These are some basic SEO tips that we all forget sometimes. If possible work out your SEO strategy while the website is being built. Your website will need to integrate with the search engines as well as possible for people to find it – this means from a site architecture point of view as well as a content and linking strategy point of view.

Do not think only in terms of search engine spiders and algorithms. It is very easy to fall into this trap. Remember that the search engines goal is to provide people with the most relevant websites based on their keyword search – which means they are constantly engineering and gearing their algorithms to work out what people are actually looking for.

Do some good old fashioned keyword research using Google adwords or something like Seobook or Wordtracker. You want your webpages to be optimised for the correct keywords right from the start. Good keyword research can also help you with long tail traffic over time so you can get visitors using longer search strings.

Research your competitors – this goes hand in hand with keyword research. See who is top for the phrases you have identified then also look at what other phrases they are attacking to see what you might have missed.

Link research: as part of the competitor research look at who is linking to your competitors. You will find some good sources of links and you will also very possibly discover some tricks that your competitors are using to rank that you might also be able to take advantage of.

If you can; if it is useful to your visitors and if it makes sense without looking spammy then use a keyword rich domain name as this can help a little in the short-term. Work out what your main landing pages are going to be and optimise them and the links going to them. Your more important pages are the ones you want your visitors going to and they’re the ones that you want to convert. Make sure they load quickly.

Always use unique well-thought out titles, metadata and internal links based on all of the above points. These are your main weapons in on-site optimisation and the main things that you have influence over in your SEO efforts. Make sure they look attractive to human readers as well as the search engines as your title and your description are what show in the search engine results and what people read before deciding whether to click on your link or not.

Optimise your web pages’ loading times, slim down images, cut down multiple http requests by combining files and even use compression on your pages where possible. If you get visitors to your site you don’t want to lose them by leaving the page loading for too long (loading times are also seen as a sign of quality by Google).

Ignore keyword densities in favour of writing proper flowing language around your subject. Sure you need to get in some relevant phraseology alternative vocab and maybe stemming but make sure your copy reads well to a person. Where possible keep to one subject (or product etc) per page. You want the search engines to be in no doubt as to what the page is about. Search engines use programs to work out what pages are about – you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do this.

Use keyword rich urls throughout your website. This makes the url more attractive and understandable to people searching the web and can also get you some keyword rich inbound links from websites that just use the url as the anchor text of the link.

Andy J Jenkins is technical director at Webcentric Web Design Cambridge a Cambridge based web design company specialising in web design and website optimisation. Webcentric offer a full range of web design and SEO services to all sizes of business.

So you finally got your website up and it’s a just what you wanted. Of course it didn’t start out that way, but with a few adjustments everything seems to be just what you wanted. So now you sit and wait for the hits to start piling up and of course, the resultant business activity. So how long until your massive influx and just how will the word spread?

So Just How Long Will It Take?

That in fact all depends on several key factors and believe it or not you can have the best products or services on the planet with the most competitive prices and still only see minimal activity at best and that can go on for years and years, even with your fantastic website and all your great give away offers.

It’s Time to Think Out of the Box

The problem may be that you’re thinking too much like a business person who’s operating in the standard “bricks and mortar parking lot out front” business environment. You’re not. For one thing, rather than a handful of competitors scattered around town, you may have hundreds of thousands and even millions, scattered all over the planet.

Doing It without a Search Engine Positioning Company

So now you know it’s a tough neighborhood you’re plying your trade in now but that ok because you have a good understanding of search engine positioning and when you get the time, you’re going to do a few things to get your star shining in those search engines. No problem right?

Would You Consider Doing Your Own Dental Work?

Well there might be. For instance are you aware that there are over 100 factors those Google search engines “Gods” take into account with regards to your site. Do you even know what five of them are? Also, there are just as many things that you can do wrong. Things that can get you moving backwards in the search engines. Do you know what any of them are?

The Big Question – Should I Use a Search Engine Positioning Company?

So now you may be asking yourself the big question. “Should I use a search engine positioning company?” Actually the answer to that is “maybe”. You see, first you have to ask yourself if the purpose of your site is to make money or is it for some other type of non-commercial purposes. This is because if you’re not in it for money, you may be able to get by without one.

How Much Business Are You Losing Today?

However if your site is part of some commercial venture you have to ask yourself how much money are you really saving by not using a search engine positioning company, when so much business is being gulped up by all the sites positioned up front ahead of you in the search engines.

Bottom line – Do the Math

You see, you have to understand that potential site hits drop off considerably the further back you are in the search engines. Hey! Only one out of ten people ever make it past page one. Then only something like one out of ten of those people ever makes it past page two. On and on it goes, so people positioned beyond page five or so are really screwed.

Mark Hannt writes for Studio-40, a web design and search engine positioning company based in the UK. Visit the website to find out more.

The top paying keywords are going to chance on an almost daily basis. If you want to know what the top paying keywords are then it is important that you use a keyword analysis tool to help you. These tools can give you the most searched terms for the day, the week, the month and the year.

If you want to get you hands on some of the top paying keywords it is important that you look on a yearly scope, or at least a monthly scope. Keyword prices wont drop off drastically. So it is likely that the highest paying keywords this month are among the highest next month.

Last years top words had to do with budgets, loans, and consolidation. This does not mean that they will be the highest this year. But since our country is in a similar economic situation, they are probably at the top. But to find out for sure you need to use an analyzer.

Google offers there’s for free and it is a pretty good tool for collecting data. You might want to find a tool that is not associated with just one search engine however. You should also know that the best keywords are not necessarily the highest paying. Those words are going to cost the most money, and the will also offer the most competition.

Many people like to find a niche website, and then find the best words for their selected area of the internet. This allows them to do a few things. They will bring in traffic that is more likely to buy their product, they will limit their competition, and they can still find keywords that give good pay but at a lesser cost.

Jim Valicenti, is a blogger, writer and researcher on the subject of Top Paying Keywords. Click this link to read more helpful advice at his site, http://googlekeywordselectortool.com.