Say the words web site search engine optimization and many of us will reach for the extra strength Tylenol. The mountain of information you seemingly have to digest in order to improve search engine ranking can be daunting.

So why do people study web site search engine optimization like it is the finals of a college exam? Because the overwhelming majority of their (and your) site traffic will come from search engines. Optimizing your web pages the correct way can increase the ranking of your website and bring you more targeted traffic from people who are willing to buy your product, sign up for your opt in email list or take some other action. It also has the added bonus of increasing your link popularity since many other webmasters will be very anxious to exchange links with a high ranking site.

But do you really have to take a postgraduate course to learn search engine optimization seo ? Not necessarily. There are some basic tweaks that you can make right now to your web pages that have the potential to increase your search engine rank.

1. Web Site Content

If you want to know how to take some of the complexity out of web site search engine optimization this is it. I am sure you have seen many a site with dazzling graphics and awesome multimedia slideshows. None of that means anything, without good unique web site content. Have at least a minimum of 300 words per page. Also make sure your text is in HTML which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Don't let this throw you. HTML is the way search engines read your webpages. If you want to learn html, I recommend the website of Dave Kristula at davesite.com . The main thing to focus on is writing quality useful web site content that will please your visitors as well as the search engines.

2. Keyword Search Terms

This is the reason eighty percent of your site traffic comes from search engines. If the internet is the information superhighway then keyword search terms are the guide posts. Choosing the right ones can be a science all its own. Use the free overture keyword (keyword) research tool to find terms relevant to your site content that people are looking for. Higher search results mean more competition. There is plenty of profit to be made in utilizing keywords that get anywhere from 500 to 5000 searches per month. You should then compile a list and use these keywords on every page of your website including the title.

However do not go overboard. Keyword stuffing is a red flag to the search engines. It reminds them too much of the many automatic website builders that scrape content from other sites and create web pages overloaded with keywords and little else. Keep focused on providing useful information and use the keyword search terms where relevant.

3. Meta Tag Optimization

Five years ago, I would have told you meta tag optimization was essential to your webpage. Nowadays search engines rank the importance of meta tags very low. Some do not consider them at all. So why use them? Because even if they a make up a small part of a search engine's ranking formula, that is an extra advantage for you.

Meta tags are usually located at the top of a website. Just open your webpage in a browser window, click view on your menu bar and then select source. This is the HTML version of the webpage. You can also do this with FrontPage, Dreamweaver or any other web site building software. Find where it says meta name= keywords content and place your keywords between the empty quotations. Do the same with meta name = description and place a brief site description between the quotations. Meta tag optimization may have lost much of its importance but every little bit helps.

A good search engine ranking is important for any online business. While there is a lot to learn concerning website search engine optimization, just start with the simple steps we mentioned above. Keep in mind that if you give any web site search engine precisely what they want, they in turn will reward you with more site traffic and customers ready to take a look at your offer.