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1. Optimise every page on your website

The major search engines are not looking at individual websites and ranking them, they are ranking pages from every website in the world. This means that if your website contains more than one page you should optimise for the specific content that is found on each page.

Optimising each webpage is overlooked by so many websites within Ireland and can be the difference between competing for a highly competitive keyword phrase such as "Irish Hotels" and competing for a much less competitive keyword phrase such as "Hotels in County Galway". After that they can check out the rest of your website that is all about "Irish Hotels".

9. Do not think that you can trick Search Engines

As noted before, "If you are doing something that benefits your websites visitors then the search engines will reward you for it".

If you try to trick the search engines by hiding keyword phrases in your pages by making the text colour the same as the background colour, hiding keyword phrases in tiny font, joining link farms, or any other sneaky practice your sites will be removed from the search engines and it will take you a long time to get back in (and you will also have to spend more time cleaning up your website before they will accept you).

10. Offer something unique

If your website offers something that is unique and interesting to your target market and it is properly optimized (by applying all of the techniques that are listed above) you will not only rank well within the major search engines, you will also get the added benefit of people linking to your website in forums, blogs, and through other websites which will send your site more visitors and create more inbound links which will help it rank higher.

While almost anyone can have a web site these days it's much harder to have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall flat. Below I've arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!

Include a detailed About Us page
The About Us page is a good place for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also general information about your company, web site, or you.

It's a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to your Contact Us page. Keep concise and accurate. People want to read about you but they don't want a novel. Add important information on this page and point them to other pages for more in depth coverage.

Include a Contact Us page
Visitors (shoppers, target traffic) need an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax numbers (both local and 800), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all should appear on this page.

To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e. Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration on both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are competent and friendly, being easy to contact is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal.

Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles Page
These pages inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising. Free advertising!

As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant content is the stuff of search engines (well, there's obviously more to it than just content). Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and find new content it ups your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!

A Relevant Page Title
As uninteresting as this may sound your page title holds a lot of weight. If you're unfamiliar with a page title it is the name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If your says something like "Untitled Document" I'm talking to you.

Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in the page title.

Search engines display the title of your page on SERPs. The catchier and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target traffic.

A Relevant Page Name
Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute content, but it's a necessity to get your target traffic to your page to see or read the goods.

It's better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages. You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and clean.

Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence Structure
Everything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it now. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better - people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon sentences that seem to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences can.

Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and offensive language all together - unless that's your selling point. Jargon is different, just don't confuse readers more than necessary.

If you aren't in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. or if you'd rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that's fine. It's a good idea to beg, plead, hire, or force someone else to take care of this part then as ignoring the problem won't make it go away though it may have that effect on site traffic.

Professional Design, Colors, and Images
Design should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as you'd like, create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A search bar for your site is also a good idea.

Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with colors. Use colors to make text pop without being distracting or hard to read.

Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your images can load within a reasonable amount of time, you don't want to lose visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse froze the visitors browser.

Make Sure ALL Links Are Working Links
This should be a no-brainer, however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. Fix any broken links A.S.A.P. Your reputation counts on it.

Think of any site you've been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn't it? You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.

Use Your Log Files
Log files offer a plethora of information on your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn't. You can't afford to miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn't anyway.

Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable documentation. It'll save you time and energy while getting you the information you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior, they will show you broken links, and you'll see where customers flow freely and where they abandon the site. The invaluable information is at your finger tips. Use it!

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates
These can be used on any site asking for sensitive information. Not every web site needs this, however if you plan to collect any visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL pages. Though not every page need be SSL.

Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card information, social security information or any other information visitors may not readily be giving up online should be securely collected via SSL.

I was watching the news on TV the other day and I couldn't help but notice the amount of times the newsreaders and reporters repeated the same things over and over again.

First of all there was the announcement of the main headline accompanied by dramatic music: "Today's main headline: a dramatic event happened today". This was followed by one of the newsreaders telling us again that 'a dramatic event happened today' and then his fellow newsreader telling us that they would be bringing us all the reaction from five different continents to the 'dramatic event that happened today' as well as trying to gauge the 'mood on the street' where the 'actual' dramatic event 'actually' took place.

Then one of the reporters joined in by saying things like: "Yes, that's right, it was here, just behind me, where this dramatic event happened today�" before switching to another reporter who told us that she didn't actually witness the dramatic event that happened just behind where her colleague was standing, but she had been talking to witnesses who did see the dramatic event as it happened.

Five minutes into the programme I was still none the wiser and I was beginning to wonder why I was being treated like a goldfish.

It occurred to me that perhaps the makers of news programmes were actually retired SEO experts who had been in the job for too long. Let me explain.

When I set up my first website I said what I had to say in 50 words. I had a service to sell, I told people how much it was and how they could get in touch with me if they were interested. What else was there to say? But I soon realised from studying SEO that search engines much prefer you to use 250 words even if you can adequately explain what you want to say in 50.

If Content really is King as the search engines will have us believe then the Queen must be struggling to get a word in edgewise.

It's all very well saying that a website should be informative and content-rich but there is a tendency for human beings to talk more and say less. The news I heard on the radio this morning told me more in two minutes than the TV news did in fifteen: purely and simply because it got straight to the point and told me the facts without any waffle.

A website that takes that approach however, is likely to be ranked by the search engine machines (or the 'agents' as I sometimes prefer to call them) as uninformative and content-poor.

People don't have time to wade through page after page of someone babbling on about this, that and the other: they just want to know what is on offer, how much it costs and how they can get their hands on it. Ok, I'm simplifying things a little but you get the picture.

There are many websites on the World Wide Web that have lots of text and are also very informative. Sometimes you need to go into great detail to explain something thoroughly. I accept that. But often it is not necessary and what we have to say can be said in just a few words.

A website that uses only a few words to get it's point across will struggle to gain a good search engine ranking, purely and simply because robots are unable to evaluate the quality and relevance of what is being said in the same way a human can.

Turning a site like this into one that has a good search engine ranking, but without sacrificing any of the aesthetic quality of the site, has become an art form in itself.

Unfortunately many people who don't have much to say and seek that elusive top ten ranking in Google end up repeating themselves endlessly whilst being under the impression that they are in fact increasing the keyword density of their site.

By increasing the amount of times their keywords are repeated, have they really optimised their site? Maybe they have in one sense, but how much has been sacrificed in the process?

If a website reads like a script from the TV News you know that it has more repetition and less optimisation. I know we call it 'search engine optimisation' because we are optimising for the benefit of the search engines, but ultimately it is human beings who use search engines and human beings who will visit your site.

Your site may well be number one in Google but if it is not optimised for human experience then your success will prove to be rather hollow.

SEO: optimisation or repetition? There is a difference.

Most SEO campaigns fall flat on their faces and totally fail to achieve the objectives they were set out to accomplish.

Sadly the list of failures is not just limited to individuals who attempt to carry out their own SEO campaigns. It includes companies and so-called experts who are paid to carry out an SEO campaign for a client and end up totally failing to achieve what they set out to do.

Here are the three most common reasons for failure. By studying and understanding them a webmaster can start their next SEO campaign with better odds because they already understand some of the things that commonly tend to go wrong.

a) Assuming That All Businesses And Industries Are The Same
There is a common belief that if somebody succeeds in the SEO of a certain business in a certain specific industry, they will automatically succeed in any industry and any business.

This has to be the most common reason for failure. Especially where the webmaster hires some affordable SEO expert that has had success in some other niche industry.

The truth is that one business is often very different from another and quite often the effort required to get a certain web site at the top of search engine rankings is very different from the effort required to get another different site to the same level. Different categories have different levels of competition. There are certain categories where the competition is so stiff and the number of competing web sites so numerous that it is virtually impossible to carry out any successful SEO campaign without adjusting the focus and niche target market of that particular enterprise.

The temptation is just too big to hand over your web site to some "SEO expert" and expect them to work some SEO magic with no input from you. You should resist that temptation because the chances of such an arrangement working are really so slim that the odds are heavily stacked against you succeeding.

b) A Failure To Decide What Particular Niche To Focus On
Many webmasters tend to forget that they are competing in the world market and that the only way they can ever hope to be successful is by carefully selecting some narrow niche that the others have ignored but which they are very well suited to covering.

There is no way that you can be all things to all people, and especially not in a fiercely competitive world market. This correct focus on a narrow niche is what will quite often make or break an SEO effort. If you opt to hire some expert, they will usually be anxious to get your business and will hardly spend any time studying your industry prior to your committing yourself to their services. And by the time you commit there is no turning back, whatever the difficulties that they encounter.

You do not expect some SEO expert to learn all the knowledge you have accumulated over many years' involvement in a certain industry in just a few days. And that is precisely where the problem starts. There is no way that a successful SEO campaign can be executed without adequate information.

A webmaster who carries out their own SEO campaign is also doomed to failure if they have not decided on what niche to focus their efforts on.

c) A Failure To Closely And Constantly Monitor Keyword Popularity
There is no way of avoiding the appropriate keyword phrases for your site in any successful SEO campaign. The big mistake many webmasters or blog owners make is to do their keyword research once and then forget all about it. Keyword phrases are changing in popularity all the time with some reducing in polarity while others increase in leaps and bounds. There is no way you can possibly stay informed without constantly and regularly monitoring keyword popularity.

Even more important you will not be able to come across the new keyword phrase opportunities that emerge all the time.

If you decide to hire some SEO expert, they will start from a position of weakness if they are not aware of what has transpired over the last few months and even years concerning popular keyword phrases. How will they be able to accurately judge on the best direction to take in their campaign?

Conclusion
You will have realized that SEO campaigns are very intimate affairs that require lots of information and research over a long period of time to be highly successful. And even if you are bringing some expert onboard to carry out your SEO campaign for you, it is absolutely important that they have enough information to start with. Both from their previous experiences that you should know about and analyze and ask questions about before you reveal anything about the subject matter of your web site. You too should be gathering as much information as possible, all the time.

I've noticed that most SEO articles focus on what to do after you launch your site. Those that do deal with preparing your site for launch usually discuss on-site SEO like keyword research and meta tags. What tends to be neglected is the advantage that you can gain by getting your site indexed before you launch. With a little planning and a few hours of work it's easy to be indexed by Google, Yahoo, and MSN before your site goes live.

The key to getting your site indexed in the big three is getting links pointing to it from sites that are already indexed. When the search bots crawl those sites they will inevitably find the link to your site and your site will be added to their index. Follow these five steps a month before you launch and you'll be a step ahead of the game.

1. Register your domain name.
You'd be surprised how many people wait until the last minute to do this. The sooner you register your domain, the sooner you can get some quality links pointing to it and get it indexed.

2. Put up a home page.
Make a "coming soon" page with your logo, information about your site, and expected launch date. You can also add a form for people to sign up for email updates about your site. This starts building your email marketing list before you even launch.

3. Start a blog and sign up for Feedburner.
Put up a blog at www.yoursite.com/blog. It doesn't matter if you use WordPress, Blogger, or whatever blog platform you prefer, just make sure you host it on your site. Make a few posts about your site, what people can expect when it launches, and why your site will be unique. After your first post, sign up for a Feedburner account. Under 'Publicize' in your account make sure to sign up for 'Ping Shot'. This will notify blogging directories of your posts which hopefully will result in a few links to your site.

4. Write a few articles and submit to directories.
Regardless of what your site is about, there is certainly a topic relating to your site that you could write an article about. For example, if your site is going to sell fitness equipment, you could write an article about how to build a home-gym. Or if you are going to rate and review new cars, you could write an article about how to shop for a new car. After you've written and proofread your articles, submit them to article directories like Ezine Articles and iSnare. Be sure to include a description of your new site and a link back to it in the resource box. Again, this should result in a few links to your site.

5. Get a link from an indexed site.
Steps 3 and 4 should result in some links from indexed sites which should then ensure your site to be indexed. But it can't hurt to get a few more on your own to be certain. When I launched my last site, I linked to it from my personal blog, which I knew was indexed. If you don't have that option, you can ask someone with a blog or site related to yours to mention it. If you can't find anyone willing to do it for free, you could offer them some free advertising on your site when you launch in exchange for the link.

Getting yourself indexed before you launch gives you a head start on your SEO and will allow your site to have a more immediate impact. Why wait until you launch? Get started a month early and you'll reap the benefits when launch day rolls around.