Title

Many search engines weigh the data in your title more heavily than other data in your page. Make sure that your title has keywords that represent your site effectively. For the most part the title should be short but always include your keyword(s). This is an important factor for search engine optimization.

Meta tags

Another important factor in search engine optimization is to use the meta-tag description and meta-tag keywords on every page of your site that you want the search engines to index. If you don't want a page indexed, then try the robots exclusion tag. The robots.txt exclusion protocol has more support with spiders.

Content

Write great content using your most important keywords prominently throughout your website. Visitors who read the great content will link to your website and recommend it to others. Content is the most significant factor in search engine optimization.

Keyword planning

If your keywords are not suitable to your website there will be no search engine optimization. Always go for those keywords which are relevant to your website, otherwise you will get irrelevant traffic. Always do keyword planning on both the search engines and directories to determine the best set of keywords and keyword phrases your target audience uses.

Alternative text

This also a key factor in search engine optimization. Always put alternative text in your graphic images that clearly describes the graphic image and use your keywords whenever possible. Do not put text in a graphic image that has nothing to do with your web page.

Frame Pages

Frame pages always create problems in the search engine optimization process. Most search engines simply cannot index a frame page. Consider frames as a big 'GO AWAY' sign. If your site does use frames, doorway pages are ideal for better rankings.

Don't try to fool the search engines

This can be your biggest mistake, people come up with ways to 'fool' search engines, and they can work for a little while... sometimes. But the search engines catch on and write routines that penalize sites that use this practice. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: repeating keywords over and over; using invisible text (white text on white background); using very small text to jam the keywords in a small area etc.

Keep the important content near the top of your pages

The actual text on your website is very important. Search engines(spiders) read this to determine rankings. Some engines will place a higher rating of importance based on where they find the text in your page. Closer to the top is usually better. But having keywords throughout your page develops a "theme" and that too is important.

Don't stuff the top of your pages with data the engines can't read

As with the last example, something higher up in your page can be more important that something further down. Therefore, HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc. toward the top of your page can result in lower ratings.

Website Content should be your #1 priority

The most significant key area in the complete process of search engine optimization is relevant text. Your quest for high placement must start with a good website. It is important to have a lot of text describing what you do. Use your keywords in the content, but don't repeat them over and over again. Many search engines rate sites based on 'keyword density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META Keywords, words in your TITLE, words in a paragraph’s text, words in links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on your images. They will even look at different forms of your keywords. For example, if an important keyword for you is 'FISH', the word 'FISHING' in the body of your document will raise the confidence in the word 'FISH' on some engines.

Keep your site updated

Make sure that your site is up to date. No one likes to go to a page that never changes or that is very out of date.