Search engine optimization (SEO) is more than just choosing a few keywords to add to your site. Search engines rank sites for search results based on the keywords and phrases found in the content on each site. Their aim is to provide people searching for particular information with the most pertinent information available.

This means trying to find ways to match the visitor’s query with the sites that most closely match what they’re looking for.

Here are some free SEO tips.

Relevance

Spend some time doing a little keyword research. Try entering your site’s current keywords into Google Adwords External Keyword tool and see what suggestions come back to you.

Choose keywords and phrases that most accurately match what your site’s topic is about.

Keyword Density

Most search engines use an algorithm that tells them how relevant your site will be to a particular search results. Part of this algorithm takes into account the amount of times the keyword appears in the body of your site’s content.

Some SEO tips seem to think between 1-2% is acceptable, while others aim at more like 3-4%. If you’re trying to cram in as many repetitions of your keywords as possible to try and get it as high as 3%, then you’ll soon notice that your content stops being interesting and starts being nonsensical. Visitors get turned off by this approach and search engines are beginning to figure that this could even be a form of keyword spam.

Page Title

When the search engine crawlers come to check out your site, they also check the title you’ve given each page. Always be sure to add your keyword phrase to the page title.

Domain Name and Page Extension

If you haven’t chosen a domain name for your website yet, then try to include your keywords in the domain somewhere. In some cases the domain name you want might be taken, so don’t be afraid to use hyphens in your URL if you have to. While this might sometimes be harder for visitors to find, search engines find them just fine.

If you’ve already registered a domain, then most SEO tips won’t point out that you can still work on your page extensions. Each time you create a new internal page, be sure to save it using a name that reflects the keywords you’re focusing on.

For example, if you’re trying to attract visitors to a page you’ve added about natural vitamins, then your URL for that page could look something like this:

http://www.your-domain.com/natural-vitamins.html

Headers and Bold Font

Many search engines now understand that any text that you have formatted as a Heading could also give them a clue as to that page’s relevance and help their ranking efforts. Try to put your keywords in the Heading.

Throughout the body content, try to add sub-headings that break up big chunks of content. Make sure you format sub-headings in bold. If you can, try to use the keywords once or twice in these too.

Back Links

When the search engines try to determine the importance of your site, they check out how many other sites have links that point to your site. These are called back links or incoming links.

Many web masters make the mistake of joining link farms or participating in link exchanges. These may give you links from other sites, but they won’t be relevant. While these tactics use to have some effect and they still show in many SEO tips, the truth is you’ll get better results by finding ways to create one way links from sites that have similar content and topics to yours.

You might try submitting articles to directories and leaving your link in the author resource box. Comment on other people’s blogs and leave your link. Add your link to a signature box and join a few forums.

For more SEO tips, I recommend checking out 1 Week Marketing.