If you have ever really taken the time to think about what goes into building a successful business on the web, perhaps the biggest word standing out in your mind is “traffic.” This is what you need to succeed more than practically anything online, and SEO is how you can make it happen.

Many people still make the mistake of thinking that all they need to do in SEO is to cram as many keywords as possible onto their homepage. Not so. While it is important that your homepage contain some keywords, it’s also critical to make sure you have keywords sprinkled throughout your site, since all pages that link to a homepage ultimately count towards its search ranking.

Just because most search engines will ignore your CSS and JavaScript files, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be optimized to help the search engines out. Leaving these files existing internally will slow the spiders down, because they still have to crawl them, even if they aren’t going to grab them. So remember to maintain these files externally.

Although novice search engine optimizers believe that HTML must be complex and thorough, it’s actually the exact opposite. You should keep your layout as simple as possible. The easier it is for a search engine to index your pages, the higher you will rise in the rankings. Remember, the goal is to optimize your site, not to create a jumbled mess of code.

Make use of inbound, external links to optimize search engine results. Link to people you know and request them to link to you, as well. Make use of other pages by writing good quality comments and in the review section, as well. Encourage others to visit your site. Linking to other sites can result in the traffic you desire and encourage better placement in real-time searches.

Try to get your site mentioned on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and popular blogs. Social media can be a great search engine optimization tool as networks of people can make a website very popular, very quickly. Every time somebody links to your site on a social media site, the chances of your website showing up on the first page of search engine results increase.

Make sure to put lots of keywords throughout your site. The title and the page headers are by far the two most important spots to put these tags. Make sure they are appropriate and fitting to the site, but use lots of descriptive words people might use when trying to find what you have available.

To optimize your page’s search results, bold your keywords at least twice, throughout your web page. Try to keep them as close to the top of the page as possible, but keep your text natural and non-awkward. It is important to include your keywords in the body of your website properly, so that search engines will be able to detect them. The more well-placed your keywords are, the more likely that your page will appear higher in the search results.

You must fully commit yourself to SEO for the long haul, if you want to achieve any positive results. Search engine algorithms are in constant change and what may have worked one day, may no longer be accurate the next. Prepare yourself with different tactics so that you are able to quickly resolve any problems, without fail.

One good way to get people to see your website first on a search engine is to use keywords. The key words should be affiliated with your website or product that you are selling. If you use too many keywords, you will be labeled as a spammer which will hurt your traffic.

If site protocol allows, include one link inside the body of the article that leads to information on your site. Scammers steal articles and often post them without making any changes. With a link leading to you placed inside the article, even stolen articles can be of benefit to you.

Limit the amount of Flash you use on your web site and use HTML for most of the content. The ratio should be about 10 percent Flash to 90 percent HTML. Sites that are very heavy on Flash do not do too well when it comes to SEO.

Keywords are important to search engine optimization, but watch out how many you put. If you put an insane amount of keywords on your site, it will get labeled as spam. Search engine spiders are programmed to ignore sites that are guilty of placing their keywords too frequently on their site. Use good judgement in your keyword use.

For the best search engine performance, make sure that articles you write are fully optimized. This includes tweaking the contents of the author bio information. Almost every article includes a brief statement about the author and a link to his site. For SEO benefits, the link should lead to one of your most popular pages. The author statement should include high-priority keywords.

One best practice in SEO is to use heading tags to place keywords in the heading of the HTML code. Try not to think of headings as being part of the overall appearance or aesthetic aspect of the entire website design; it serves a far more practical purpose. Search engines use headings as a means of classifying and categorizing your site, not as a measure of attractiveness.

When optimizing your site, pay attention to the weight of external links. Being linked from a site with a .edu is better than a .com or other suffix. You can get a link from a .edu site by finding an academic institution or charity that is looking for sponsors, and offer money in exchange for links or ads.

After you’ve read and absorbed these tips on search engine optimization, you are one step closer to making sure your business efforts pay off in a big way. The next step you should take, of course, is to implement these tips and tactics, and turn what you’ve learned into a reality by creating your high-ranking site.