings - also known as search engine optimization (or SEO).

There are two types of links that are produced from search queries: natural (free) links, and sponsored (paid) links. Although the sponsored links appear at the very top of the search results page, statistics show that browsers generally select the natural links first.

You can easily raise your own site's online visibility by creating a SEO marketing campaign that can be immediately implemented using the following five steps:

1. Know What Your Visitors are Looking For: What keywords will browsers use when looking for the products or information offered on your site? The best way to find out is to conduct similar queries yourself by checking out your competition using relevant keywords and phrases. Then look to see what sites consistently appear in the search results. Look closely at those sites because they are your competition and this will be the perfect opportunity to find out how you can improve your own rankings.

2. Use Targeted Keywords: Make a list of keywords and phrases that apply specifically to your website. Include other words that have the same or similar meaning, as well as past tense and plural versions. From the list, choose a few keywords to be applied to specific pages on your site and sprinkle them throughout the text. However, use caution when making your text keyword rich. If the web crawlers suspect that you are intentionally cramming keywords, it will lower your site's rankings.

3. Optimize Meta Tags: Meta tags are HTML information found at the very beginning of your website or blog that is only visible to the web crawlers and highly relevant to search engines. Using the same keyword strategy above, choose several keywords that best describe your site and use them in the title, description, and keyword meta tags.

4. Use Incoming and Outgoing Links: Search engines like to see relevant links coming from and going to your site. For example, if you are providing information to pet owners on where to find the best accessories, you may want to include some internal links pointing to other sites for designer collars and other supplies. Another strategy is reciprocal links which is exchanging links with other websites - but avoid overkill in this area. This is because search engines prefer to see more links pointing to your site, called one-way or incoming links.

5. Create a Site Map: Having a site map makes it easier for search engines to index all of your pages and raise your visibility so visitors can find you. There are site map generators available online (some free, some for a fee) that will take the guesswork out of this process for easier navigation.

The landscape of search engine optimization is constantly evolving and it will definitely be in your best interests to follow the trends by signing up for news releases and ezines related to the SEO industry. Knowledge is power and what you don't know, your competition will.

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