Once you make your website, optimizing it to suit the needs of the search engine is very important. There is no use of making a great website, if there is no one to read it! I have been in this business for too many years to count. I thought of penning down my ideas on good SEO. Hope this is of help

Keywords: Find relevant keywords, that are not too common to erase competition, but at the same time should be easy, so that the user searches for it. Do not keep more than 2 keywords a page. Put the keywords in the Meta tag, so the page clearly describes what keywords are being targeted in that particular page. Spread your keywords all through your page. Do not concentrate it in one particular paragraph.

Domain name and title: Choose a domain name that reflects wither on your brand or your product. I suggest choosing your brand’s name, as your domain name will help you build the image of your brand as a company

Usability: The website must be easy to navigate. Organise your website well. Getting entangled in the maze of a website makes the user point his mouse to the top right hand corner and click on the cross button! One target customer lost!

Avoid flash based sites. Something that may look good to the eye might not go well with the brain!

Content: Content is the king. Fresh content that is updated regularly invites the spider to come and crawl into your website. It could also help you rank higher as you are in the constant focus of the search engine spiders

Black Hat SEO: It may seem alluring in the beginning, but avoid it! It may bring quick results for a short span of time, but the search engines are devise dby smarter minds. You might have your website banned permanently

Links: Submit quality links. One-way links have the maximum impact. Submit your websites to SEs and directories manually

Remember, the website is as much for the search engines and users as it is for you. So, make it the

A good SEO must review your product/service before he makes recommendations for your website. Adequate amount of time must be spent in keyword search. Sane knowledge of technical development like hosting, redirects, error pages, etc gives you an edge. Content is the only way your website talks to your potential clientele. Make it headstrong

When is the best time to hire an SEO?

• When you are planning to launch a new website
• Or when you are planning to revamp your website with a new design

Answer a few questions before you hire an SEO consulting company- Are there any previous success stories? Do they write articles on other websites, which indicates that he knows the stuff that he is into? Is he cognizant of Webmaster tools? What is the timeframe to achieve stipulated results?

Beware of touts who promise you results. They may cheat you by claiming that your website shall receive higher rankings, but instead places your website link in the sponsored advertisement section. If he ever operates in secrecy, smell the rat. If the SEO has been removed from Google’s index or has not submitted himself to Google, think twice

Choosing a good SEO company is imperative, specially when you don’t have adequate knowledge about SEO. Take your time, browse through a few websites, before you make your final call.