Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how visible your webpage is on the web. Many webmasters pay good money to get their pages “SEO Optimized.” This is the process of improving your search engine rankings so that your webpage will appear earlier in search results. If you are a company that sells something, like a natural supplement, you need SEO optimized content. That way, when a user types in “natural supplement” into a browser like Google, your website will be on that first page of results. Getting on the first page means more visitors, and more money for you, the smart business owner. There are effective(and free!)  methods of boosting your website yourself. These tricks involve tweaking your web content to take advantage of powerful keywords.

                Many webmasters embark on article writing campaigns. They, and their writers, will generate loads of informative articles to submit to the top article databases. For example, they will write articles on the best natural supplements, and each article will contain a link back to their webpage. They use keywords wisely so these articles will have high rankings on search engines. For an average 500 word article, the keyword is used in the title, the first sentence, the last sentence, and then three to four times in the body. This way, the keywords are there, but this formula ensures that the usage never sounds forced. Plus, the articles provide that valuable link back to their main pages.

                You can put the article keyword tips to good use in the content on your webpage. In your actual pages, make sure that your content is valuable and informative. And make sure there is enough content! Pages with less than 300 words of content don’t tend to fare well on search engines. Also, place the keyword in your webpage URL. For example, www.[website].com/natural-suplements.htm versus /page2.htm. Use the keyword in the actual page title tag, and then in the <h1> tag. This may sound basic, but you would be surprised about how many webmasters aren’t aware of this trick. Also, if you feel the need to add your company name in the title tag, do so after the keyword. 

                But it’s important to use the power of the keyword artfully. Using keywords too much will decrease your credibility. Your visitors will wonder, why does the site say “natural supplement” every five words? You also can’t just create awkward, repetitive sentences to reuse the keywords. Not only will your visitors not finish reading your page, but there are other penalties. If you use the article tactic described above, some article directories will not let you submit articles where the keyword density is too high. The same goes with search engines. If your pages are too stuffed with keywords, they will actually count against you in search engine rankings.

                Keywords are a powerful tool in SEO process, but they are also a double-edged sword. Use them wisely to boost your page ranking in those all-powerful search engines. But make sure your content is up to par, and don’t abuse keyword density so it doesn’t count against you.