Search engines have quickly developed into the main interfaces through which most internet users find products, services, and information online.

In fact, “just Google it” has become a common phrase in the English language. As a result, it is extremely important for your site to get maximum exposure in search engines.

Search engines want to lead users to the most relevant information that is available online for any given keyword. So focus on the user and ask yourself the question, “Is my page the most relevant page for this keyword online?” If the answer is yes, and you offer the best content for this keyword then you are well on your way.

With these 7 tips we are going to make sure Internet users will find your relevant page for a specific keyword, through the search engines.

1) Optimize your text links.

The anchor text in your text links is one of the MOST important aspects of SEO. It should always include the keywords that you are optimizing for. Here is an example for the keyword phrase “beginner lessons.”

This is bad: Click Here The mistake is that the anchor text says Click here.

Here is a better way: Beginner Lessons

Good! The anchor text is now optimized. All links pointing to this page should have the keyword in the anchor text.

2) Use keyword stemming.

Make sure to include all the variations of the keyword that you are optimizing for. Here is an example of keyword stemming. The keyword “optimization” has variations such as “optimal,” “optimize,” and “optimum.”

If you include all of the keyword stems (similar words) you can help your search engine ranking. Here is a free tool to identify all of the similar words and stems for a given keyword: http://www.usingenglish.com/resources/wordcheck/index.php?word=optimization

3) Optimize image descriptions.

Every image can include a description called the “alt text.” Make sure that the alt text describes the image and includes the relevant keywords where appropriate.

4) Optimize your site structure.

Every “important” page on your site should link to every other “important” page on your site.

5) Only go two levels deep.

Make sure that your site structure is such that pages are only two levels deep (two clicks away from the home page).

This is very important because even if your landing page is deemed to be relevant, the deeper pages are buried in your site the less relevant they are deemed by search engines.

Here is an example of an good site structure that is two levels deep. www.homepage.com

1 page deep. www.homepage.com/products

2 pages deep:www.homepage.com/products/product1

1 page deep: www.homepage.com/services

2 pages deep:www.homepage.com/services/service1

It all has to do with PageRank and the reputation of a site. You want to get backward links that point to your main page to build your PageRank.

However, even if your main page has a high PageRank of say 6 then the pages inside your site don’t all have a PageRank of 6. PageRank is not totally passed along. If a page is one click away from the homepage then it will normally have a PageRank of 5 in this case and if it is 2 clicks away 4, etc. That is why you never want to exceed 2 clicks.

Here is a very bad example that you should avoid.

1 page deep: www.homepage.com/product_categories

2 pages deep: www.homepage.com/products/category1

3 pages deep: www.homepage.com/products/category1/product1

In the above example it looks like it takes 3 clicks to get to “Product1″

1. Home page

2. Products page

3. Product1

That means it is 3 pages deep or away from the home page. In other words, where possible, make sure that all of your pages are no more than two clicks (text links) away from the home page. For a small business that should be very easy to achieve.

6) Add and optimize a sitemap.

Include a link to the sitemap in the footer of your home page. A sitemap contains links to every page of your site. Be sure to optimize all the anchor text links on your sitemap.

7) Add good outbound links.

From your key content pages, include links to the best and most relevant content sites. Linking to related authority sites shows that you are trying to help users find the best content and will help you with SEO.

The only way to get top placement in search engines is to provide very compelling information. Search engines don’t read information like humans do. They follow specific rules.

Follow these rules to rapidly boost your ranking in search engines.

By Bjorn Brands
Bjorn Brands is a successful enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com

Forget the Computer Age or the Internet Age, centuries from now our current time will probably be referred to as the Google Age. This assumption is not exactly a great leap of faith; Google has quickly permeated into mainstream culture to become an underlying factor of everyday life, a tightly woven backdrop to our lives. But never make the mistake of trying to define Google as just a search engine or you will miss the true calling of this little “Backrub”, which was the original name used by its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. Google as we now know it debuted in 1998. The name Google is a twist on the word Googol, a number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeros. After everything is said and done, it will more than likely refer to Google’s net worth - monetary or otherwise.

But forget search engine, for regardless of the founders’ intentions or company’s objectives, Google is and has always been the ultimate marketing machine. A massive marketing machine that is just now gearing up and aiming for more and more lofty heights. These heights seem to increase each day as Google quietly rolls out program after program.

All noble ambitions aside, Google is the perfect marketing machine. Google has no equals, and it is very close to getting a stranglehold on the real power behind all marketing, which is information. Marketing is information. Information is marketing. Great marketing is supplying the right information at the right time. Google more than any other entity on the web or in the world, for that matter, fulfills this criterion at its very core. Google is re-writing the book on how products are marketed.

Google now has over 60% of the search traffic in the U.S., with a staggering 7.3 billion monthly searches. In some countries Google’s search share is 80% or more. (Source: comScore) Those webmasters who have number one keyword listings in all three of the major search engines will know Google is the only game worth playing because it delivers by far the most traffic.

While MSN and Yahoo! are still major players and are listed in the top 5 traffic sites on the web, what most people don’t realize is that (unlike the other two) almost all of Google’s traffic is search traffic. >From a marketing perspective this is extremely important since search traffic can deliver the highest conversions (sales) mainly because it lets you capture the potential customer or client when they are in the right mindset to buy or to perform an action. Obviously the key to successful marketing is finding the buyers and clients for your products and services. Google has forged itself as the ultimate “middleman” as more and more of the world’s business is performed in cyberspace. And as everyone knows the “middleman” can reap huge profits and hold enormous power.

Google, within its Adsense program, now offers CPA or Cost Per Action where marketers can now receive larger returns for displaying Google’s links on their webpages. As any professional marketer will tell you, you can get 10 times the revenue by promoting affiliate products rather than the Adsense code on your sites. But by adding CPA and other affiliate products within the Adsense program, Google has made it more attractive to serious online marketers.

Another step in that same direction is Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, which includes the massive online affiliate marketing network Performics. This means Google can now bring any customer full-circle from initial search to checkout.

This may have dire consequences for large, lucrative third-party affiliate networks like Commission Junction and LinkShare. Online marketing and ecommerce is growing at a blistering rate, and the company that controls the majority of these transactions will wield enormous power. Will make the Medici look like paupers.

Those marketers who have managed to acquire number one listings for their targeted keywords in Google’s organic search are smiling all the way to the bank. Mainly because Google commands enormous trust with the surfing/buying public and this is demonstrated through higher conversion rates. Likewise, those who have mastered the Adsense and Adwords programs will know Google is an excellent source of online income.

Most of the complaints against Google stems from its PageRank system, which is supposed to be Google’s version of online democracy in action, a link is a vote for your page or content. The higher the number of links, the higher your page will be ranked in Google’s index or SERPs - Search Engine Results Pages.

So far Google has played fair, giving even the smallest webmaster the opportunity to capture top Google listings if they produce superior or popular content to the surfer. Some would even argue Google’s recent crackdown on sites offering paid-links can be seen as evening the playing field for the small webmaster or marketer who obviously doesn’t have the economic clout or resources to buy their way to the top of Google’s listings.

Keyword rankings may be the ultimate equalizer and determiner of online wealth. Those who can reach the top positions for their chosen profitable niche keywords will have companies and service providers lining up to do business with them. The fallout can prove extremely lucrative for both parties.

However, few marketers or webmasters forget who is really holding the cards; Google controls all steps along this marketing tunnel with its search listings, Adwords and Adsense programs. The only dark spot on the horizon could be monopoly issues, but Google probably has enough reservoirs of public goodwill and deep enough corporate pockets to squash any claims. As Google’s dominance in the search market becomes greater, Google will have control of all segments of the online marketplace. Why should Google stop there, why not go into Radio, TV… as the Internet gradually mutates into a billion+ interactive TV channel universe (as many believe it will) who do you think will be at control central offering you a nice free remote?

Then there is also Google’s planned broadband 700 MHz bid; one can only speculate on Google’s intentions. But Google must find a way to transmit its information at no cost to its users. Could it mean free wireless Internet for everyone on free Google boxes or gadgets of some form, usable and accessible anywhere in the world? Anything is possible because the stakes are so astronomical and the marketing revenue so vast, Google must get its information seamlessly and instantly to the end user at all costs.

One can only guess at the enormity of the marketing power Google will yield in coming years as the Internet slips out of its teen years. But it won’t be just marketing, the influence of Google on all aspects of our lives will probably grow exponentially and that influence will be huge.

For the true power of Google is only just now beginning to be glimpsed; only as more and more of the Google pieces fall into place will we truly fathom what life will be like in the Google Age. Google’s power, reverence and respect will no doubt be so enormous it may lead some to make comparisons to a higher power that has guided most of the life on this planet so far. Which could also lead one to muse, at least they got the first two letters correct.

By Titus-Hoskins
A former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools or Marketing Tool Guide Copyright 2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

I got into search engine optimization back in 1998. Of course back then SEO was a lot simpler than today. All the tricks like keyword spamming and invisible key phrases worked like a charm. Better still, little tricks like these were acceptable. Not anymore.

In fact, most old-school tricks don’t work today and many can get your pages banned. This is great news for you. Over the next few minutes I’ll show you how to make Google absolutely LOVE your web pages and help you jump to the top!

This is all you need to know… Search engines today place 90% or more of their ranking priorities on content and links. Keywords are still important, but more so in the text of your pages than in any sort of META tags.

Simple, right? It really is. The first step is to find the best keywords and place them just right in your web page text. Next you need to get great inbound links. And finally, you need to monitor your progress closely (and that of your competition.)

Part 1: How to Find the Best Keywords
Google gets more searches than any other search engine so let’s peek into their database. Check out https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in any keyword or phrase you can think of that you believe your target audience is looking for. Not only will it give you tons of data on that and related keywords, it will also provide “Additional Keywords to Consider”, which is a section at the bottom of the page.

BIG TIP: Try to use specific keyword phrases whenever possible. Let’s say you have a web-page dealing with floral delivery. Instead of just the word “flowers”, which has 233,000,000 competing pages on Google, try “send flowers”, which has 1/10th the number of competing pages. Better still, think like people speak (I.E./ I’m sending flowers to my mom.) As it turns out, a lot more people are searching for “sending flowers” than are searching “send flowers” and - here’s the best part - “sending flowers” has less than 1% of the competing web-pages as the search term we started with, “flowers”. Now that’s impressive! You have an advantage over about 99.5% of your competitors with just that single tip.

Now take the top three or four keywords (and keyword phrases) and list them in order from best to second best and so on.

Part 2: How to Develop the Best Possible Content
Content is king! If you take nothing else away from this article, make sure you take this. Producing search engine friendly, optimized real-person content is key to your success. Today’s search engines can read a page just like a human would. And thanks to natural text algorithms, they can easily tell if you are writing your pages for real people or just trying to get better ranking. With this tip, you can do both!

First, call a good friend and describe exactly what you want to tell your web visitors. Now write it down, word for word, as close as you can remember it. If you can record it, that’s even better.

Now go back through your text and fit your top keyword as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible. Now place your number two keyword someplace else toward the beginning of your first paragraph. If possible, try to get your third keyword into the end of your first paragraph or the beginning of the second paragraph.

Repeat this concept using only one of your keywords for each of the next three paragraphs. Try to make it fit naturally toward the beginning sentence or two of each paragraph.

Now do the reverse for the very last paragraph. Put your least important keyword at the top of the paragraph and end with your most important. This shows consistency.

Finally, try not to repeat any keyword more than three or four times per page. Make it flow naturally.

Part 3: How to Get Great Links and Monitor Your Site
Having quality inbound links can account for more than 75% of your search engine optimization success. Getting these links is the crucial step that will get you over the top. Next you need to monitor your progress and your site’s status (how search engines really see it). This will tell you not just where you are - but where you are likely to be. In the old days, we used to do all link work and monitoring by hand - and it took a long time (I averaged about 16 hours per week - per site!) My advice to you is to find a good SEO tool and let it do the work for you. If you get the right product, it’s the best money you’ll ever spend.

I used WebPosition Pro for a couple years but switched to SEO Elite because it has automated linking, which I find to be the most time-consuming aspect of SEO. Both are excellent products for tracking and reporting however.

Number 1 Pick: SEO Elite
Cost = $167 (lifetime free upgrades and no annual fees)
My Results: 121 top 5 rankings on Google in three weeks - Mostly 1’s and 2’s.
Top Features: Finds best link partners; Automates link process; Provides great Site Monitoring
Comments: I bought SEO Elite in 2005 and have used every upgrade - never spending another dime. I retired my other three programs after using this for just three months.

Number 2 Pick: WebPosition
Cost = $389 WebPosition Pro or $149 Standard (plus $99 per year subscription fees for either)
My Results: 44 top 5 rankings in Google in eight weeks - Mostly 3’s and 4’s.
Top Features: Site Monitoring; Great reporting; Site Critic
Comments: I stopped using WebPosition because there were no automated linking capabilities. I did however really like the reporting.

Now you’re ready. Good luck!

By Michael Small
Michael Small is the founder of free SEO (search engine optimization) site SEOpartner.com and author of numerous search engine optimization books and whitepapers including the SEO Notebook.