Most web site owners find that they get in MSN & Yahoo first but not Google. This is what I hear most of the time and one of the biggest complaints. Not to mention that they are always changing their algorithms so sites that were top ranked are not gone.

So who is the master of Google and understand all their ways? Google does. But after years of reading, experimenting and doing other things I can tell you some basic things that may help.

First, when you put your site together don’t upload it until it is a complete site. Now this doesn’t mean it has to be 100% but have working links and content in each page. Make sure to have 400 or more words per page and add a news section with a handful of articles relating to your industry.

Second, use a blog directly on your site. I like wordpress and so does Google! Give your blog a touch of class by making it match your site design. Then add some categories and write a handful of posts. Make sure to add more to the ping server list in your blog as it comes default with 1, and there are a ton of others including MSN’s, Google’s & Yahoo’s ping servers.

Thirdly, create some social book marking accounts like digg.com and places like that and link your blog content to these sites. Now, when I say add content I mean quality, well written and original otherwise you will just make everyone upset and you don’t want that kind of attention.

Now you are thinking what next, do I submit to the search engines, should I submit to directories, do I start a link exchange campaign. Okay, doing the 3 things above wait 3 weeks and check your stats and you will see traffic from Google starting. Yes, there are tons of things to do beyond this that will help but this article is about getting Google attention first and that will do the trick.

The basic target of Search Engine Optimization is to improve Search Engine rankings for specific targeted keywords. Search Engine optimization is not just making use of Meta tags, search engine submissions and directory submissions. You have to make sure to target the rankings of specific keywords so as to attract more traffic to your website.

Let’s understand the importance of Search Engine rankings with the help of an example. Just imagine you have a website related to weight loss product. You’ re ranked 122^nd for the keyword “Weight Loss” in the search engine. On the other hand your competitor who is selling the same product as you is ranking 1^st in the Search Engines for the same keyword “Weight loss”. Do you expect to get the same response as him as far as sales of the weight loss products are concerned? Well, I am afraid to say this but ‘No’.

The website ranking One in the search engines will receive far more visitors than your website. At the most a visitor might check three search pages. No one is bothered to go to the 12^th page to check your website. This is where you might struggle to get the best possible sales for your product. It hardly does matter if you’re selling the most useful products on the web. It is the general public that you have to reach for so as to inform them about the existence of your website.

Tips to improve Search Engine rankings

You need to make constant efforts so as to increase your keyword rankings in the search engines. Firstly you need to find out the competitive keywords related to your website. You can do so using an effective keyword search tool “Overture”.

1. To start with make a list of competitive keywords you would like to target.
2. Write SEO optimized content using different keywords. The more information you provide on your website the higher are your chances of getting recognized in the Search Engine.
3. Submissions of the website link to different Search Engines. You need to submit your website to different Search sources on the web. This includes Google, MSN, Yahoo, DMOZ web directory, Exact and so on.
4. Directory submissions to thousands of quality web directories. Directory Submissions will help to increase the back links of your website and thereby generate more traffic for related keywords.
5. You need to constantly monitor your website rankings, perform a constant check on the updates of your competitors and accordingly analyze your website results.