Most online business owners know that keywords are a very important part of optimizing their Web sites for better search engine rankings. Did you know what where you place your keywords is also a factor in how well your site is ranked by the search engines? There are several places where you should use your primary keywords so that they have the greatest impact. Learn where to position your keywords and you will have a better chance of improving your site rankings.

Keywords in Domain Names

If you have the opportunity to research keywords before you pick your domain name, you can use your keywords in your domain names to have a better impact on your SEO results. If your keyword is “web content writing,” you can choose the domain name www.web-content-writing.com. You should limit the use of words in your domain to three. Any more than that and your domain name becomes difficult to remember and you run the risk of losing potential customers.

Keywords in File Names

Your file names can also utilize your keywords to achieve better SEO results. The file name usually follows the slash after your domain name. For example, in www.site.com/articles, the file name is articles. Using your keywords here can help you better optimize each page of your site for the search engines. If your keyword for one of your pages is handmade soap, you can create a file named handmade-soap.html. When visitors access this page of your site, it will be displayed in their address bars as http://www.soapsite.com/handmade-soap.

Keywords in Title Tags

In HTML, there is a tag known as the title tag. If you open up your favorite site right now, you’ll notice that the upper left corner of your browser window probably has the site’s name or industry displayed. To make even better use of this space, use your keywords in your title tags. You should use only the one or two keywords you are optimizing for on each individual page of your site. The title tag is right near the top of your site code, so the search engines will see your keywords more quickly if they are used within this tag.

Keywords in Meta Tags

Meta tags are used to provide information about a site, such as who created it or what it’s about. Many of the major search engines look to meta tags to build a search engine index. If you want to make good use of meta tags, stick to the keywords you are using on each individual site. You can also use a meta tag that gives information about your site that will be displayed when your site is returned as the result of someone’s search.

Because search engine optimization seems expensive to many business owners, some people choose to do their own optimization without hiring a professional SEO consultant. There are many things that you can do on your own to improve your search engine rankings. However, there are also many things that you can do that seem like a good idea but can really hurt your optimization efforts. If you decide to optimize your site without the benefit of having an SEO professional by your side, there are some basic SEO mistakes that you should avoid. Learn about these mistakes and you can save yourself a great deal of time, frustration, and money.

SEO Mistake #1  Using Link Farms

Link farms (also known as link directories) are basically long pages stuffed with links to Web sites. Many amateurs think that using link farms will help improve search engine rankings since link building plays an important role in optimization. However, using link farms is not a good way to build links to your business site. There are several reasons why link farms can have a negative impact on your results. One is that the search engines consider link farms to be low in quality. While you need to have good content on your site to get linked to by a blog or another business owner, anyone can place a link on a link farm. Another is that you have no way of knowing what kind of links your link will be grouped with. Link farms can have a link to an accounting firm next to a link to a lingerie shop. Since relevant links are important for optimization success, using link farms does not have a positive impact on your results.

SEO Mistake #2  Keyword Spamming

Many business owners also think that more is better when it comes to using keywords. This is why you’ll often come across Web pages that make absolutely no sense; they have so many keywords stuffed in their text that no one can make sense of them. When it comes to keywords, less is actually more. Achieving a balanced keyword density gives you two opportunities to improve your business. One improvement is that you have a better chance of attracting the kind of traffic you want for your business. The other is that you’ll reduce your chances of being penalized for using keyword spamming as an SEO tactic.

SEO Mistake#3  Using PLR Content

While many people think that content is number one when it comes to successful site optimization, unique content is actually the best thing for a site. Many business owners make the mistake of buying PLR content that is also bought and used by other site owners. Now that the search engines are frowning on duplicate content and adjusting the search engine rankings accordingly, using PLR articles is no longer a good way to successfully optimize your site. Instead of using PLR articles, write your own or hire a freelance writer to develop unique content that will draw your visitors in and keep them on your site long enough to make some purchases.