Master Search Engine Optimization in 5 Minutes

The details and tweaking that go into search engine optimization (SEO) are infinite, and one can easily spend $10,000 on top tier services. The points below will go a long way toward getting your site indexed and ranked in Google and his lesser brethren. We will call this approach "disciplined echo" - you echo a main phrase throughout your Web page and site in a disciplined manner (as opposed to a machine gun manner). The points below will assume a basic knowledge of the structure of Web pages and most Web site editing programs will facilitate the steps.

1. Choose a phrase that best represents the purpose of your Web page that is somewhere between general and specific. If you are too general, you will be competing with 100 million other sites. If you are too specific, no one will find you. Let's say a Web site deals with bocce ball and strategy in particular. Our phrase will be "bocce ball strategy". Because search engines can read variants on words, we will also use "bocce ball strategies".

2. Use the phrase in the URL by placing the page in a sub-directory of your home page: www.mywebsite.com/bocce_ball_strategy

3. Use the phrase on your home page to form a text link to the target page

3. Write a short meta description for the target page with our main phrase.

4. Use at most 5 different meta keywords with our phrase as the first of the 5.

5. Use the phrase in the page title.

6. Have at least 300 words of content in the main body with our phrase toward the beginning and the end.

7. Strive to place the phrase "naturally" through your content (this is the real art of optimization). Ideally our phrase should represent about 4% of the total content.

8. Some extra tweaks: If you have images on the page, use our phrase as the "ALT" in the first image. When appropriate, display the phrase in a bold or header font.

Are 5 minutes up yet? Perhaps. But following the steps above will give your Web page a strong start in the world of search engine optimization (got to practice what I preach).