Search Engine Optimization has been one of the fastest growing areas of web development in the last few years, due to the increasing usage of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Search Engine Optimization is the "art" of modifying, or optimizing your webPAGE to make it more appealing to search engines for your chosen keywords. Each page of your site should be optimised for a different search phrase.
Search engine optimization has two components:
On-page search engine optimization involves modifying/development the HTML code and content of a web page to concentrate on:
As many people know nothing about optimisation, if you use your keywords in the above parts of your website page, you will be doing better than the majority of websites.
Analyse your page to check your keyword density:
Or else you could just analyse your competitors sites to see what they are doing in terms of keyword count and incoming links.
Make sure your page is still understandable and that visitors will want to return. Write for people first, then search engines.
Use synonyms for your search words. This will tell the search engine spiders that the rest of your page matches your targetted search phrase.
Link outwards to an authority site on your subject. Especially a government or organisation. To prove that your site truly is an information site, which is what people and spiders really want.
The Google Poodle attempts to predict how Google will view your page. This is excellent - I didn't realise my image alt code could make things look so different. Try it here
See pages on link development and submitting to search engines
With increased use of personalised search, the likelihood of web site stickiness, or how long a person stays at a site may become a factor in search engine ranking.