In the context of search engine optimization, many people equate an optimized site to a site with impressive search engine rankings. Sprinkle a little fairy dust over here and waive the magic wand over there and wallah... a magnificent dish of first page rankings for the Internet's most competitive keyword terms.
The fact is, if you think you are going to achieve rankings for competitive keyword terms simply by adding a few keywords to your website, you need to pinch yourself because you're dreaming.
Perform a search for your primary keyword terms and you will see a descending list, several pages deep of websites that have been "optimized" with varying degrees of success. The key is to understand the factors that differentiate those that rank on the first page from those that don't.
The attributes that determine search engine rankings can be classified into two basic categories; "on-page factors" and "off-page factors." In the most basic sense, on-page factors have to do with attributes within your web site and off-page factors have to do with attributes that occur outside of your web site.
In a way, on-page factors tell the engines what you think of yourself, while off-page factors tell the engines what the Internet at large thinks of you.
Let’s tackle the on-page factors first, shall we?
The first step is to determine the keywords that people search for when they are looking for the products or services you have to offer. Keyword tools such as WordTracker and Google's Keyword tool let you know how many people search for a particular search term and provide suggestions for related keyword terms…