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If you're getting ready to put together a new website or redo an old one, you should know it's all about your content today. Search engine rankings aren't about your great images or your sexy product; instead, they're all about what you have written on your page. Search engine rankings are created through a text-based algorithm that collects information about inbound links to your page, content freshness, site longevity, and pertinent text to your keyword.

Pertinent text often means that it needs to be keyword-optimized. There are some things you can do to ensure your page content works well for both the search engines and for the real people who will visit and hopefully buy stuff from your site.

1. Content first, then images. Search engines don't see images at all. They do see text. There are two things you can do with images to make them more search engine friendly: first, name your image file something with your keyword in it or descriptive of the image, not picture3.jpg; and second, fill out the alternate text for your image with something that describes the image and fits in with your page content, preferably with at least one keyword mention.

2. Keep content centred on your page subject. If you focus on the topic at hand, you both keep your readers involved and you ensure that your keyword will crop up naturally throughout the article.

3. Use, don't overuse, keywords. Judicious use of keywords keeps your page from getting marked as spam, yet ensures the search engines will pick it up and list it in an appropriate keyword search. For the most part, an appropriate ratio of keywords in your article is about 5%, focusing on having keywords showing up in titles and subtitles.

4. Write in natural English about your subject. The sophisticated algorithms search engines use today can identify the awkward English created by content generation programs and will drop those sites to the bottom of the listings. Besides, your site visitors will appreciate understanding what you're talking about.

5. Use headings and bulleted points. Bullet points are an old and venerable way to lay web content out cleanly so that browsers can hone in on the best information as quickly as possible. Headings are valuable for the same reason, and also have special attention paid to them by the spiders, as mentioned above. Make sure you always use the H1-6 heading tags used in HTML.

6. Write for readers, not search engines. If your content is good and focuses around your keyword, the optimization generally happens by itself. Good content draws links from others to your page, and it also keeps customers coming back.

7. Update your text frequently. Search engines today love fresh content with good keyword placement, and so do your customers. With constantly-updated text, search engines know you're not running a static site, and you will be able to watch your site rise slowly in the search engine rankings.

8. Use articles within your site; lots of content at your site raises your placement. It also brings back customers and encourages other websites to link to yours, raising your search engine rankings.

About the author:

Mark Lawson is the webmaster for http://www.discountdomain suk.com a leading UK Web Design Service Please feel free to republish this article together with working hyperlinks.