There are a lot of people out there attempting to build websites today. They’re easy to build, very fun to tinker around with, and a highly-ranked website can also make you a lot of money. There are many benefits that come with a website. However, in order for your site to rank well, you will need to apply these tactics.

When optimizing your site for keyword phrases, rather than single words, pay attention to keyword proximity. It is best if your keywords appear together, rather than being separated by other terms. This method increases the weight given to searches for that phrase, without detracting from searches for the individual terms.

To increase your website or blog traffic, post it in one place (e.g. to your blog or site), then work your social networking sites to build visibility and backlinks to where your content is posted. Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other news feeds are great tools to use that will significantly raise the profile of your pages.

One of the best ways to optimize your website is by getting inbound links. You can get links from the websites of friends and family, you can join online link sharing groups or you can become affiliates with similar websites. Not all backlinks are created equal, so focus on getting quality links from highly rated sites.

If your page is undergoing a search engine optimization makeover, you will probably try to include your keywords more often in your text. However, you must keep your text natural and readable. If the inclusion of keywords interrupts your writing style, it makes the site’s text look unprofessional. Take your time and be creative when you increase the number of keywords in the site’s content.

To ensure that your website is as easy as possible to crawl, keep your site architecture flat. Don’t use too many sub folders, instead use descriptive names for each page. Keep your pages with the most competitive keywords in their names, close to the root folder, so they will gain a higher page rank.

When you are trying to increase traffic you should avoid any kind of flash. Flash might look good on a website, but it does nothing to increase your search optimization. The problem with this is that you cannot link a single page when using flash so try to stay away from it.

Posting content from your web site on article directory sites can be a great way to get exposure and build traffic. When you post on these directories you will be building a link back to your site which can increase the amount of visits you receive. The more directories you use the more links you create.

If you are trying to get your site going and want it to show up at the top of the search results, you need to make sure that you write great unique content. If your content is not unique, you will never rise above other websites that have the same thing.

To rank higher in search results, you should use an index page or a home page that you can link to. Your content is going to vary and be updated: a page might not interest people for very long. You can however rise steadily in search results by referring constantly to the same index page.

Practice SEO style in your written content to enhance your keyword density and repetition. Reference keywords in their full form several times within your page content, but refrain from using the full keywords every time. Search engines still factor in the frequency of keywords within your content, though not as much as in the past. This affects where you land in search engine results pages.

You should link your website to other similar websites if you want to move up the search engine results page. The search engines prefer websites that are connected to other sites and will show preference to those sites. This can be easily accomplished and yield big results that make it worth the effort.

Monitor where you stand with the search engines. It is impossible to tell if your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are working unless you monitor your search standing. There are tools available that will let you know how your page ranks with the major search engines. Monitoring your standing will tell if you need to revamp your page, or keep it like it is.

Viral content is an amazing way to drive traffic to your website! You want people to post links to your site everywhere, and having something that catches on like wildfire is a great way to do it. Make sure you have tools for people to easily share your content, like Add to Any.

When supplying information in your copy, include phrases like “How do I…” or “Where can I find…” in your keywords. People love to write questions into search engines, and you want to supply the answer. You can even use the question as the title of your post, which will rank it high for those keywords.

Use tools to test the popularity of your chosen keywords. Check popular trending sites to see the popularity of your keywords. Keywords with too much competition and high popularity may take a very long time to reward you with traffic.

You can use a sub-domain to hone in on highly specific content within your domain – think ‘finance.yahoo.com’ or ‘health.cnn.com’. You can then use that sub-domain to host all of the content that is dedicated to that particular subject. Using a sub-domain makes the site’s code more efficient, and more visible to search engine spiders.

Unless it is absolutely necessary, keep use of Flash to a minimum, especially when designing page menus. Most search engine algorithms are not capable of accurately indexing Flash objects, which can hurt your site’s rankings. Instead, opt for JavaScript and CMS as you start to design your menus and embed video.

Applying these tactics above will certainly help your website to be found. It’s important to remember, a website that is not focusing on SEO, will ultimately collapse and fall to the back pages. You can avoid this fate by using these tips so get started today so that you can improve your rankings.