In the internet world, you’re nobody if people don’t visit your site. If people aren’t finding your site when they do their internet searches, it’s like you never even bothered to make a website at all. One way to avoid that trap is by using SEO, or search engine optimization. Here are a few ways to apply SEO to your site.

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.

Consider search engine optimization as a way to enhance your internet advertising. Search engine optimization allows you to take advantage of keyword searches on websites like Google, bringing your page closer to the top of the results for targeted content. This way, you’ll reach broader audiences and maximize your advertising expenditures.

Using flash files is not a good idea for search engine optimization. Be aware of using flash as it can be very slow to load, and users will get frustrated. In addition, search engine spiders will not read keywords that are found in flash files.

A great way to optimize your search engine is to provide use internal links. This means you have an easy access to links within your own site. This provides an easier database for customers of viewers to use and will end up boosting the amount of traffic you have.

Many companies offer search engine optimization services but in order to find the one that is right for your business, you have to do some research. Contact the company and ask them questions about their experience, the strategies they employ and the risks that are involved. Then conduct your own research on the business by checking with the Better Business Bureau and seeing what information you can find about them online.

It is vital to show your customers that you are not just in it for the business. To do this, you can follow certain customers on Twitter to show that your relationship branches further than just a business to business connection. This will improve their loyalty to your company and increase your sales over time.

Use keywords naturally. Many article marketers want to stuff their articles with as many keywords as they can because they are trying to get the search engines to “see” their article, but the truth is this: people have to read articles too. If you use keywords in your article, be natural and conversational so that people keep reading it.

To optimize search engine performance a website should not be designed to rely on JavaScript. While Java is very common and can add lots of functionality to a site, it simply cannot be indexed as effectively as raw HTML. There are also some visitors that will not turn on Java when they visit a site for the first time. A good website remains functional even if JavaScript is disabled.

Find free tools to help you submit. Several websites offer automated submission tools, that help you submit to up to hundreds of article directory sites in a short amount of time. Search very hard to find the free tools that do this. Most sites charge a fee for this task, but if you are lucky you will find those that do not.

One key component of proper search engine optimization is to create a sitemap that contains links to every page of your website. This allows search engine spiders to easily navigate your site, often resulting in more of your pages getting indexed. Not only that, but a well designed sitemap can help your visitors quickly find the information that they need.

Analyze your website’s traffic to see if visitors tend to arrive on a sub-page with any frequency. Popular sub-pages should be tweaked to work as alternative gateways to the rest of your website. Make sure navigation from the sub-page is easy to find and use, and consider adding a little general introductory information as well.

For every market and searcher demographic, there are certain “negative” keywords that will deter an internet user from clicking on your link from a list of search results. Use your marketing resources and consumer insights to establish which keywords are considered offensive, irrelevant, or otherwise undesirable to your target market.

Keyword research should NEVER end. New competitors will pop up all the time, so check out what they’re using to drive traffic to their site. New items may be added to your website, so include the new keywords on those pages. A new hashtag might start trending that applies to your site, don’t forget to use those, too!

Contact your customers and suppliers for your company to find out if they’ll link back to your website. You can offer them a link in return as a thank you for the favor, and often they’re more than willing to help you out. The worst thing that can happen is that they’ll say no.

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.

Use Flash, frames and AJAX as seldom as possible. These may make a site seem cool and splashy, but for SEO they don’t do much. They can’t link to a single page, and search engine spiders will not crawl them the same as “regular” websites; your beautiful site will languish in the rankings.

Using SEO makes your website more attractive to search engines, which means your site will be higher up in the list results. Make sure that people see your site by implementing as many SEO tips as you can, and the result will be a spike in visitor numbers and maybe more.