SEO, or Search engine optimization is the technique used to make your website appear higher in the search engine rankings. When using SEO the ultimate goal is to appear in the top ten results for your chosen keywords.

There are different ways to accomplish this goal, some more effective than the other. one way to appear higher in the ranks is by using what is known as Pay Per Click advertising. All of the major search engines will allow you to place an advertisement on their results page. These advertisements are targeted to the keywords entered in the search. By spending more than your competitors for "clicks" your ad will appear at the top of the search results. This method can become very expensive and is not as effective as natural search results.

Searchers have come to trust natural search results over Pay Per Click advertising. Most people now understand that the sponsored links are advertisements. As a result they don't always use the advertised links, and in surveys have indicated that they prefer natural search results by five to one.

Natural SEO is an Ongoing Process

To Optimize your website requires that you hit a constantly moving target. One of the most important aspects of this is to choose the right keywords to optimize. Keywords are the terms people search for when looking for information on the Internet.

The methods that the search engines use to determine search results is always changing to improve results. The search engines want to keep their methods a secret, and we as webmasters want to know exactly how to improve our ranking. While the codes are constantly changing, there's also a wealth of knowledge available if you know where to look.

Because of this, keyword research is the most important step in developing your website. It is important to understand the words and phrases your targeted visitors will use when trying to find your product or service. There are many tools available to do this research on the Internet ranging from free tools to software programs and monthly subscription services. When choosing keywords try to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. What words or phrases would you use if you were interested in finding your product or service? Most likely your target audience will use the same key words and phrases.

10 Quick Tips to Improve Your Site's SEO

1. Select the best keywords.
2. Put your main keyword in your URL.
3. Put your main keyword in your image tags.
4. Put your keyword in the title on your home page. 5. Create original keyword rich content.
6. Get incoming links using your main keywords is anchor text.
7. Examine your sites content for your keywords, ideally your keywords should be 3 to 5% of the content.
8. Link back to internal pages on your site using your selected keywords as anchor text.
9. Bold, italicize, or underline one or two keywords per page.
10. make a site map.

These steps are not the only things you can do to improve your ranking, but they will get you started in the right direction. By analyzing and tweaking your website you will improve in the search engine rankings.

Keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process. You may see improvements overnight, but don't get discouraged if your site's traffic doesn't jump up immediately. SEO is a cat and mouse game, you can't make changes once and then never look back. If you apply these SEO tips each time you update your website you will soon see improvement.

Content is one of the most important aspects. No matter how often the search engines change their methods, they will always be looking for new content. So keep adding to your website with useful keyword rich content. By doing this the search engines will keep returning, and so will your visitors.