Maximizing your search engine optimization efforts incorporate a variety of different things. Luckily, this article provides numerous resources and helpful tips that will allow you to tailor your efforts into being more effective when you are planning and implementing your search engine optimization related efforts, in order to be more productive and effective.

Search engine optimization is perhaps one of the greatest marketing tools to come about online, but without proper article submissions it won’t work out to your liking. That is why it’s imperative to search and find the best article directories to submit your hard earned work and watch the numbers start to add up.

Even saved images and video files on your server can present an opportunity to increase in the rankings, so be sure that you’re always saving files with keywords. For example: If you have an image on your site dealing with weight loss, like a before-and-after photo, make sure you include a relevant keyword in the title when you save the image.

To learn SEO, the best place you can go is to blogs and forums and read advice from real people just like you, who have built their businesses from the ground up. Those so-called gurus of the game are all trying to sell you something, so you should avoid those guys. Stick with people who started out just like you. That’s where you’ll find the best advice.

Although there are many search engines out there, you should focus on the big three and leave the rest alone, to start. Google, Yahoo and Bing are the big boys on the block, with Google controlling the lion’s share of the market. So when optimizing your site, stick to the types of things a search engine like Google appreciates. There’s no sense in optimizing for Ask or MSN, when there’s really no money there.

Check your bounce rate and lower it as much as possible. Your bounce rate is how quickly someone clicks into your site and then leaves. Search engines interpret a high bounce rate as a signal that your website was not helpful when searching on that keyword. This damages your standing in the SERPS.

Providing transcripts for any media content on your site will make it more accessible and make it visible to search engines. Providing a transcript not only helps viewers that don’t have the right browser plugins for your audio/video; it also provides you more content for the search engines to rank as relevant. This can get you higher in search results.

To garner higher search rankings for your site, understand the benefits and uses of social media and use these free sites to get noticed. Most of them are free to use, such as Twitter, Facebook or even the online review sites. Social networking sites and groups often have a specific focus and niche. You should become active on least a few that your business relates to, and use them as a platform to introduce people to your products.

Look through old emails and comment boards to find ideas for new posts. Turn every question you ever answered in an email into content on the site. Remember that the way to increase search engine rankings is to constantly create new articles. Your emails probably provide plenty of topics that readers want to know about.

Use outside resources to track your rank. This may seem like a simple thing to do on your own, but your rankings on the search engines change constantly. Using an outside resource usually means they will keep track of your rankings for a few hours or days, and report back to you where your average sits.

Make sure to use keywords in your URL. You can either include them in your domain name, but if you do not wish to change the name of your site, you can also use keywords the directory path, or in the file names if you offer material that can be downloaded.

Search Engines assign a higher value to text in headline tags, so make sure to use them well and to place your keywords in them. This will make your site more likely to appear in a search for those particular keywords. You can also place your secondary keywords in the headline tag for maximum effect.

Pay close attention to where you are placing keywords. They should be spread out throughout you entire site including the title, content and the URLs, as well as the image names. Think about how someone would go about searching for what you are offering and include the words that you come up with on your site.

Create a series of email auto-responders for customers who sign up for your mailing list. Offer a tip a day or a relevant series of articles and have them set to go over a set amount of time. Include both content and a sales pitch in your emails to help convert potential prospects into paying customers.

Once your website is Search Engine Optimized (SEO), you also need to work on your off-site SEO. Maximize the number of good websites (not pages of links, or “spam” websites) linking to your website from content-rich pages. The better the site which is linking to you, the more “link juice” you will receive in return, boosting your Google Page Rank.

Search engines display your site in their returns by reproducing your web page’s title tag. One way to make your tag stand out in the search engine returns is to precede the text and follow it with a symbol. This has the effect of catching the searchers eye and drawing it to your listing.

A very shallow directory structure can easily improve your site’s ranking on the results pages of major search engines. A shallow directory structure is one that contains only the bare minimum number of sub-folders. Sub-folders decrease the site’s efficiency and make it more difficult to search engine spiders to accurately assess your site’s relevancy score.

As was mentioned in the beginning of this article, search engine optimization strategies incorporate a variety of different things. But, if you can apply the tips and information that are outlined above in this article, you will be on your way to being more effective and productive with your search engine optimization strategies.