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Search engine optimization is an art, a science, a mystery and, to the inexperienced, a great big pain. But it need not be so! A little learning goes a long way towards demystifying the whole process. The ideas that follow will show how small changes to a website can have http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/8524/info on the way search engines treat it.

When you develop SEO pages, it pays to have lots of shorter pieces on related topics instead of a single long one. Long pages don't carry as much weight with the search engines as short ones do. Visitors are also not likely to read an article in its entirety if it is overly long.

Include useful external links on your website. The number of outbound links can positively affect a website's search engine rank, however, make sure that the pages you link to are relevant and search engine optimized themselves. It is also best to link to related websites but not direct competitors, as you do not want to lose potential customers in a bid to increase your search engine rank.

Consider the anchor text, the actual text of your links, carefully when making internal links on your site. You should describe what the page is about and give a good reason for your reader to click on your anchor text link. Ensure the right text is used as the keyword, so you receive a rise in ranking. To draw attention from search engine spiders, maximize keyword usage in your anchor text.

Building backlinks is a good SEO technique, but avoid linking to bad neighborhoods. The number of backlinks your site has usually positively effects your site's search engine results page rank, however any backlinks from bad neighborhoods can make your site guilty by association causing search engines to penalize your website. It is best to avoid adult sites, gambling sites and free-for-all link farms when building backlinks.

To search engine optimize your website, avoid using navigation menus that utilize JavaScript, forms or CSS. These types of navigation menus can't be crawled by search engine spiders. If you must use one of these types of navigation menus, be sure to duplicate your site navigation, as normal hyperlinks, in the footer of each page.

Gateway pages will help get more traffic to your website. Your gateway pages should include a specific set of keywords, this will boost the change that this set of keywords will get a high score from the search engines. You should make several copies of this page, each with a different set of keywords.

Use a search engine to your advantage. Find the top ten best rated and most used article directories, and start out by only submitting to those. This will help you keep your focus, and also put you higher on the submission lists for the search engines. You should only associate with reputable companies.

Using image maps for website navigation is a bad idea for webmasters looking to optimize search engine performance. While there are ways to link images to keywords for SEO, when it comes to a navigation menu, an image cannot provide more than a tiny fraction of the SEO power offered by a well-tweaked text menu.




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Monitor where you stand with the search engines. It is impossible to tell if your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are working unless you monitor your search standing. There are tools available that will let you know how your page ranks with the major search engines. Monitoring your standing will tell if you need to revamp your page, or keep it like it is.

Keep your SEO skills and knowledge up-to-date. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so you need to stay on top of the latest developments. SEO techniques that you learned three years ago may no longer be effective, and you could waste valuable time and money trying to optimize a website with outdated SEO methods.

You will need to make sure that you have content that is of good quality on your site. Many of the search engines are now being more thorough with the content that is showing on the results page. If your site is filled with content that is garbage, it will not rank high as a result when searched.

As you can see, you need to increase your site's traffic in order to get ranked higher. This is possible to anyone who is willing to do what it takes. Getting your site ranked with the top search engines is highly possible, and can be done by anyone who will give it a chance.