Web site optimization is the process of specifically designing your web pages to rank high in the Search Engines. If you're serious about your business, optimizing your web pages is a must.

Although many Search Engines are no longer using Meta tags to assist them in ranking a web page, some still do, and it's worth the effort to include them.

The following tutorial is an excerpt from Web Design Mastery, written by Shelley Lowery.

When designing your web page, you must specifically design it to rank high in the Search Engines. This involves much more than just including META tags. Your Keywords, Title, Image Alt text, Text and overall design, all play an important role in determining how your website will rank.

If your site doesn't rank in the top 10 or 20 results when doing a keyword search at the Search Engines, your target audience won't be able to find you.

A significant amount of website traffic originates from the major Search Engines. Most Internet users will go to a Search Engine, type in a keyword phrase and look through the top 10 - 20 results. Most of the time, they'll find what they're looking for in the first 10 results. The percentage of click throughs is even smaller. Listing near the top and grabbing the attention of your target audience is the top priority.

There are many components of your web page that you should pay close attention to when preparing it for listing in a Search Engine.

The first step towards improving your listing is selecting keyword phrases that best reflect your web page.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases

A keyword is a word that best describes your web page. For example, if your web page is focusing on dogs, your best keyword will be "dogs."

A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, then your best keyword phrase will be "dog grooming."

When preparing your web pages, you should concentrate on just a couple of keyword phrases (for each page) used in different variations. Avoid using general one-word keywords, as you definitely won't rank high in the Search Engines. For example, if your website focuses on "dog grooming" you wouldn't want to use the word "dog" as one of your keywords. Why? Because it's too general. Instead, you may want to use a keyword phrase such as "dog grooming tips" or "how to groom dogs".

You have to put yourself in your potential visitors' shoes and imagine what words they will type into a Search Engine to find your site.

Selecting the BEST keyword phrases is the MOST important step towards optimizing your pages for the Search Engines.

Another great way to use keyword phrases is to use very unique words. For example, if you're selling computers, instead of using the word computers as a Keyword, use the specific brand name or model of the computer. This will drive highly targeted visitors to your website.

Overture provides a wonderful tool that will enable you to type in a keyword, click on a button and receive a complete list of similar keyword phrases you can use.

If you would like to view some live searches to help you determine what keywords Internet users are searching for, visit any of the following sites:

• Excite
• Search Voyeur
• Ask Jeeves
• Search.com
• Snoop
• Wordtracker
• MetaSpy