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You want information about search engine optimization and you would like to have it in a easy to understand format. If this is the case, this article will be perfect for you. We will lay out some of the most important tips and guidelines, in a way that you can quickly digest.

Set up your website for maximum search engine ranking by using relevant keywords in the URL. Search engines place a fair amount of weight on the terms used in the URL, as long as those keywords also appear elsewhere on your page. Even if you cannot control the domain name used for your site, the names of your pages should be up to you.

Place links in key places to guarantee they get noticed. They do not need flashing lights around them or obnoxious bold lettering, but it is important to make sure links get noticed. Put them in places that people typically look on a website. This is often near the comments, along the sidebar, or underneath headlines.

Study the demographics of your intended audience, and find out where they search. If your intended readers tend to use one search engine over another, it may be best to focus on getting the attention of that search engine over others. Not only to you need to consider the search engines themselves, it is also greatly helpful if you are optimizing for the people looking for information in your niche.

Submit your site to major search engines. This may seem like it is an obvious step, but many site owners believe that a search engine will link to you if someone searches a certain keyword. While this may be true, you may not be the first on the list, or even on the first page. Optimize this strategy by paying a small fee to the search engine, and get your site on top of the results.

Keywords are the backbone of search engine optimization. Keywords, when written, should be italicized, underlined, and bold when possible. Check into the backlinks of those you consider competitors. Copy their backlinks creatively. You need backlinks pointing at your site as much as possible. Get backlinks from sites that have the same theme as yours.

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A great tip for improving your search engine optimization strategy is to list your website on Google Places. This will allow your business to show up on Google Map searches which carries a lot of weight for local searches. This is a great way to achieve a higher search engine rank.

Always check the link to your home page throughout every page on your website to make sure it's working effectively in order to make your SEO better. If some links are connecting to one place and another is connecting to the other place than your splitting your links and your website isn't getting as many hits as it should be. This means that some of your links are going to www.bob.com and some are going to www.bob.com/index.html. This will cause it to appear as though your main site is getting less hits than it really is.

As mentioned at the start of this article, it's very important that you do not allow your efforts to go to http://www.linkedin.com/pub/home-business-online-marketing/66/910/a6a waste. Learning the proper optimization tactics for the search engines out there is how your site or business goes from a simple start-up to being a legitimate and popular brand online. Use the tips you've just read to your advantage in SEO.