Every business with a website should make search engine optimization -- trying to get your site as high up as possible on Google and Bing search-results pages -- a part of their growth strategy. At it’s most basic, “SEO” means finding ways to increase your site's appearance in Web visitors' search results. This generally means more traffic to your site. While intense SEO can involve complex site restructuring with a firm (or consultant) that specializes in this area, there are a few simple steps you can take yourself to increase your search engine ranking. All it requires is a little effort, and some re-thinking of how you approach content on your site. Here are six basic SEO tips to get your business started.

Monitor where you stand


You won't know if your SEO efforts are working unless you monitor your search standings. MarketingvVox suggests that you keep an eye on your page rank with tools like Alexa and the Google toolbar. 

It's also important to check your referrer log regularly to track where your visitors are coming from and the search terms they're using to find your site, according to PC World.

Keywords, keywords, keywords

You should be conscious of placing appropriate keywords throughout every aspect of your site: your titles, content, URLs, and image names. Think about your keywords as search terms -- how would someone looking for information on this topic search for it?

 The title tag and page header are the two most important spots to put keywords, PC World notes.

 Beware: Putting ridiculous amounts of keywords on your site will get you labeled as a spammer, and search engine spiders are programmed to ignore sites guilty of "keyword-stuffing." Be strategic in your keyword use.

Link back to yourself


There is probably no more basic strategy for SEO than the integration of internal links into your site -- it is an easy way to boost traffic to individual pages, SEO Consult says.

You should make it standard to link back to your archives frequently when creating new content. MarketingVox advises that you also make the anchor text search-engine-friendly: "The more relevant words point to a page, the more likely that page is to appear in search results when users run a query with those terms."

As with all other SEO approaches be sure your links are appropriate, and be careful not to cross the line into excessive linking -- you don't want your visitors to get annoyed.

Create a sitemap


Adding a site map -- a page listing and linking to all the other major pages on your site -- makes it easier for spiders to search your site.

"The fewer clicks necessary to get to a page on your website, the better," advises MarketingVox.

Search-friendly URLs


Make your URLs more search-engine-friendly by naming them with clear keywords.

 SEO Consult explains: "For instance, it's easy to understand what ‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/puppyhealth/vitamins’ would contain. It’s less easy to understand if the in-house classification system of the business is used, for example ‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/11789/s201.htm’. A dynamic URL is similarly off-putting, even if it contains recognizable words: ‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/search/?s=” health”’.

Avoid Flash


Flash might look pretty, but it does nothing for your SEO. According to the Search Engine Journal, "Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem -- you can't link to a single page [...]. Don't use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results." 

"If you absolutely must have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.”

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