Step 1: make your web pages accessible

Search engines must be able to access your web pages. If search engines cannot parse your web pages then they will ignore your site and you won't get good rankings. Check the following points to make sure that search engines can access your web pages.

• Your web server must not return an error code when search engine spiders visit your web pages. If your server returns an error code, search engines won't index your site.
  
  Your web server should return a "200 OK" code to search engine spiders. You can check the status code that your web server returns to search engines with IBP's search engine spider simulator.

• You should also check the HTML code of your web pages. While most HTML errors don't cause problems with search engines, some of them can prevent search engines from indexing your site.
  
  The fewer HTML errors your web pages have, the better. You can access a HTML validator in the "Tools" section in IBP.

• The content of your web pages must make sense to search engines. Don't use images or Flash to present the main content of your web pages.
  
  To find out if your web page content contains all the elements that are needed to get a listing in Google's top 10 results, check your web pages with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.

• Your robots.txt file must allow search engines to index your web pages. If you accidentally blocked all bots or all directories of your website (this can happen with a simply typo in the robots.txt file), search engines won't list your website.

Step 2: use a meaningful site and information architecture

A good site architecture shows search engines that your website is more than just a collection of random web pages.

Use folders and logical linking to show search engines which pages of your website are related. Search engines should be able to find out that a group of web pages on your site is related to a certain topic.

Step 3: choose your keywords wisely

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important steps that determines whether your SEO campaign is a success or not.

It's best to focus on longer keywords for search engine optimization. One word keywords are less likely to convert to a sale and they are also much more competitive.

IBP's keyword tools help you to find the keywords that will work best with your site.

Step 4: work on your website content

Web sites that only offer articles and affiliate links that can be found on dozens of other web sites will have a hard time to get good search engine rankings.

Try to create unique and trustworthy content that separates your web site from the others.

Write about things you know. If you're an expert in a special field, write as much as possible about that field to make sure that your web site becomes the best resource for that topic.

Step 5: work on your backlinks

Without good backlinks, it is impossible to get high rankings on major search engines. The links that point to your website have a major impact on the position of your web pages in Google's search results.

Try to get as many links as possible from related web sites. The more targeted the link, the more it will help your search engine rankings.

Search engine optimization can be tricky because a small error in one element can destroy all of your other efforts.

Take a look at the checklists in our free search engine optimization eBook to find out how your web site can get top rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other major search engines.


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