Whether you are thinking of making a website, or thinking of optimizing a current website, you have come to the right place. I wish I would have landed here and studied the material on this page before I designed my first site. It would have saved me considerable time, money and aggravation.

In this section, I will not be talking about design or success features. You can have the most awesome site on the planet, but if it doesn't bring in the traffic, it is nothing but a modern day high-tech artifact.

Here is the most important information you will ever read about making a website that drives traffic to itself:

1) The BEST, BEST, BEST (did I mention BEST) source of FREE traffic to your site is from the major search engines and directories. Think about it! When you are searching for something on the internet, where do you go? MOST people go straight to a search engine. Most people end up searching on Google, Alta Vista and Yahoo, or on a search engine that is powered by one of these giants.

2) The ONLY way to get free traffic-generating top listings is in the way you design your site. Please let me repeat myself a little louder. The ONLY way to get free traffic- generating top listings in the search engines is in the way you design your site!

3) When making a website, the secret to creating one that draws the traffic to itself is in the choosing and positioning of keywords or phrases. Search engines like Google (by far the most widely used search engine on the internet) work on a system of "keywords" or "key phrases." Again, think of when you perform a search, what do you do? You enter a word or phrase. When you hit the search button and get the first page of results, have you ever wondered how those sites got there?

Depending on the keyword or phrase, some got there purely by accident. But most got there by making a website that is a spider magnet.

Making a Website into a Spider Magnet

The most important key to making a website a spider magnet is picking the best keywords and phrases for your concept and building your site around them. This statement is so important that I am going to ask you to read it again.

Once you've decided on the concept for your site, you need to determine the 6 to 10 top keywords or phrases for your concept. To find out how to do this click here . If you prefer to have someone that does this day in and day out, do it for you then click here .

Once you've determined the top keywords or phrases for you site you can design your website around those keywords to create pages that will attract the search engines like bees to honey.

A great strategy is to create each one of your pages to focus around one of your top keywords or phrases. For example, you can design your main page (index or intro page) around the top keyword that captures the theme of your site. And then spin off your second tier of pages, with each and every one of them focused on a different one of your top keywords or phrases.

Here's something that is very important. Remember to think of every page on your site as a potential entry point.

Here are the places to strategically place 
your keywords when making a website:

For each and every page, you want to place the "focus" keyword in the...

1) The Title Tag - I believe (and this is strictly my opinion based on study and observation) that the title tag may be one of the most important factors to page ranking on Google. Here is where most people get confused. This is NOT the title of your website. Really the title of your website is your address. This is also NOT the title of your page as it is stored on the server. Again this title or name is part of the address.

This is REALLY the title of your page. It is what appears in the colored (usually) bar at the very top of your browser and it is also the title that appears in your listing with the search engines. Every page title should be different. Don't waste your time creating clever sounding titles here. Most visitors to your site will never notice the title of your page. The important key here is how you use your keyword or phrase in this title.

2) Meta Keyword Tag - I use to think (like many others) that the more keywords related to my theme I could stuff into my keyword tags, the more search terms I would appear under on the search engines. WRONG! It just doesn't work that way. Keyword tags play a very small role in search engine ranking. However, if you want to make these tags as potent as possible, keep them focused.

Remember how I mentioned that your pages should be extremely focused? So should your meta-keyword-tags. You may want to include the plural version or slight variations of the same term but for the most part your want to remain focused.

3) Meta Description Tag - This is what will determine what the searcher will see when they pull up your listing in almost all search engines other than Google. When your listing comes up, the first line will be your Title Tag and under the title tag will be our Description Tag. Needless to say, this tag is very, very important.

This tag must accomplish two main things. It must contain your focus keyword or phrase at least once, not more than twice and it must be written in a way that will compel the potential visitor to come to your site. Do not repeat the title in this tag and do not include your keyword or phrase more than twice.

4) Header Tags - Your header tags are usually your headline and the first paragraph of text on your page. Some search engines do not pay any attention to the Description Tag and go straight to the first few sentences of your page. That's why it is important to treat your headline and first paragraph with extra care.

A good strategy I learned from Ken Envoy is to take your Description Tag and split it in two by using the first part as your headline and the second as the beginning of your opening body of text.

5) Body Text - The bottom line is that in the body text of your page you should include your focus keyword or phrase as many times as you possibly can within the constraints of the English language and without making it obvious or unpleasant for your visitor to read. Because of the way spiders work, the best recipe usually calls for prime emphasis at the beginning and the end of your page with little sprinkles throughout.

6) Link Tags - When you create any kind of link when making a website, use that opportunity to include your keyword once again. You can place it in the name, in the link, in the link name; anywhere you get the chance.

7) File names or Domain Name - Again, another great opportunity to make your presence felt. I think this is one of those that scores well with the search engine gods.

8) Image Alt tag or Image Name - Need I say more? Another great opportunity! Every little bit helps.

Other than these 8 different places where you can make a huge difference in your search engine placement, about the only factor that determines where you will end up in the ranking system is how many links from other relevant sites are pointing your way. For more information on how to attract links from others click here .

Of course if you prefer to have all of these things done for you, I will be more than happy to help you if you click here .