How to Make Use of SEO - Make Your Site Friendly

By Randall Helling
WebSuccess University Instructor

Here's a question I get at least once every week...

"Search engine ranking. Is it really THAT important?"

Well, if you can never seem to find your website through search engines, you may think that could be keeping you from success. That's not necessarily true. Let me share a couple of confessions with you about my own ranking efforts. Hopefully you'll be able to learn how to make your web pages more search engine friendly and discover some great ways to improve your website traffic - with very little effort.

Confession 01:

There was a time when I felt that ranking high in search engines was very important. I spent hours every week trying to get those top spots. I mean I tried everything. And lots of the stuff I tried worked. I enjoyed #1 rankings at Infoseek, AltaVista, WebCrawler and more. I was in the top 10 of nearly all the major engines.

I knew that keeping those high positions would become quite a chore eventually. Hey, I'm just one guy, sitting at my computer. If the few hours a week I was spending on ranking grew into 10, 12 or 15 hours, something else would have to suffer.

Which leads me to...

Confession 02:

I dropped out of the game altogether. That's right, I gave up the battle. And it was the best decision I ever made. Not only did this decision free up time for more important online marketing strategies, it helped me see the bigger picture.

"What's the big picture?"

You need more than search engine traffic to make money online. You need online business relationships. You form those valuable relationships by promoting your online business in other ways. Regular email contact, newsletter publishing, discussion group participation, offering an affiliate program, etc. - these are the strategies that sustain a successful online business.

I can honestly say that if the search engines all closed up shop tomorrow (...or started to rank pages by who pays them the most - which is more likely) my online business wouldn't miss a beat. Why? Because I don't rely on search engines.

But don't misunderstand...I still include search engines in my online marketing campaigns. I just don't rely on them for *ALL* of my traffic. Like any wise online business entrepreneur, I take what I can get - especially when it's free.

"So how does a guy drop out of the search engine battles and come up with top ranking?"

Simple. I said I dropped out of the battles, not the war. You see, I still make sure that every web page I create is search engine friendly and optimized for good ranking. I do this by inserting meta tags, using a good title and adding keyword rich content.

I recommend this as a minimum. It's simple. All you have to do is take a few seconds and add a fresh meta tag to any new page you create. If you want a good example, just view the source code of this page by clicking View then Source in your browser. Notice my title and meta tags. I created the tags in five seconds with the 'WebSuccess University' META Tag Creation Tool.

Each time I create a new web page I simply add an appropriate title and meta tag according to the content of the new page. You can and should be using this method too. Every time you create a new page, adjust the title and keywords for the content on that page.

So there you have it. Search engine confessions from yours truly.

Just remember...with the the 'casual' search engine strategies I mention above, you can't help but get better search engine rankings. A little time and energy focused on the right strategies will free up your resources to spend on REAL online business tasks!

...and that's when things can really take off!

To Your Success!

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Randall Helling is an online business instructor with WebSuccess University teaching REAL people how to earn REAL profits online.

CLICK HERE to try the 'WebSuccess University' META Tag Creation Tool!