Last week, we began talking about how you can get your website ranked high in the engines to boost traffic to your site. Let's continue our discussion.

Depending on the engine you're using, you'll need to include your keyword phrase in your <title> tag, headline tags, ALT tags, hidden value tags, comment tags, and the body of the page itself. Visit Search Engine Design Tips for more information.

After you've made these changes and have submitted your website for re-indexing, you need to think carefully about the <title> and META description tags, because those two items are normally what your viewers will see in the search results when looking for your site. Begin both tags with your keyword phrase, and make sure that both are captivating. Visit Compelling Words You Can Use in an Advertising Campaign, as published in InternetDay Newsletter.

InternetDay is an excellent source for information on online marketing and search engine placement. Visit the site for new articles, or sign up to receive their newsletter by email.

A very effective way of getting your website ranked high in the engines is to utilize "bridge" or "doorway" pages. These pages are simply "doors" into the real website, and they're optimized and fine tuned for one or two keyword phrases only. Everything on those pages, in the body of the page itself and in the tags, points to those keywords. For a wonderful article on the use of bridge pages, see What is a Bridge Page or Entry Page?

Another excellent way to learn about web positioning techniques is to visit your competing websites and learn from their success. Check their source code by clicking on View, then Page Source in Netscape, or in Internet Explorer, click on View, then Source. Where did your competitor place his keyword phrase? Did he utilize META tags? Did he utilize frames or tables--both of which can create problems in search engine placement. If nothing makes sense, maybe the website is extremely popular with a lot of links pointing back to it. Website popularity can really boost placement in the rankings, so visit Measuring Link Popularity for more information.

As you probably realize, this only skims the surface in web positioning techniques. If you're interested in more detailed information on how to get your website ranked high in the engines, visit the Academy of Web Specialists.

Back to WebPositioning Part I

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at robinnobles@robinsnest.com.

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