Lets say you sell computers and all types of different types of brands. You would be tempted to do something like this.

Laptop Computers ( main header)

dell laptop computers

sony laptop computers

apple laptop computers

hewlitt packard laptop computers

acer laptop computers

lenovo laptop computers

Do not do this. Although you are using the keywords in the navigation it gets really hard to follow. A better layout would be to just use the manufacturers.

Laptop Computers

dell

sony

apple

hewlitt packard

acer

lenovo

This provides a more easy to use navigation. Remember to use the navigation tabs for the users, not for the search engine spiders.

On your Laptop Computers main page where you have all of the items is where you would include your keywords

For Example:

Laptop Computers

Dell Laptop Computers    Sony Laptop Computers    Apple Laptop Computers

Picture                                Picture                                Picture

Hewlitt Packard Laptop Computers  Acer Laptop Computers  Lenovo Laptop Computers

Picture                                              Picture                            Picture

This is where you can hyperlink your targeted keywords to their individual pages. So all of the blank laptop computers would be hyperlinked thus giving you your seo.

Here are some things to keep in mind when thinking of words to target for your business in the search engines.

1. What does your product do?

2. What are your important features?

3. What are your characteristics?

4. What problems do you solve?

5. What are words that describe your business?

6. What are words that customers use to describe your business?

7. Do not use misspellings, search engines correct these now.

8. Have you received awards? Best something

All of these are things to jog the memory banks to see all the different types of words and phrases that describe your business. When building a list of keywords you want to just write down everything that comes to mind.

In the brainstorming session let your mind go so you can have a good list. As you use keyword tools you can use the use synonyms tool as it will also pull back more related words that you otherwise would not have thought of. This will help you build a preliminary list.

After you find these words you can then add modifiers to increase your keyword list. Modifiers would be like best, reviews, purchase, and buy would all be words that you can use to increase your keyword list.

The most important thing to remember is that it will be easier to rank in the beginning with what is called lont tail keywords and this means that the keyword phrase is made up of 3,4,5,6 or more words. People are starting to be smarter as they search for information and therefore are generally typing in more words to find exactly what they want.

Also remember that you will not have as much competition for the longer keyword phrases and the traffic is much more targeted as they are looking for exactly what they typed in. This is not as much the case with 1 or 2 keyword phrases.

Use all of these tips to increase your ranking power in the search engines.

The average website page that ranks in the top 10 listings or on page 1 in the search engine results pages has an average of 400 words on it. Search engines cannot see images and so it is common sense that what they can see they want more of it, which is text.

Valuable content that is relevant to the subject or topic will be more useful to visitors and seach engines. The average size of a website that ranks in the top 10 results on a search engine has 100 pages or more.

On average the top 10 search results have:

1. At least 400 words on the page

2. Website is 100 pages or more

With this said it is becoming more apparent that the more information you can give to a visitor and walk them through the information in a easy way the more the search engines like that. Search engines are out to provide the best information on the web to the internet users.

The better you can provide information on a particular subject the better your website will rank. With the ease of blogs and content management systems, it is much easier to add content on a regular basis. Plus with the addition of using audio and video on your website this also proves a much more effective way to relay valuable information.

When trying to rank on page 1 of the search results put yourself in Google’s position. As you look at the websites that are in the top positions in the search engines ask yourself why.

Why would this page show up in the top position for this word or phrase over the others.

Is it because their is more useful information? Are there more words? Is it because the website has a ton of pages of content? If you were Google who would you rather rank well for your visitors? The answer is obvious, you would rather show the pages that are the most useful with more content explaining or showing what the term is.

Whether that content be in text form, audio form, video form or any other form the search engines love those who are looking out for the visitors. This is who Google is looking out for and if you do the same then you will be alright.

Google is out to provide the best information on the web, not make websites successful. This is a very important thing to remember. So in a sense would your site be successful if Google or other search engines did not exist.

BIGGER is BETTER when it comes to websites and how much information they have on them. The more information a website has the more pages it can have indexed in the search engines and the more ways people can find you.

Plus the more information and content the more reasons to give a visitor to bookmark your page and hopefully social bookmark it.

Common sense says the bigger something is the more it had to grow and that is true when it comes to businesses and businesses online.

1. Browse Keywords

2. Compare Keywords

3. Buy Keywords

Browse keywords are words that people use to gather information in a broad manner. Many big companies will be listed under browse keywords as they constantly increase their branding. Browse keywords are generally only 1 word.

Browse Keywords:

shoes, bikes, hoses, camcorder, mountains, computers, jeans, etc.

Compare keywords are a little more specific and start going into more words. Searchers who are comparing products are generally still looking for the certain types of products within the main category. Compare keywords will be longer than 1 word. All of these type of keywords are used when people are trying to find the best product for them. This is like going from store to store comparing products in brick and mortar stores.

Compare Keywords:

basketball shoes, lowcut basketball shoes, nike basketball shoes, reebok basketball shoes, samsung digital camcorders, hd camcorders under $500, laptop computers with webcam, laptop computer reviews, dell laptop computer reviews

Buy keywords are very specific and generally have many words to be more descriptive. When someone knows what they want they generally will type it exactly with model numbers or brand name. Many of these keywords will have words that will help them make the purchase like: purchase, best price, low cost, buy, etc. As you can see the keywords are made up of longer phrases. These are called long tail keywords and are easier to rank well for as their is less competition.

Buy Keywords:

buy sony hd camcorder, purchase dell inspiron E1505, panasonic camcorder sale, low cost nike shoes, reebok basketball shoe coupon

As you are building your keyword list remember that you want to be listed under the specific terms that describe your business and exactly what you sell. The more places you are listed the better the conversions.

Remember it is better to be listed in many long tail keywords that are specific to your company than to have only one listing that ranks well for a browse keyword.

We have all seen these types of websites everyday. So today I am going to cover one of the major things that search engines look at and that is the size of a website. Pretend you are a search engine and you see a website that has only 30 pages and they have been up for a while.

Instantly your first thought is there are not very many pages so there must not be much information right. Common sense goes a long way in this situation. Now lets say you as a search engine see another site about the same thing that has 400 pages. Instantly as you read this common sense tells you that the website that has 400 pages has more information.

Search engines can easily see this. However all of the information must surround the relative information and be relevant throughout the site. If you have a site that talks about trucks, carpet, and clothing then that is not as tightly focused as having 400 pages that surrounds the concept of trucks.

Having tightly focused pages that go together will provide a user more information. One page talking about tires, one on paint, one on show trucks, one on 4×4 trucks will be a tightly focused website. If you have a 400 page website that talks about trucks and anything having to do with trucks then it will be a lot easier to rank higher than a another website that talks about trucks that is only 30 pages.

This might seem like common sense but you would be surprised how many people think that they can compete with huge websites and only have a few pages of information. In search engine optimization the size of a website is a factor worth looking at. Plus adding and growing content to a website also provides more ways for users to find you and more pages for the search engine to put into their index.

So as you are building your website you should keep in mind that you have to have information of value to be the authority for your keyword in the search engine results. In the search engines size does matter.

When launching any website it is best to always list your website with Yahoo’s directory. It costs $299 a year but is worth it. The search engines do take into consideration if a website is listed in the Yahoo Directory. This directory is one of the oldest directories around.

Although some say it is not to valuable when it comes to search engine optimization, the search engines can tell if a website is listed in the Yahoo directory and also know that it cost $299 a year. Most spam companies and fly by night companies will not want to pay $299 a year and the search engines know that. So being listed in the Yahoo directory is important as it shows the search engines your company is here to stay.

Another directory that you should also list in is the DMOZ directory. This is Google’s open source directory. This directory is free and also like Yahoo as it is edited by humans. It may take a while to be listed in the directory so it is important to get listed as soon as you launch your site.

When submitting to both of these directories it is very important to write an effective description about your website. They do not like verbage that looks like an advertisement. It is also critical to get listed in the proper category so search for the most appropriate section.

Other directories to submit to are topical or niche directories. Directory Critic is a good place to go and find good directories. I would submit to all of their best free directories. Then I would submit to directories that are related to your field.

There are several ways to do this. It seems that now days everyone has a list of directories. Searching Directory Critic is a very good place to start. Then you can go to the search engines and type in your keyword followed by directories. So for example if we are targeting swimming pools then I would type swimming pool directories in the search engine.

This will pull back and show all of the directories that are related to swimming pools. This will also act as a qualifier as the search engine is doing the qualifying for you and presenting to you what it feels is the best.

When submitting to directories you will want to use a variety of your keywords for the title and a variation of descriptions. This will look more natural to the search engines. Also you will want to submit to the directories over time and not all in one shot. Constant steady growth is better than one shotgun blast.

There are several pieces of software that can help with this process like Submit Eaze, Directory Maximizer, Submit 2 Please, Directory Submitter and more. You can do your own research to see which one would be the best and easiest for you. Good luck with your submissions.

Each time a website has information that is added to it the website as a whole gains strength in compounding nature. When a fisherman is out casting his nets into the water they strategically move the boats around so they can place their large nets in a way to be able to catch the most fish.

Thus it is important for fishermen to have more net to be able to throw out into the water. The more net they can throw out the more successful they are.

The same goes for building your online presence. If you have very little information or in other words a very small net then there is not as much for an internet user, or in this case the fish. There are only so many things the visitor can read, listen, or watch and more importantly link to.

So having more information gives an internet user more options to stay on your site and hopefully link to. Plus with more information the longer a visitor will stay on the site decreasing the bounce rate. The bounce rate is higher when a visitor comes to a website and hurries and leaves.

The more articles, videos, or audio’s that are on a site the more the user can link to. So writing content on your website increases your net that you can cast out on the internet. The bigger your net the more fish or internet users you can catch.

It is very important to build links to a website in search engine optimization, but it is even easier to build links to a website that has a lot of information. This allows deep linking into the website instead of just the home page and a couple of other pages.

Building your websites content also allows for stronger internal linking which will grow and enhance the pagerank of a website. As you add more content it also allows you the opportunity to add your targeted keywords increasing the relevance and theme of the website.

To get people to link to your website naturally is the ultimate goal. People link to other websites because they feel that website is fulfilling a certain purpose. In order to get someone to naturally link to you it is best to provide them some type of link target.

Link targets are things you know people will want to link to. Here are some different examples:

Mortgage calculator - this is a tool that provides a real service and a link target.

Software - any type of software that they can download is a link target.

Tips and tricks - Tips for any industry are great things people like to link to.

Free tools - People love to use different marketing and other tools. These are great link targets.

Strategies - strategies ensure secret type of information and people love to feel they are getting inside        information.

Quality information - Above all your site has to have good information and not the same old stuff that is on your competitor’s websites.

These are some different examples of what people like to link to because they provide some type of information or value that is worth repeating visits. As you build your website think of certain link targets that internet users would like to link to on your site.

If you feel their is nothing to link to or does not give off that compelling “you need to link to me because I give great value” feel then it will be best to put some link targets into your website.

Think of the different sites online that people link to. YouTube, MySpace, Amazon, Craigslist, Ebay, SeoBook, Facebook, Vegas Web Design and Overstock are all great examples of providing great value that people will want to continue to return to the site.

Overall your site must provide value. So look at your website and think what are my link targets. You may not have any or you may want to add more.

How do websites gain this authority? First and most important is the site structure. The most important thing in search engine optimization is good content organization. It is vital for a spider to be able to easily navigate and find information on a website.

Most websites will never need to go four levels deep. First tier navigation which is the home page should easily direct to the second tier pages or also called roadmap pages. These pages will have the bulk of information,

The third tier will mostly comprise of product description pages with price, pictures, and to check out. Using your keywords effectively within this navigation making it clear for users and spiders to find information will improve the authority and trust of this website.

Clear navigation and content organization will help the website authority. These type of websites can do very well when they add a new page and will rank very well in the search engines. This is a sign that the search engines trust what this website has to say.

Another sign of website authority is getting double listed in the search engine results pages. This happens when you see an indented result. This means that the website has two pages that are ranking for that keyword phrase. This is a strong sign of authority.

The addition of continuing related content will dramatically a websites authority. The more that website can show that they know what they are talking about the more the search engines will treat it like the expert in the field. Old stagnet information will decrease a websites authority.

Off page factors are also helpful like inbound links and of course traffic. The more traffic a site gets the more of an authority it looks like to the search engines.

The inbound links to a webpage are like votes. Google is the first search engine to define how popular a webpage was. They created a ranking system from 0-10 showing how popular a page was. The higher the number the more importance that Google was giving to that page.

This was a system that they created to mathematically determine how important a webpage was. The thought here is that the more people link to a webpage the more popular that webpage must be. So Google created a way to determine how important those people were who were linking to that page as well. It is because of this sophisticated algorithm that has made Google the number one search engine in the world.

So the question is how do I increase the PageRank of my website. The answer is to improve the number and quality of the inbound links pointing to a webpage. Normally a homepage of a website will have a higher PageRank and the subpages have lower PageRank as they go deeper from the root.

This is generally because on the homepage of a website is the links to all of the pages on the site. This will make that page only one level deep from the root.The less a visitor and search engine has to travel from the root the higher the PageRank for that page.

As you can see if you want a higher PageRank then it will take more inbound links from a lower PageRank site to receive a higher ranking and less from a higher PageRank site to receive a higher PageRank. This is why it is not only the quantity of the inbound links, but the quality also of the inbound links.

So when trying to increase the PageRank of a website then you need to increase the inbound links by having good quality and relevant inbound links. Here is a table showing the inbound links to a webpage and the PageRank of that webpage that is providing the inbound link.