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Website Optimization in Ten Easy Steps

By Wendy Boswell, About.com

Website optimization - what is it? Well, ask yourself this question:

Are you satisfied with your website?

Do you believe that your site is drawing in enough traffic, people are getting what they came for, and there's really no room for improvement?

Well, then you're probably going to want to stop reading. However, for the rest of us who have websites, we know that there's always something that could be tweaked for increased web site traffic, better customer satisfaction, and a higher search engine ranking. How exactly do you go about doing that? Follow these Ten Steps to a Well-Optimized Site and I think you'll see that these goals are not as lofty as you might think.

Step 1: What Is Search Engine Optimization?

In a very basic nutshell, search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is making your site and the site's individual pages visible and relevant to both search engines and search engine users.

Step 2: Target Marketing-Does Your Internet Marketing Strategy Match Your Intended Audience?

Understanding your audience is a huge part of a successful Internet marketing strategy. You need to pinpoint who it is you will be marketing your site to, and write your content accordingly. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it's worth a serious look.

Step 3: Keywords and Phrases 101: Make Your Site Search-Engine Friendly

What are keywords, and why should you learn about them? Keywords are simply targeted words that determine which category your site will be listed under in search engines and directories,as well as words that searchers input to search engines in order to find relevant sites. If you don't do your homework and select targeted key phrases, you are missing a significant portion of potential traffic.

Step 4: Including Keywords and Phrases In Your Content and Source Code

You’ve got your hard-earned list of keywords, now you’re going to have to actually put them somewhere. The more places you can reasonably put your keywords, the easier you will be found. That being said, don’t go nuts and paste them in every nook and cranny. This is called “keyword stuffing” and search engines don’t look kindly on this practice.

Step 5: How To Write Good Content

Compelling content on your website is the essential key to good search engine results. Obviously, there are many more factors that search engine spiders look at when indexing a website, but content is the vital foundation on which good rankings are built.

Keep reading for the next five steps in Website Optimization in Ten Easy Steps.

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