Titles
The title should identify the site, not describe it. It should be both informative and concise.
Good titles ....

• Do give the official name of the site as the title. Generally, the title will be obvious and prominently displayed on the site.
• Do give the official name of the business or entity as the title, if the site is about the business, organization, or other entity (e.g. a company's home page).
• Do contain the full form and acronym if the business, organization or other entity is known by both, and both are used on the site.
• Do derive a concise title from the site's contents if the title is ambiguous or would give the appearance of spam.
• Do have the first letter of each word in the title capitalized, except for articles, prepositions or conjunctions unless they begin the site title or a new part of a compound title.

Examples:
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Cold Snow: The Fluffy White Stuff
Sunlight on Snow: The Dangers of Glare and Eyestrain

Note: Since the rules for capitalization vary by language, this guideline does not necessarily apply to all World/ categories; please refer to the guidelines for each specific language.

• Do not include superfluous keywords, unnecessary symbols and letters, company slogans or promotional language as part of the title.
• Do not include words and phrases such as "Welcome to," "Online" and "Homepage of" or "Website" at the beginning or end of a title if it is not a component of the official name of the site.
• Do not include punctuation marks or unnecessary symbols and letters, or special characters at the beginning of the title. Listings are, in some cases, sorted alphabetically and sometimes people try to get to the top of the list unfairly. If "aaa Website" is the submitted title, but the website is really called "Website," the best title is "Website."
• Do not capitalize titles in their entirety. 
• Do not end with an exclamation mark or any other unnecessary punctuation.

Descriptions
The description gives specific information about the content and/or subject matter of the site. It should be informative and concise, usually no longer than one or two lines. The basic formula for a good description is Description = Subject + Content
In some cases, the contents of all the sites in your category will be same. For example, sites about businesses or organizations all contain similar information such as an "about" page, a products and services section, etc. In these cases, it's fine to just describe what the company does, focusing on it's products, services and specializations (i.e. the subject).
Good descriptions ....

• Are concise, informative, and objective, to let end-users know what they will find when they visit a web site.
• Do use logical sentence or phrase structure and proper punctuation and capitalization to make it easier for users to read directory listings.
• Do start with a capital letter and end with a period.
• Do use third person pronouns.
• Do highlight the unique subjects and contents of the site, thus allowing the user to appropriately determine relevancy.
• Do include relevant and specific terms that will make it easier for the end-user to determine a site's relevancy to his/her query.
• Do not read like online advertisements and sales pitches. Avoid superlatives such as "best" "most" "greatest" "cheapest." The ODP does not advertise web sites, and such terms are irrelevant to users. End-users determine relevancy by looking for specific terms and phrases, not promotional language.
• Do not use emphatic punctuation (e.g., "!!!" ), all caps to denote emphasis, ampersands ( "&" ) or ellipses ( "..." ).
• Do not use first or second person pronouns such as "you", "your", "we", "us", "our" "I", or "me."
• Do not consist of personal opinions or subjective reviews.
• Do not repeat the title of the site or sections of the category path name.
• Do not unnecessarily repeat keywords, phrases, or overuse adjectives.
• Do not use specific dates, prices, time-sensitive numbers, or similar information that is subject to change. End-users do not like to find links that have inacurate and out-dated annotations.
• Do not contain over used sentences and phrases, such as those starting with: "This site is..." "Site includes ..."  or ending with "etc." "and more" 
• Do not make reference to illegally obtained content (e.g. pirated versions of software and music).
• Do not include any spelling errors (a spell check tool is readily available to help prevent spelling errors).
• Do not use acronyms or abbreviations unless they are commonly understood by potential users of the category. 
• Do not include: street/mailing and e-mail addresses, nearest intersection/highway exit, telephone/fax numbers, instructions for use of answering systems, hours of operation, prices, or other URLs.
• May include limited quotations from a site (such as a brief quotation from a site's about page or similar informational areas) if paraphrasing proves too difficult.

Site maps play an important role in assisting all spiders, not just Google to locate your content and can be beneficial for many different reasons. Here are only two:
[list]
·  If you have deep content, four or more layers, a site map can create shallower paths. Content reached by shallow paths, only one or two clicks from the home page, will be spidered more completely more frequently.
·  If you have a web site that uses session identifications in the URLs, for example a shopping cart, and you do not want to use Mod Rewrite, a sitemap can lead spiders to each static address, or on the shopping cart to each product, in a manner that is easily index able. This will maximize your spider able content.
[/list]
Because of the behavior of search spiders, each site map should have no more than 100 links on it. Should you need additional sitemaps, cross-linking each site map to one another can be helpful.
Of course, should your web site contain thousands of pages you may need one or more site maps just to index all of your site maps. If this is the case, place links to ten different site maps on every site map page that links to actual content. This will help to increase the spider ability of all of your sitemaps and give them any benefits derived by additional internal links.
Do use Google Site Maps. If you can easily create XML maps with all their extra information then you should do so. Otherwise, a simple text file listing each web page can be easy to produce and effective.

Owning a website is a cool thing in itself, but it's even greater if you're able to welcome a lot of visitors to it. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this, is by making sure your site is easily found through search engines like Google.

seobook's keyword tool
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

Overture data at the digital point site
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Googles Adword tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Title Element：The page title element (some refer to it as the title tag which is incorrect) is one of the most important factors for ranking highly in the search engines. Page title elements are normally 3-9 words (60-80 characters) maximum in length, no fluff, straight and to the point. This is what shows up in most search engine results as a link back to your page. Make sure your Page Title Element (title tag) is relevant to the content on the page.

META Description Tag (Metadata) ：The META description tag usually consists of 25 to 30 words or less using no more than 160 to 180 characters total (including spaces). The META description also shows up in many search engine results as a summary of your site.
Directories like Yahoo! and the ODP (Open Directory Project - dmoz.com) show the page title and description that you entered (and the editors modified) on their manual submission form.
Make sure your META Description Tag is relevant to the content on the page.

META Keywords Tag (Metadata) ：For those search engines that are META enabled, the META keywords tag used to be one of the most important areas after the page title and page description. It has been abused by both marketers and consumers alike that there is very little weight given to the META keywords tag.

Don't fret over your META keywords tag. Utilize keywords and keyword phrases from your title element, META description tag, heading tag and first one or two paragraphs of visible content. Try to limit it to 15 to 20 words if possible. Make sure your META Keywords Tag is relevant to the content on your page.

Heading Tags：At least one heading tag <h1> should appear at the top of your page and be well written using prime keywords and keyword phrases. You can use CSS to control the appearance of the heading tags. I prefer using external style sheets (file.css). Make sure your Heading Tags are relevant to the content on the page.

Alt Attribute ：Alt text is the line of text you see pop up (in Internet Explorer, see note below) when you place your cursor over an image. It also displays a text representation of the image when the user has images turned off in their browser (this is the intended behavior). It is highly recommended that you utilize this area as it is required under accessibility laws and, is indexed by the search engines.

Note: Internet Explorer (IE) will display alt text when you hover your cursor over an element that utilizes the alt attribute. This is incorrect behavior as the alt text is designed to be displayed when the user has their images turned off while browsing. Other browsers such as Opera and Mozilla will not display the alt text on hover.

Alt attributes are not to be stuffed with irrelevant keywords or phrases. The alt text should mirror the content of the image. If it is a graphic header, then your alt text should mirror the text in the graphic header. Alternative text values should not exceed 80 characters in length. If more than 70-80 characters are required one should use the longdesc attribute as an alternative to alt text.

Hyperlinked Text ：This area is overlooked by many when promoting a web site to the search engines. Many web sites utilize graphic representations of links. These are visually appealing, but the text in the image cannot be indexed by the spiders.

I always recommend an additional text navigation bar (SSI - Server Side Includes or Front Page Includes) somewhere on the page, usually at the top, right, bottom or left hand side. Link text should be concise, use keywords and phrases, and follow the same structure as the graphic navigation.

Visible Copy - Content is King ：Content (visible copy) weighs heavily and is considered one of the primary areas of search engine optimization and marketing, hence the expression, Content is King. Your content should be written in a way that grabs the users attention, while utilizing your targeted keywords and keyword phrases. There is a method to placement of the keywords and keyword phrases that will help your web site gain better placement in the search engines. Balance is essential and creating that balance takes knowledge and experience.

You should make it your goal to add at least one new page of content daily if possible. If not, then once a week is acceptable. You want to keep your website content fresh and give your visitors something to come back for on their next visit. Stale website content may not perform as well as fresh website content. I strongly suggest that you utilize last modified dates on your pages so that visitors to your site know when the page was last modified and how fresh the content is.

File Naming ：I've seen many of the search engines indexing file names and have found that using relative keywords in this area will play a role in your overall search engine marketing strategy. Instead of naming your file pagename.asp, you would name it keyword-phrase.asp or page-name.asp. Always use hyphens (-) to separate the words in your file names, use all lower case for file naming, this includes images too.

Visitors to your site will appreciate the clean URI paths which are easy to remember and bookmark. Always try to provide the visitor with the shortest URI path.
This is not an area to stuff keywords. Files should be named appropriately as part of the overall theme and should be relevant to the on page content.

Directory Naming：I've seen many of the search engines indexing directory names and have found that using relative keywords in this area will play a role in your overall search engine marketing strategy.
Be descriptive with naming directories. Don't get carried away, but make sure at least one keyword or keyword phrase appears in the directory name. Don't forget to use hyphens (-) to separate the words.
This is not an area to stuff keywords. Directories should be named appropriately as part of the overall theme and should be relevant to the directory content.

A) Prepare work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That's just for openers. That's 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos...etc eg: fluff pages.

B) Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want "google.com" and not "mykeyword.com". Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se's. Learn the lesson of "goto.com" becomes "Overture.com" and why they did it. It's one of the most powerful gut check calls I've ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole 'nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

C) Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don't appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it's been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don't clutter and don't spam your site with frivolous links like "best viewed" or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn't everything, it's almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until "something happens" in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you'll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

D) Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it's tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

E) Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren't sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

F) Density, position, yada...
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don't fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it ;-) Spell checking is becoming important as se's are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can't spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

G) Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

H) Insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It's the old share the wealth thing.

I) Put it Online.
Don't go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is "crawlable" by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main "topic index" pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don't put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It's worse to put a "nothing" site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don't have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don't hold your breath).

J) Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That's right - submit and forget.

K) Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don't use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn't support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can't run a modern site without full referrals available 24x7x365 in real time.

L) Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se's. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it's way throughout the site. Don't fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other se's are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

M) Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it's topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

N) Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don't freak if you can't get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don't worry if site Z won't link with you - they will - eventually they will.

O) Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much "bloggin" type personal stuff and look more for "article" topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of "web speak" that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly.

Most web users don't actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They've got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don't have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any "fades of the day" or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Q) Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don't link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

R) Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from "affiliate fades" that insert content on to your site.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don't work at all. Think about what people want. They aren't coming to your site to view "your content", they are coming to your site looking for "their content". Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows...yes, I know).

T) Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

U) Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you've gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about "oranges", but your referrals are all about "orange citrus fruit", then you can get busy building articles around "citrus" and "fruit" instead of the generic "oranges".
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it's just a matter of panning for it.

V) Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site "Z" is coming out with product "A" at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

W) Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here's the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you "in the loop" of your keyword sector.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it's a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Y) Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it's own two feet.

Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to "do something" with.

How To Write A Press Release That Makes News
Article by Steve M Nash

Press release writing (or writing a news release) and getting your news published is not difficult.

I say this after struggling for some years to get any of my press releases published. I stumbled on the most important factor right after my first release was published in a UK internet magazine. I then decided to piece together all the advice, all the tips and tutorials I've read, into a single checklist, to make writing my next successful press release easier.

The 'how to write a press release that makes news' checklist below is the result.

Remember, good press releases -- i.e. news releases that get published -- are great ways to get invaluable promotion for your business or website.

So learning how to write a press release, writing your press release and then publishing it, is definitely 'worth it'.

=> How To Write A Press Release Checklist

Here are the basic steps of writing a press release:

1) Have a story to tell
2) Think like a journalist
3) Format the press release properly
4) Keep your press release short!
5) Promote your press release online 

An explanation of these 'make news with your press release' steps follows.

1) Have A Story To Tell

You must have a story to tell, a hook, or an interesting angle. Whilst demand for news is great, the news must still be interesting.

So, find your story and develop it. Position your press release, somehow, to be different. Whilst you try and do this, make sure you think about the following:

• holiday and event tie-in articles
• politically and socially important editorial tie-in articles
• internet innovations and developments or unique products
• unusual events or unique personal accomplishments
• humour and wisdom, or fun and tragedy
• interpersonal relationships on difficult issues.

2) Think Like a Journalist

A 'story to tell' must be told with the person looking to tell that story in mind; i.e. you must think like a journalist.

So what reasons would an editor want to publish your news? What benefits would their readers get? Is it relevant and timely?

Ideally, make the main benefit of your press release the headline. Or try and answer at least three of the classic five Ws -- who, what, when, where and why -- for your publicity angle in the headline.

If you do not come up with a compelling headline then the journalist (or editor) will simply not read any further. So that is the sole purpose of writing a press release headline: to get the attention of the journalist. Use words like YOU, NEW or HOW TO to achieve this.

Keep your press release simple. Always write for scanability and in a way that means it can be published (in a magazine, for example) with as few edits as possible.

Write short, punchy paragraphs and remember to answer these questions: "Who? Why? What? Where? When? & How?"

3) Format The Press Release Properly

Here is an example press release layout. Use the following as a guide.

[START]
<Title or Headline> - (a)

For immediate release

<Simple Contact>

<Sub-heading>

<Leading Paragraph> - (b)

<Main Paragraph(s)> - (c)

<Final Paragraph> - (d)

<Full contact details>
[END]

Notes:
(a) Offer a benefit, for example.
(b) What? Why is it needed? How will it help? Include quotes, too, if possible.
(c) Who is it aimed at? Who cares? Provide facts.
(d) Summarise the press release, or provide a call to action

Obviously, the words you use in your press release are of vital importance:

• The headline is the most important part of your press release and the opening sentence should continue on from the headline
• If possible, try and tell your story in the headline and leading paragraph
• Try and change passive words to active
• Use the words YOU
• Have no more than five bullet points -- these should be selling points, ideally
• For each sentence you write, ask yourself "So what?". And remove the sentence if you can't think of a good answer
• Edit your copy ruthlessly, over and over again.

And, finally, make sure there are no attachments, no HTML, and no Word document files. (Everyone is wary of email viruses these days, including editors.)

4) Keep Your Press Release Short!

With so much to consider when writing a press release it's not surprising that most people make this common press release mistake: they write too much copy. It doesn't matter how well you have written your press release, if it's too long then it won't get read. So keep your press release short. Remove words that do not need to be there. Again, edit ruthlessly.

Not convinced? Ask yourself these questions, then:

• How many of these press releases do you think editors get to read every day?
• How many long, badly-worded releases will they read before, eventually, they become instantly put off just by the length of a press release?
• And how much more likely do you think it is that an editor will read your SHORT, quick-to-read, press release?

Understand? Keep your press release short, simple as that!

5) Promote Your Press Release Online

The best way to promote your press release online is to use an online press release service. One highly regarded service is PrWeb.com . As it states on their website:

"[PRWeb is the] recognized leader in online news and press release distribution service for small and medium-sized businesses and corporate communications. PRWeb pioneered Free Press Release Distribution and continues to set the standard for online news distribution."

So you can either promote your press release for free, or they offer various paid-for services that guarantee a variety of levels of online exposure.

There is no point in writing a press release if you are not going to promote it, so this step is also vital.

- http://www.prweb.com

--

Great stuff, you're ready to write a press release that gets published and makes news. Do put your press release on your own website too, though (adding it to a press pack would be even better) and do think of what to say should a reporter call. It's much more likely to happen now, that's for sure.

Here is an example press release that *should* follow all of the guidelines above. Does it?
- http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/03/prweb361096.htm

----

So there you are: how to write a press release that makes news, and another promotion tip that *you CAN* do, to promote your website or business. Just follow the checklist below, to make sure that your next press release gets published:

• Have a story to tell
• Think like a journalist
  
• Format the press release properly
  
• Keep your press release short!
• (To mis-quote the pop song, "...let's go make some [news]")

Get writing that press release now! Make news, today.

1. Start out slowly. If possible, begin with a new site that has never been submitted to the search engines or directories. Choose an appropriate domain name, and start out by optimizing just the home page.
2. Learn basic HTML. Many search engine optimization techniques involve editing the behind the scenes HTML code. Your high rankings can depend on knowing which codes are necessary, and which aren't.
3. Choose keywords wisely. The keywords you think might be perfect for your site may not be what people are actually searching for. To find the optimal keywords for your site, use tools such as WordTracker. Choose two or three highly targeted phrases for each page of your site. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation."


4. Write at least 200 - 250 words of visible text copy based on your chosen keywords. This is a crucial component to high rankings and a successful Web site. The search engines need to "read" keyword rich copy on your pages so they can successfully classify your site. Use each keyword phrase numerous times within your copy for best results.

5. Create a killer Title tag. HTML title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with all of the search engines. You must put your keywords into this tag and not waste space with extra words. Do not use the Title tag to display your company name or to say "Home Page." Think of it more as a "Title Keyword Tag" and create it accordingly. Add your company name to the end of this tag, if you must use it.
6. Create Meaty Meta tags. Meta tags can be valuable, but they are not a magic bullet. Create a Meta Description tag that uses your keywords and also describes your site. The information in this tag often appears under your Title in the search engine results pages.

The Meta Keyword tag isn't quite as important as the Meta Description tag. Contrary to popular belief, what you place in the keyword tag will have very little bearing on what keywords your site is actually found under, and it's not given any consideration whatsoever by Google. Use this tag, but do not obsess over.

7. Use extra "goodies" to boost rankings. Things like headlines, image alt tags, header tags <H1><H2>, etc.), links from other pages, keywords in file names, and keywords in hyperlinks can cumulatively boost search engine rankings. Use any or all of these where they make sense for your site.

8. Be careful when submitting to directories such as Yahoo and the Open Directory Project (DMOZ). Having directory listings are a key component to getting your site spidered and listed by Google. Making mistakes in the submission process could cost you dearly as directory listings are difficult to change later in the game. Therefore, it's important to read Yahoo's How to Suggest Your Site and How to add a site to the Open Directory before submitting.

9. Don't expect quick results. Getting high rankings takes time; there's no getting around that fact. Once your site is added to a search engine or directory, its ranking may start out low and then slowly work its way up the ladder. Some search engines measure "click-through popularity," i.e., the more people that click on a particular site, the higher its ranking will go. Be patient and give your site time to mature.
10. Don't constantly "tweak" your site for better results. It's best not to make changes to your optimization for at least three-to-six months after submission. It often takes the engines at least that long to add your optimized pages to their databases. Submit it, and then forget about it for a while!

If you've followed these tips and still can't find your site in the engines, the first place to "tweak" would be your page copy. If you added less than 250 words of visible text on your pages, this is probably your culprit. Also, double check your keyword 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 and the rest of the search engines!