10 things you can do today to optimize your Web site for search engines

1. Focus on writing compelling content for humans, not for search engines.
2. Use relevant <title> tags on each page.
3. Add meta description and keyword tags.
4. Keep page content on the shorter side, but make sure to still completely communicate a full idea. Don’t use 800 words for something that requires only 500. Longer content should be broken up into separate pages with keyword-laced title tags.
5. Make sure that your Web pages have correct HTML coding. Use a validation tool such as the W3C Markup Validation Service to check each page’s syntax.
6. Search engines tend to prefer sites with more than a handful of pages. If your site has fewer than 10 pages, add one Web page of content today. Even if it has more than 10, consider adding more: search engines love sites with regularly updated content.
7. Use Wordtracker or Keyword Elite to find the most common search keywords for your topic. Use those words (and variants) on your new pages.
8. Explore Google’s Webmaster Tools area. Create a sitemap and register it there.
9. Use <h1>, <h2>, etc., tags instead of <font> tags for your site’s headlines.
10. Request one new link from a Web directory or other Web site related to your topic.