Two excellent reasons for search engine optimization are: high rankings with the search engines, increased traffic, letting your visitors find you easily and of course, profits.

A short note on keywords here - be ready with your list of keywords and key phrases. Basic search engine optimization starts with keyword location. Here are some tips on where to place keywords:

1. Title tag - to help the search engine know what the page is about. Title tag is right at the top of your page within the ‘head’ tags. Placing the keyword here will attract focussed traffic to your website. Since it is the text in the title tag that is visible to the traffic, use the text keyword there.
2. The keywords you use in the anchor text must be the ones used to link to that page with other pages on your website. Try and link as many keywords as possible to a specific page
3. The text in the title tag must also appear in the body of the page so that the search engines know that it relates to the title. It will also let your traffic know that they are in the right place for the info they are looking for. The same keywords must be used in the text of the content on the page.
4. Avoid using the same title tag on all pages of your website. If you do this, the search engines will assume that all pages are identical and wont index them. Use the headline of your page as the title tag. This will tell the search engines what the page pertains to and index it.
5. Keyword stuffing is bad practice. Spamming the description or keyword meta tag must also be avoided.
6. Forget about link farms - search engines don’t approve of them. when you link to another site, you must make sure that the content is complementary and relates to your site.
7. In your navigation menu, put links instead of images - search engines cannot read images. Instead, use keywords in these links so that when your visitor has the mouse over these links the title of the link is visible to them.
8. If you have to have images, describe them with the alt tag. Search engines will find it easy to index these images and find your page. it will also help view your website in any browser.
9. Preferably go for manually submitting your website to the search engines. The use of submission software could make you end up paying a penalty or even getting banned. Once submitted, the search engine robots will follow your links and index your website.

You must also use your keywords in domain name, file names and folders. Make sure you have a site map for your website for easy navigation. Good content goes without saying.

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A lot of affiliate marketers tend to spend on pay per click advertising without realizing the necessity of the landing page. In fact, some even use their website’s home page as a landing page. While this could work in some instances, it is always better to create one that is separate from the home page. Why? A landing page must be regarded as the most crucial page since this is where visitors convert to customers or subscribers and this is what your visitors will see first when they click your link. That’s two excellent reasons why a landing page is worth spending time on.

Here is a list of practical tips that you can put into action immediately. Read on.

• As mentioned earlier, do not use your home page as your landing page because too many choices and links distract your visitors. They end up going through your site, which is good, but you will not achieve your goal of getting them to take that specific action which will turn them into customers or opt in subscribers to email list, ezine or newsletter. So make a separate landing page that is focused on your goal.
• Optimize your landing page after you build it with the keywords that were responsible for bringing your visitors here. This will give you the optimum conversion rates. While a high search engine ranking is great, even more important is converting your visitors to customers. So your landing page must be planned in such a way that when your visitor arrives on it, they see the words that brought them there and buy, sign up, opt in, etc.
• What you write on your landing page must be understood without ambiguity by your visitors. There must be no doubt as to what you expect from them. Don’t say too much. Succinctly convey your message with bulleted points. Use keywords in the title and subtitle. Preferably let your landing page have an 800 x 600 resolution so that anyone can view them clearly.
• Be specific. Use words that call your visitors to action. The content must flow naturally so that they go ahead and do what you expect them to do. Action words like “Buy Now” or “sign up now” “give me my free trial” etc. must be prominent. Always keep it simple to understand.
• Never put long sales letters on your landing page. Your visitors clicked your link because they are ready to buy and not read miles of text. The landing page must only contain information essential to close the sale. Of course, there’s always the chance that you’ll have visitors who would like to buy but need information. For these visitors you can always have a link to a resource page, which opens in a new window preferably.

Thus, the landing page must make it easy for your visitors who are eager to buy to just place their orders. Going deeper into your website, you can learn how to optimize your website images for search. Read the image optimization post here. 

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