There is so much information out there about optimising a site for the search engines that sometimes, you can’t see the wood for the trees. And a lot of it is in the form of Top Ten lists (unimaginative linkbait), so here’s mine:

1. Optimise your site as much as possible without spamming (it’s the only thing you have complete control over)
2. Build links to your site.
3. Build links to your site.
4. Build links to your site.
5. Build links to your site.
6. Build links to your site.
7. Build links to your site.
8. …you get the idea.

Search engines have to be able to understand and read the HTML of web pages so they can rank them in the SERPs and match them against search phrases. If the code includes errors, the search engines might not be able to read the page and all that well crafted content and link building can go to waste.

This is particularly important for dynamic database driven sites like blogs and directories, where the same error can be repeated on hundreds of pages.

These days the search engines are can deal with quite a few validation errors, but is it worth the risk? The code of his web pages is one thing a webmaster has complete control over, so it is worth making sure they are error free and as well optimised as possible.

The W3C HTML Validator is the place to go to check a page. Popular HTML editors such as Dreamweaver usually have built in validation tools and you can also find some good add-ons for FireFox that do the job.

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This saving is also available on Blog directory submissions, sponsorship ads and blog advertising.

With Stirling so strong against the dollar, it’s a great time to buy if you’re from the UK.

Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink, e.g. this text. Search engine spiders use the anchor text to determine what the page it is linking to is about.

So, it is very important that this text is relevant to where it is pointing, for example:

• click here for SEO page - BAD
• free SEO information - GOOD.

Remember keywords and phrases? Well, if they are included in the anchor text for a link, then that tells the search engines that the page the link is pointing to is relevant to the key phrase. Put simply, the more of these ‘relevant’ links you have pointing to your site, the higher your site will rank for that key phrase.

The anchor text of the internal links in your site are equally important for exactly the same reasons.

Once you have designed and optimised your site you need to check how it is ranking in the search engines and how much traffic you are getting to your site. Depending on how your site is doing, you may then need to change your pages slightly.

You can check your ranking manually by typing your keywords into the search engines and seeing where your site appears, or you can be more analytical and use SEO software to track your ranking over time. This software automates the process of checking your rankings and means you can check for many keywords on several different search engines at the same time.

There is also another Digital Point online tool you can use, their keyword tracker.

You should also be able to check the statistics for your website to see how many visitors it has and the search phrases they have used to find your site.

Monitoring and analysing your rankings, and the amount of traffic to your site, are very important aspects of SEO. You need to make sure what you are doing is working - but don’t expect overnight results. Over time, you should see a steady increase in your ranking for the keywords you are targeting and a resulting increase in traffic.

Also remember that your competitors are going to be working on their websites, trying to improve their search engine positions, so even if you achieve a high ranking, the SEO work doesn’t stop there. You need to continually monitor your site, build links and add content so you can maintain a top position.