Ranking Higher in Free Search Engine Results

Do you know the popular search engine websites? Search engine websites are those websites you use to find information on a specific topic. Popular search engine websites include: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, Excite and Alta Vista.
Your website should be built in a manner that will prompt Search Engines to find your website to be user friendly. A search engine needs to be able to do the following tasks easily through your website:

Search through your website
Identify your keywords or keywords phrases on your website
Place it in a specific category
Navigate through your website
Discover useful information
Be visually pleasing to the eye

The better job you do of completing these tasks, the more search engine optimized your website will be. Your goal should be to complete all of these tasks effectively.
To understand why you need to complete these tasks you first need to know how Search Engines operate. Search engines are gigantic collections of web sites. These collections are databases which are created automatically through software robots and spiders. The purpose of the software is to hunt down websites and categorize them. The software uses a complex algorithm that ranks websites.
If you want to optimize your website then you need to focus on keywords and keyword phrases. Remember to choose a keyword that is under served online. This lessens your competition. We discussed the importance of keyword selection in Section 2.
Your website should be based around a keyword or keyword phrase. Provide articles, graphics, and advertisements relating to this keyword or phrase. It is important to keep the information up to date and varied. This will improve your website traffic.

Keyword tools of the trade

Are you curious about your competitor’s use of keywords on their website? You can check out what they are doing by using a free tool called the Keyword Density Analyzer. You submit the URL of your competitor and this tool will list the keywords, keyword frequency and much more.
Another great tool is to see where you would end up in Google’s website placement. You can use a tool called Clever Stat. This is a free tool in which you can find out information about specific keywords.

Focus on the “links”

A major factor in building a search engine optimized website is to incorporate optimized links to and from your website. Linking up with websites that have a high Page Ranks (PR) is a key to improving your own page ranking. PR is the system used by Google. Google assigns page rankings to a website on a scale of 1-10. The greater the rank of a linked website the higher your own page will be ranked.
How do you find out the page ranking as determined by Google? You can download this free Google Toolbar. It is a good idea to invest in links that have page rankings of four or greater. Anything less then a page rank of four may not yield the results you desire.
Following are quality incoming links you should consider:

Websites with a PR of 4 or greater
Government websites
Well known authoritative links on your website topic
Charitable Organizations
Websites that are relevant to your website topic

If you want to get a link from a certain website, just contact the website owner directly. Charitable organizations may let you use one of their links if you donate to their charity.

Don’t forget the anchor

When you create a link on your website you have to create anchor text. The anchor text just means the title for that link; what the user sees on the webpage as the linked text. It is vital that you vary the anchor text even if it is about the same topic. For example, if the topic was vitamin supplements you may vary the anchor text to include: vitamin, health supplements, vitamins for health, and so on.
Having trouble determining where to find quality links related to your website? There are a host of companies that do the legwork for you.
Two great services include:

They provide full services including hunting down quality links for you and analyzing the pages that you link to. You want to avoid linking to a website that contains copious amounts of links. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the page you are linking to has no more than 10 link trades already.

Search Engine Tips and Tricks

A great site that has a lot of useful info: Self Promotion.com
"If you want to increase your website traffic, you must know how to make your pages search engine friendly, and then submit your site to all the major search engines. Here you will learn how to do this important job properly, and be able to use tools to make it much easier."

Online Directories

Online directories are like a phone book of website links. It is imperative that your link be submitted to the top online directories. This will benefit your page rank and increase the traffic on your website.
Online directories come in two varieties: Paid and Free
PAID online directories provide the benefit of quick addition of your website to the online directory.
Some of the quality PAID online directories include:

FREE online directories are wonderful because they are free! However, you may have to do some volunteer work in order to be listed in the online directory.
Here are some quality FREE online directories include:

Find quality links through Forums

Another way to find high quality links is to participate in forums. Forums are a free way to not only find high quality links, but connect with users that are interested in your product or business. There is a bounty of forums available on the Internet with more new ones popping up each day. Find a forum that is related to your product or service by going through a search