Search engine optimization can be a complex beast to tame. Let me say that it does not have to be. With a little basic information seo can be painless. Webmasters know that it is all about having accurate info. Of course that is true for just about everything. Time is your real foe here. Grabbing the top spot on the search engine results pages is not an easy task but with a little effort, correct information, and time to implement you can do it.

There are several factors to consider when trying to push your site to the top. Obviously we will not be covering all of them here as that would be impractical, however I think we have time to cover 3 factors that should be considered critical to your success. The best way to go about this is to take baby steps. Work on one aspect at a time and perform the necessary actions to complete that step for your entire site. Once your done with that step then move on to the next and so on. So lets get started...

Keywords...This is critical! If you have the wrong keywords in the text of your site then it will not show up where you want it to. Search engines work off of keywords and keyword phrases so your site needs to be optimized for the keywords you want your site to show up for. Proper seo will fix this. Good keyword research always starts with great keyword tools. I personally suggest https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Meta Tags...Everybody says meta tags are a waste of time. I can prove them wrong. My site shows up in Googles search results for several of my articles and they ALL include the description I have in my meta tag. That is enough for me to believe that meta tags are still very much alive and kicking. The trick is this, 'USE IT, DO NOT ABUSE IT'. Pay extra attention to your keywords meta tag and keep it short and simple. I use 10 or less per page and highly suggest that you do to.

Java/CSS...These are great for adding functionality and style to your site but they can hinder your sites ability to be indexed in a fast and friendly way. When search engine spiders crawl your site they are looking for the text that you have so they know what your site is about. Javascripts and CSS can push your sites text way down on the page in your source code. Since the spiders only take small bites at a time they may not get to the actual text on your pages until they have visited your site several times. Externalizing these files and calling them up as needed will eliminate this issue.

There are a few items that are critical to search engine optimization and I hope the information helps you get your site search engine friendly and on top of the serps. Remember to take it one step at a time and before you know whats happening you will be swamped with search engine traffic.