On-Page Optimization: The very Heart Of Successful Search Engine Optimization

The Importance of SEO.
The web world is highly competitive, with an ever increasing number of websites. According to Netcraft, there are about 182 Million websites on the web as of October 2008.

Getting a good search engine rank is what every website owner dreams of and many businesses depend on. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. This service focuses totally ensuring that a website or page appears among the top listing on search engine results pages. When a user performs a search using a word or a phrase, the search engine matches relevant results of websites to that word or phrase better known as "keywords".

How does SEO work?
Firstly SEO is “keyword centric.” That means you need to figure out words or phrases, which will be used by your target audience while searching for your products and services. Some thumb rules:
• The more relevant the match between these words and your site as per the search engine, the higher the likely rankings.
• The fewer the number of sites competing for your keywords the greater the chance of your website getting high ranking.
• Selecting the right keywords for each page is the key. Optimize different sections or pages of your website with multiple keywords.
• Geographical location should also be considered while preparing keywords.

What help can you get to decide on key words?
There are several online keyword tools which you can use for determining keywords for your website like "Microsoft Keyword Research Tool", "Keyword suggestion Tool of Word tracker", "Keyword discovery suggestion tool", "Google Ad words Keyword tool" and many more. Examining competitor site analysis is a helpful way to establish SEO strategy.

Ok you have your key words, what next?
Once the keyword list is finalized try to use your keywords in the metatags of your website and place them inside the HTML head tags. Search engines give weight to the usage of keyword in the "title tag". Create unique, short title tag for every page of your website. In the description metatag try to give a brief summary of your webpage but never forget to insert appropriate keyword in your description.

What else does SEO requires?
Some common factors should be kept in mind for making a site SEO friendly. A major emphasis is given by search engine to the content of a website. Always write easy to read unique content and in an organized manner. Structure of a website is an important aspect for search engine ranking. Search engine gives priority to those websites that are logically constructed. Try to use such phrases in your URL which are relevant to your website. Choose descriptive anchor text that will provide the users at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about. All images on your website should have the "alt attributes" which will allow you to specify alternative text for the image.

“Fulfill user needs”: The most important SEO phrase.
Always remember that the ultimate goal of your website is not only to make it SEO friendly but to fulfill the end-users needs. There is no doubt that search engines play a vital role in determining a relevancy of a site but at the same time the main goal of all search engines is to provide their users with quality search oriented results. A truly optimized website will be highly relevant as well as great navigation for targeted audience - that’s what both web spiders as well as humans look for.