There’s not much point to having a website if no one finds it. Your site will need to be near the search engine’s top results to make sure your website reaches more people. You need to understand how the search engines rank different sites. Below, you’ll find tips that will help you improve your rankings with the major search engines.

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.

Taking advantage of the opportunities that SEO presents means taking advantage of the various content directories scattered across the web. These great sites are specifically for submitting articles and reaching the public’s eyes. Having well written and targeted articles submitted to these sites will mean the right people read your article and more potential sales are created.

If you are looking to get a better handle on what keywords and phrases to use in SEO, first you have to know which phrases people actually use. Google maintains an AdWords program that will allow you to do this. You enter specific words and phrases, and AdWords will return how many times people have conducted searches for those specific words and phrases.

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.

When dealing with SEO, it is important to remember to take your time. You can’t expect to see results over night, it will take a while to build your reputation in the eyes of the search engines. Also, Google can tell if you try to artificially create links or rapidly increase your traffic and will penalize your site.

In order for search engine robots to crawl your website easily it is important that you use flash sparingly. Do not use it when making menus or for adding text. The best way to use flash is for videos, sound and animation. While search engines can index flash, it is not done very efficiently and this is a lost opportunity for you. The easier the robots can crawl your site, the better the result will be.

Make sure to submit your site to search engines for ranking after you go to the effort of optimizing it. The search engine can’t rank something it doesn’t know about. All of that effort will be wasted if the search engine doesn’t know your site exists. Most search engines today use spiders, but submitting the site yourself will speed up the ranking process.

If a website contains images, it is important to optimize the site by including descriptive ‘alt’ tags in each image link. These will be displayed in place of an image if the image can’t be displayed. The point here is that the search engines pay attention to alt tags, so if you have keywords sprinkled into your alt tags, search engines will take them into account.

Add a site map to your site. By putting a site map on your site, which a page listing that links to all the main pages on your site, it will make it easier for the search engine spiders to search through your site. It is best to require fewer clicks to get to a page on your website.

When your main objective is to generate visits and external site traffic through links on other sites, quality will always win out over quantity. In the long run, one link from a credible, well-respected, and authoritative site will always trump a dozen site links from sketchy, irrelevant, or highly outdated sites.

If you are selecting a company or professional to help you with your SEO efforts, don’t accept any unsolicited offers, especially through email. Unsolicited email offers for help with your search engine optimization is more likely to be a scam than any legitimate company. Just like in the off-line world, businesses advertise for you to go to them and not the other way around.

ALWAYS include alt and title tags on images and links! You can use keywords in these tags, but make sure that the keywords you use truly apply to the image or the site being linked to. Also, don’t use the same keywords on all the images or links – mix them up so they’re used 2-3 times each.

Make sure that the sites you link to are of high quality. Search engines judge you not only on your inbound links, but also on your outbound links. If you’re linking to spam sites, or sites that are considered less than page rank worthy, it could drag your rank down with it.

Don’t use a splash page. Some people say “Oh, if you HAVE to use one…” – but there is absolutely NO reason to use a splash page. They are a waste of band width! Fill your front page with informative content on who you are; what you do; links to the rest of your website; and simple navigation.

If you plan on putting out a press release, make sure it’s as keyword optimized as the rest of your site is. Make sure to use anchor text and links to your website within the text as it may be re-posted elsewhere, increasing the number if incoming links. Don’t bother adding it to a site like PRWeb unless your press release is really newsworthy.

If you want your site to succeed online, you need to use SEO techniques. With these tips, you’re now armed to take a look at your website with a fresh eye, and make improvements and changes as necessary. You will enjoy better results, increased visibility, and success.