Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of using techniques to help propel a website to the top of the search engine listings for certain keywords or keyword phrases.  These techniques have changed drastically over the years, and its very important to stay on top of the latest techniques.  Tactics that worked remarkably well a couple of years ago are now almost totally ineffective, and some of them may even result in your website being banned from the search engines entirely!

Fortunately, a few tactics are relatively timeless.  These tactics will probably still work just as well five years from now as they do today, and they won’t result in your website being banned, either.

First of all, let’s talk about the title tag.  The title tag is the most important element of a web page as far as SEO goes.  You must put relevant keywords into your title tag if you want to rank well for those keywords.

Don’t stuff keywords into the title tag.  Choose one or two important keywords or phrases, and then work those into your title naturally.  Make sure the title looks good and makes sense, because it is what will appear as clickable text in the search engine listings!

Heading tags are also very important.  Make sure you include your main keyword phrase in H1 tags on each page, but use them sparingly.  The overuse of heading tags can lead to penalties.  I recommend using no more than two heading tags per page, perhaps with your main keyword phrase in an H1 tag and a secondary phrase in an H2 tag.

You probably already know that it’s important to get links to your site from other web pages, but did you know that the text used to link to you is also very important?  It’s called anchor text, and its one thing many search engines put a lot of value on.

Whenever you get links to your site, try to make sure your keywords are used.  You shouldn’t use the exact same phrase for every single link, but use 3-4 variations, or 3-4 different keyword phrases, using your main keyword about half the time, and splitting the rest of the links between your other phrases.

There are many important aspects you should learn, but at long as you have these three crucial elements in place, you’ll already be on your way to a great SEO campaign.