There are many ways to improve your standings in Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo (the two most-used search tools on the Internet). The fancy name for this is "Search Engine Optimization," or SEO. Some SEO requires very specialized knowledge; other SEO requires simple common sense and facility with website design tools. Please contact us if you would like assistance with SEO tasks, especially those that fall into the "common sense" categories below.

What does it mean to optimize my website?

To ensure that your site works well with the search engines, your site should be properly. Be sure that your site keywords and phrases are displayed in the places that search engines look at when indexing your website. To do this, review the areas listed below...

• The visible content on your pages is the important area that search engines look at.
• Place your highest priority keywords and phrases in the content area of your pages.
• Your home page must include your most important phrases.
• Keywords must be placed near the top of your content area.

• The browser title appears in the title bar of your browser window.
• Be sure that your global browser title reflects the most important keywords.
• Use page specific browser titles for specialized pages. Page specific keywords are displayed right after your global keywords in the browser title

• Search engines will look at the names of your pages and links when indexing your site.
• Keep your page names short.

• Create text links on your site that take visitors to important pages.
• Use your keywords in the text links.
• For example, if you had information on televisions...Instead of creating a link called "click here" or "product specials", you could create a link called "Plasma Television Specials"

• Search engines rely heavily on links to determine the relevance/ranking of your website.
• You want other websites to link to your site. This will generate traffic from those websites, and also will increase the ranking of your website.
• Links from websites that are very popular and related to your keywords and phrases will give you the biggest boost in search rankings.