2. CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORD PHRASES WISELY: Your Keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Each page in your Web site must have different target Keyword Phrases that reflect that page's Content. Say you have a page devoted to jewelry education. Needless to say, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as *jewelry*. However, if someone types *jewelry education*, you want your page to be in the top ten results. Or, say you have another page on jewelry using birthstones. Then *birthstone jewelry* might be your Keyword Phrases for that page.

You need to thoroughly research the best Keyword Phrases for your site, rather than guessing at these.
A good resource for this research is to combine https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox with http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. The first gives you a selection of Keyword Phrases; the second tells you how popular any specific Keyword Phrase was during the past 30 days.

3. TWEAK YOUR CONTENT: Often adding one word to the Phrase will make a world of difference on your SE’s finding precisely what your Website is all about.

Use Keyword Phrase variations to reach more prospects: not everyone will use the same spelling to search for you.

Examples:

gemstone jewelry
gem stone jewelry
gemstones jewelry
gemstone jewellery

Make sure you only targeted two or three Keyword Phrases per page. And double-check your Keyword Phrase density on each page. You should constantly be working on adding or changing your Content to make it better and better; but wait at least three months before uploading those changes since your last Online changes.

4. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR INSIDE-PAGE CONTENT: The most descriptive High-Ranking pages are most often the inside pages, rather than your Home Page. So, make sure you have some HTML-Link Content in the Home Page leading to major inside pages (or sections) of your Website. Put them at the top or bottom of the page where the SE’s will easily find and follow them.

5. CREATE A KILLER TITLE TAG: Your Web site’s HTML Title Tag is most important. You must put your Keyword Phrases into this Tag and not waste space with extra words. Do NOT use the Title Tag to display only your Company name, or simply *Home Page*. Think of it like a *Title Keyword Tag* and create it accordingly.

6. USE KEYWORD-PHRASE HEADLINES: Build your Headlines (Titles) and Sub-Headings around your top two or three Keyword Phrases. The Headlines should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper Headlines: with a few words, they make you want to read a story.

7. EMPHASIZE GOOD PAGE CONTENT: Write a minimum of 200-250 words of visible Content per page (or section) based on your Keyword Phrases. This is the most crucial component to high Rankings and a successful Web site. The SE’s need to *read* Keyword-rich Content on your pages, so they can understand how to classify your site. Don't be afraid to use your phrases as many times as it makes sense. Simply sticking Keyword Phrases at the top of the page or only in Headlines won't cut it.

8. USE PLENTY OF HTML LINKS: The absolute best way to get Optimized with Google, Yahoo and other crawlers for free is to build HTML Links within and to your Web site. Because every major SE uses Link-analysis as part of their Ranking Algorithms.

A simple way to find those good Links: Go to the major SE’s and search for your target Keyword Phrases. Now visit those pages. For the ones that are not your direct competitors, ask the site owners if they will Link to you. Also, be sure to do a good job of Linking internally between your pages: if your Content points to different pages within your site, you increase the odds the SE’s will follow Links and find more of your Website.

9. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: One of the main rules in Ranking Algorithm involves the Location of Keyword Phrases on a Web page. SE’s like pages where Keyword Phrases appear *high* on the page. In addition to Headlines, have them also appear in the first few paragraphs of your Web pages.

10. . . . . AND FREQUENCY: Frequency is the other major factor in how SE’s Rank Algorithms. A SE analyzes how often Keyword Phrases appear in relation to other words in a Web page.

11. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES TOO: This is an Optimization tip that most people forget about. You can slip in an extra Keyword Phrase or two that describes the picture viewers are about to see. SE robots will pick it up and the extra Keyword Phrases will help your Ranking.

12. HAVE A GOOD SITE MAP: Make a Site Map page with HTML Content Links to everything in your Web site. Submit this page to all the SE’s and Directories to help the SE’s locate pages within your URL.

13. AVOID STUMBLING BLOCKS: FRAMES CAN KILL: If your site uses Frames in the Home Page, you will only have one page to submit; the Home Page. There is nothing the SE can use (i.e. Content and/or Links) to determine how to list your site, because your Home Page is actually a Frameset; without any visible (to the SE) Content.

FLASH: Many times the Home Page is made entirely from Flash, which the SE’s can't see and index (as with Frames). Result: your Flash page will not get listed and it is impossible to Optimize your site for High Ranking on SE’s.

TABLES: They *push* your text further down the page, making good Keyword Phrases Lower Ranking, because they appear (to the SE’s) lower on the page.

For example, look at a typical two-column page, where the first column has navigational Links, while the second column has the Keyword-loaded text.

14. GOOD CONTENT PREVENTS STUMBLINE BLOCKS: Use HTML Content whenever possible. The Content alone on your Web pages should be good enough for SE’s to determine good Ranking easily while avoiding these Stumbling Blocks.

15. PROPER PREPARATION FOR YOUR DIRECTORY LISTINGS IS IMPERATIVE: Write a 25-word or less description of your entire Web site. That description should make use of the primary two or three Keyword Phrases. You submit this short description to the Directory for your entire site which they review.

16. BE MINDFUL OF YOUR CONTENT: The addition of just one extra word can suddenly make a site appear more relevant; it is impossible to guess what that word will be. It is always best to thoroughly research what are the best Keyword Phrases for your site. Sources for this research can be found in Tip #2.

17. GET LISTED: Once you have finished creating your Web site, the first step after going Online is SE Submission or Registration of that 25-word description (Tip 15) to have your URL listed with all SE’s. So, you start by telling EACH SE that your Website is now Online.

18. MAKE YOUR LISTING BUDGET: For the best possible Ranking, you should make a monthly (at least for the first three months) or Yearly Budget for the paid listings offered by SE’s like Google’s AdWords, Yahoo Express, Overture, etc.

19. SUBMIT KEY PAGES: Don't trust the submission process to automated programs and services; the major SE’s are too important. Once your Web site is up and running, submit the top two or three pages that best summarize your site to each SE and Directory. Your top two or three pages are plenty, because they are only your insurance: in case a SE has trouble reaching one of your pages, you’ve covered yourself by giving it another page from which to begin its crawl of your site.

20. VERIFY AND MAINTAIN YOUR LISTING: Check on your pages to ensure they got listed. Once you Verify your pages are listed in each SE, monitor your listing every week or two. Strange things can happen: Pages disappear from indexes; Links go screwy. Watch for trouble, and resubmit if you spot it.

21. BE PATIENT: Don't expect quick results: getting high Rankings takes time (even with paid-inclusion). All SE’s measure Link popularity, and it takes time to become one of the most popular sites in your niche. It’s best not to make changes for Optimization for at least three months at a time. Be patient and give your site time to mature.

22. RESUBMIT AFTER CHANGES: Search engines should revisit on a regular schedule, but resubmitting after major changes will ensure your site's Content is kept current. If you've followed these tips and still can't find your site high in the SE’s, the first place to *tweak* is your page Content. If you added less than 250 words of visible text on your pages, this could be your culprit. Also, double-check your Keyword Phrase density, and make sure that you only targeted two or three phrases per page.

Eventually, you'll see the fruits of your labor with many top-ten Rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest of the SE’s!

GLOSSARY

*CONTENT*: All your Online words, including; your Website, Newsletters, Ads, e-Mails, auto-responders – every point at which you communicate with your Target Market.

*SE OPTIMIZATION*: The act of setting up your new Website or altering your existing site to Rank as high as possible with the SE’s.

*Keyword Phrases*: particular search terms or a range of terms that people use on SE’s.

*Ranking Well*: The ultimate goal for your Website -- to get that *top ten* Ranking for your Keyword Phrases and Links
*URL*: Uniform Resource Locators is the World Wide Web’s technical term for a Website.

*HTML*: Hyper Text Markup Language - The coded format language used for creating documents on the World Wide Web.

*Directory-Based SE’s*: Such as the Open Directory (a volunteer-built guide to the Web), depends on humans for its listings. Being listed with the Open Directory is essential to any site owner.

*Crawler-based SE’s*: Such as Google and Yahoo, create their listings automatically. They *crawl* or *spider* the Web, analyzing Keyword Phrases and Links to decide which pages they should pick up and Rank well. Page Content, Headlines and other elements all play a role.

*Algorithms*: The set of rules by which Crawler-Based SE’s go about determining Ranking when confronted with hundreds of millions of Web pages to sort through. All major SE’s follow the same general rules which take advantage of these tips.

*Frames*: An HTML page that *Frames* other HTML pages.

*Flash*: An IT program which is often used on Home Pages as a *splash* page.