SEO in Brief

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the term given to the process of making your website as visible as possible in the search engines such as Google. We will discuss the various techniques for achieving this aim.

Considered by many good judges to be the most important technique is linking. Not only the quantity but the quality of links is to be considered by any webmaster hoping to optimize their position in the search engines. This is discussed in some detail here.

Although not considered to be as significant as they used to be, keyword tags nevertheless, should not be ignored. Try to include them in your domain name, in the title tags, in the meta description of your site, and in your meta keyword tags. The meta description tags are ignored by many search engines but not all, so it is probably still a good idea to use them. Some search engines actually use them as the description for the search results. Keyword tags are ignored by the majority of search engines as well, but once again not all, so use them, but don't get carried away with the number of keywords else you run the risk of incurring penalties at the hands of the search engines; and certainly don't use irrelevant keywords!

Submit your website to directories such as Yahoo!, the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) and About.com. There are plenty of smaller directories to consider as well. If you are listed on these directories, your search engine ranking will improve.