So how can you optimize your website to get tons of free traffic and rank at the top with the best search engines. What is this SEO recipe? There are 5 major components to this. These are, creating proper meta tags with proper keywords for your website, the number of directory submissions, the number of reciprocal links to your website, the number of inbound links via articles, forums, classified ads, etc; and timely updates to your website. So let's analyze every member of this list:

These days you hear a lot of talk about how search engines don't look at meta tags anymore in order to properly index and rank your website. This is not entirely true. Placing the proper meta tag title, description, and keywords in your HTML coding will give your website a HUGE boost of credibility in the eyes of the search engines. Always place proper meta tags on your website no matter what anyone says!

Submitting your website to as many directories as possible will help you rank high with the search engines. By finding as many directories as possible and submitting your website to them, you are gaining exposure and inbound links via searches. When search engines such as Google index your site, they weigh in this factor and directly use it to determine just how important your website is to the internet. Submit your website to at least 50 directories!

Another great way to gain page rank with search engines is to have as many backlinks (or reciprocal links) as possible. This is when you agree to directly link to another website, in return for that website linking directly to yours. This could very well be the most powerful method to gain page rank, get indexed, and attain top search results of all the SEO strategies described in this article. However, overdoing it will not be to your benefit. A good way to backlink with other websites is to do it with the every directory that you are submitting your website to (the same directories that I spoke of earlier). Directory links will give your website tremendous validity because essentially you are linking to massive online networks this way. So make sure you opt to make reciprocal links with all the directories you submit your website to. You can also buy backlinks from prominent websites!

Always try to get as much free inbound links as possible. Don't ever quit! Keep writing and posting your links throughout articles, blogs, forums, press releases, classified ads, online groups (such as yahoo answers, Google groups, twitter, etc), Squidoo, social bookmarking, email lists, AdWords, and as many others as you can think of. All of these inbound links will add up very quickly, and will prove to the search engines that your site is important to the web community.

Finally, after doing the previous four steps that I have mentioned, your site should be indexed, have a high page rank, top listing with search engines, and should be getting floods of free, targeted traffic. However, you must keep updating your site with new material if you want to maintain that status. Without this last step, you could loose a lot of your hard-earned SEO points if the search engines declare your site stagnant. Don't let it happen to you!