Please note that the 'rules' used by search engines are constantly changing so use this as a guide but note that there is no substitute for using a professional design company. A good design company will not only design the site to be search engine friendly but also monitor the current search engine criteria and advise if clients sites need to be amended.

INTRO
To achieve a good ranking with the major search engines (i.e. your page is one of the first to be seen) you must have; Keyword Sensitive, Content Keyword Sensitive Titles, Keyword Sensitive Meta Tags. The more specific your content, titles and meta tags, the better your chances of achieving a top position.

Meta Tags alone will not get you a good listing! Titles and Content are the most important aspect of your pages. Meta tags simply provide a way to control your summary, keywords and description on pages that lack relevant content). "Meta Tags are not a magic solution." Meta Tags should be used on all pages, especially on pages without content (i.e. splash pages with logo's, frames, etc). Content Is King! Relevant content, in conjunction with your page(s) Title, is the most important aspect of gaining a good position with the major search engines.

More than in the past, search engines are now using "relevancy" to determine your ranking position. "Full-Text" search engines (Alta Vista, Web Crawler, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos, Open Text) index every word on your web page. This content is then compared to the pages "Title. Once this comparison is made... the "robot" also reads the pages meta tags (Meta tags are useful but they are not a magic solution). If your "title", "content" and "meta tags" all have relevancy, you will receive a good ranking position.

For example, let's say you had a site titled "wheel clamping" Let us also assume that "wheel clamping" was the only word on your page (content). I know... far fetched, but bear with me. We also have a "meta description" tag and a "meta keyword" tag that also has "wheel clamping." If someone searched for the phrase "wheel clamping"... you would obviously score 100% (on both the hit and relevancy rating). More than likely, you would be first on most of the major search engines (or at the very top at least). The problem comes in when we start "shotgunning" our approach. When we add words to our page(content), in our meta tags and in our title, our relevancy rating begins to drop. Your "hit" score may still be 100%... but the "relevancy" rating may be lower. Think of relevancy as a separate score, the most important one (with the example above - your "relevancy" and "hit" score was 100% ). If you had "wheel clamping" and "wheel clamping" on your page... then the "relevancy" in terms of percentage might be 50% (search engines use different methods to determine score - the 50% is just an example). While the "hit" score would still be 100% when the results of a search are returned. In the "real world", obviously we will want to use more than one or two words on a page or in our meta tags. After all... if we only have a word or two, what's the use, right?

SOLUTION
Be specific! Think about the audience you are trying to reach, your "target audience." The more specific you can be, the higher your "relevancy" and ranking.

The major search engines have, or are in the process of, switching from the old alphabetical format they once used. It's no longer to your advantage to have a company name, page title or content starting with the letter "a" or number "1." Now, the major engines use "relevancy." It seems like we are repeating this "relevancy" issue ... but this is one* of the "real" Insiders secrets to achieving a top ranking.

Let's imagine for a moment you are a search engine robot. You are out crawling the web looking at web sites. You come across a site that's titled, "Search Engine Submission". As you look at the title, how does it compare to the meta tags? The meta description? How about the content of the page? Does the content of the page have "relevant" information when compared to the title, tags and description? Remember... you can't read or think (You are a robot!)... you are just checking how relevant everything is on the page when it's compared. Did the page make sense? Were there any words that seemed out of place? Did the content of the page match the title and meta tags? Everything needs to "look" right! If you found the word "sales" in the "content" of the Search Engine Submission page... would this help or hurt the "relevancy?" It would depend whether the word was used in any of the "meta" tags? How about the "title"? How often is the word used in the "content" of the page? Was the "content" dense? (was the word used early in the content?).

This is how the "robots" determine the "relevancy." While the word "sales" may be important... it may not have any "relevancy" to the site as a "keyword."

DESIGN
Now, let us start working on your page(s). As you are designing your page... keep thinking "relevancy." Initially look at your pages "Title" to determine what the "content" of your page should be. Kind of like being in the library... you look at the title of the book and from there you determine what the book is about (Remember... the robot can't read or think, it's comparing words). Let's stop here for a minute. Before we move on... take ten to fifteen minutes to write down 5 to 10 keywords that pertain to your sites subject matter. You will use these "keywords" in everything you do from this point on.

TIP: To determine the best keywords applicable to your site... ask a few friends what phrases or words they would use to do a search. Ask them to give you 5 or 10. We determined our keywords by posting a few requests in forums. We asked what words or phrases they would use to search for a site with our subject matter (excellent source of keywords). Also look at the source code and content of sites similar to yours. When you are finished... you will have a "keyword sensitive site"!!

SPECIAL NOTE Once you have finished with your keywords... make them plural (exp: friend - friends, game, games, etc). Please note however that recently, Alta Vista began panellising sites/pages that repeat keywords more than 3 times! However we still suggest, you use keywords a maximum of seven times - at least until all the major search engines begin penalising for using them more than three times. Also don't forget if some of your key words are easy to misspell It may pay to include these, although most people will enter the word correctly you may end up getting 100% of the incorrectly entered traffic rather than 1% of the correctly entered traffic. Same principle applies to more obscure key words if you are in highly competitive field it may be an idea to go for some less obvious options as well. It is also an idea to include a relevant phrase as it has been shown that many people will enter a phrase/question rather than just key words. If you have a splash page which will not look correct with repetition of key words don't forget the alt text option.

Now that we have chosen our key words let us arrange them by priority. Which ones are the most important? This is why you need to ask others to give you "keywords" and "phrases" they would search for. If you had 4 people that gave you the same "keyword" three times first... you know which one is the most important. Never, never, never assume you know all the answers! What is important to you, may not be important to others. In the case of "keywords"... we want others to tell us what they would use to find our site! After all... they will be the ones searching. Think of a "'Title" for your page (keep that relevancy word in mind). Does your "Title" have words that you will use in the "meta" tags and "content" of your page? Is your "Title" appealing to your audience? The "Title" is what the person will first see when the results of their search is returned.

Did you use some power words? Here is an example of some; Free, Discover, Easy, Secret, New, Revised, Guaranteed, Discover, Proven, Hottest, Revolutionary, State-of-the-art, Best, Powerful. Let's say you are selling information reports. An example of a "Title" might be; Search Engines: Free Report Reveals Insider Secrets to Search Engines If you were looking for information on Search Engines... would you check this site out? Of course... I know I would! (Keywords - Search Engines. Power words - Free, Reveals, Insider, Secrets... strong title). The "Title" needs to be appealing to the audience ... and also be relevant. Now... using the "Title" of your page (and keywords), let's design your "meta" tags. This is where your content would go. Don't forget to use some keywords in the first few lines of this paragraph if possible. If you cannot... then it's imperative to use the comment line above!

TIP: Limit your "meta" tags to a maximum of 1000 characters. This is very important as Alta Vista has a limit of 1024 and Infoseek's is 1000. If you exceed 1000 characters, your "meta" tags or entire site could be omitted from the search engine. So you will know... the word "TIP" is 3 characters, not 1. Also, spaces and commas count as characters as well (you probably already knew that).

Don't forget... Relevancy!! Okay, you've got your "Title" done. You've got your meta tags done and started on your "content." Did you think far enough in advance to keep everything tied together?

Is the content of your page going to be relevant to the "Title" and "Meta tags"?

How about the pages density? Did you use a comment line?

Does your page content start off using any of the words you used in the Title, Description or Meta Tags?

How often are these words used throughout the page?

Don't get carried away trying to get every keyword under the sun... just use the ones you originally came up with. "Keyword Stuffing" will get you penalised or omitted!

Visit a search engine and enter keywods relevent to your industry when you view the results pay close attention to... which site "Titles" get YOUR attention. While it's important for your site to be near the top - or at least in the first page or two... the "Title" is the magnet that pulls them in! When you do a search... do you automatically look at the #1 site when the results are displayed? Of course you don't... you scroll down until you find a "Title" or "Description" that pertains to the information you are looking for... right? Sometimes, you'll end up on the second or third page before finding what you were searching for. This tells you something as well... most people don't write effective "Titles" or "Descriptions" that tell what there site is about! Think of your "Title" as the HEADLINE of an advertisement and the "Description" as the sales letter. Just like a classified advertisement you would place in a magazine or newspaper... you want the "Title" to get the readers attention, and the "Description" to sell them on VISITING your site. That's it!! If you can do this... your job is half done. It will depend on the "content" of your site to do the rest.

TIP: Once you've finished your page... print out the html (source of page). Starting with the title, review all your keywords. Using a highlighter... highlight the ones you see elsewhere on the page. Then, move to your meta tags and highlight the ones you see repeated elsewhere as well... and do the same with keywords you have used in the body (content) of your page. How many words do you have highlighted in the content of your page? Did you use as many of your keywords as possible in your pages content? Are the highlighted words dense at the beginning? If you don't have very much highlight in your content... you need to rethink the wording of your page.

Keep in mind, we are trying to get listed near the top of the search engines using keyword sensitive content, titles and meta tags. Many search engine guru's will tell you to use keywords in your "Meta" tags that are relevant to your site... but not used in your pages "Title" or "Content." This does increase your overall "hits" (way down the results page) and it does make your site available to more searches, but it will not help you with your "relevancy." We are not interested in being 10,000th on the 400th page (at least were not). Using keywords not used in your content will get you listed... but your relevancy will be lower.

DON'T RUSH TO SUBMIT YOUR SITE!!
This is the number one mistake most people make! Before submitting your pages... make sure everything is right! Make sure your "Title" is strong... your "Description" pulls people in... and your "Keywords", "Content" and "Density" is "Relevant." Do your homework. Look at other sites. Look at their "Titles"... "Descriptions"... "Meta" tags... "Keywords" and the "RELEVANCY" of their "Content" when compared to everything else. See if you can figure out why they are listed near the top... look at some sites listed farther down the results pages and figure out why they're at the bottom.

If you can attain a top listing (within the first few pages) with three or four of the top search engines... ..your server will sound like a fighter jet taking off!!