Website Content

First and foremost, a website must have unique content that gives users a reason to visit and stay on the site. A site can be visually appealing, with all the bells and whistles out there, but if there's nothing to read, users have no reason to stay there. Also, content should always be mindful of the targeted keywords. For example, a website with baby naming information should not contain information about boat motors. This will confused search engines. Many small and mid-sized internet websites and companies have started to see the value in having quality and SEO-friendly content.

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Website content should:

• Implement headings in H1, H2 etc. tags.
• Contain about 5% keywords
• Original
• Be changed/updated frequently
• Contain no grammatical or spelling mistakes
• Be worth reading!  Enough said.

Hiring a website content writer to write optimized content is a wise decision for any website to employ, if they desire a site that ranks high on search engines.

Links

One of the biggest factors determining a site's search engine rankings is how many incoming links it has.

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In a search engine's eyes, links going to a site indicate a certain level of importance.  The more credible the site, the more important the link.  An industry giant, such as Amazon.com or CNN.com linking to another website will give the receiving site increased credibility.

The ideal incoming link will contain specific keywords.  For example, the pet-naming site BoogiePets would benefit from a link reading "BoogiePets - Pet names for a dog, cat, puppy, kitten and other pets" as opposed to "Click here".  The first link is keyword-rich and accurately describes the site's theme.  The second gives search engines no information about the page.

Websites should also have a good internal linking system.  Not only does this technique make it easier for users to navigate a site, once search engines crawl a site (which you will read more about below) there's a better chance that all the pages will be indexed.

Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is crucial to a site's SEO success. Keywords and keyword phrases should be thoroughly researched by any website.

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A website should pay special attention to keywords.  Keywords and keyword phrases should be researched to find out what people are searching for.  When a site targets a keyword phrase to a specific market, there is a much better chance of achieving higher rankings.  For example, words that make a keyword phrase more specific will increase the chances of ranking high for a particular search term.  Examples could be adding a city name to a phrase ("Minneapolis sushi" as opposed to "sushi") or simply adding more key words ("Cute cat names" as opposed to "pet names".)

Once keywords have been identified, it's wise to find out how much competition there is for the specified keywords.  "Real estate", for example, is a much more competitive keyword phrase than "apple custard pie recipes."  There are thousands and thousands of companies competing for the top spots for the keyword phrase "real estate."  Especially for beginning websites, it's important to be mindful of keyword competition.  It may be very difficult to rank high for these search terms.

Keywords are especially important in the page's title tag.  This is the text that appears at the very top left hand of a browser.  Specific keywords should be used, and generic ones should be avoided.  A phrase like "Low-fat desserts, meals, breads and pastas for a healthy lifestyle" is much more descriptive than "About us".  Aside from the title tag, keywords should be used in the page's description and keyword tags.