Have you recently built a website but cannot figure out why you don't have traffic pouring in? You may be looking around for that proverbial "X" factor to draw visitors to your site. But before you go drop money on the net's equivalent of the magic beans, read these SEO tips first.
To utilize search engine optimization you should make an XML sitemap. Use XML Sitemaps Generator to quickly build a sitemap. You should upload this sitemap at the location of your front page. Once you do this, inform all the major search engines of the location of your sitemap. Watch your traffic take off when you apply XML sitemaps.
To help draw in your target audience online using search engine optimization, try to use synonyms and word with similar meanings, to the topic word or subject you are aiming for. This will allow a broader range of search topics to direct people to your website. Limiting your search engine optimization to only a few specific words, will only restrict the flow of traffic to your website.
When publishing articles to other websites, post them to your own website first. Leave it up for a few days to ensure that the search engines index it, and then post it elsewhere. This will indicate to the spiders that your site is the originator of the content, and that the other sites are just reposting it, giving you the most link credit.
Always include a site map page in your website. A site map page ensures that your site can be crawled by search engine spiders. These spiders then index the pages of your website. Site maps also tell the spider about your site's hierarchy and which pages are the most important.
URL extensions are like differently shaped light bulbs. They all light up a room. In other words, using .html, .htm, or .php will not change how a search engine views your website. You can use whichever extension you choose. There is no distinction, and it has no impact on your ratings.
When using SEO on your website, resist the temptation to include common misspellings of your keywords to increase hits. Most search engines today are smart enough to fix users' mistakes before the search even begins, so traffic will not increase using this method. Instead, your site will appear unprofessional and untrustworthy to visitors.
Make sure that your website is using a template that won't hurt your ranking factor. One example of how that can happen are from too many links on the sidebar. This is particularly important on what is considered the "primary" pages of your website, such as the homepage or main category pages.
Now do you understand why you should avoid those magic beans and snake oil out there? These tips above have just explained to you that earning higher page placement and better overall rankings is about catering to your market and the engine. You don't need magic for this. You only need to use the tips above.