10 Search Engine Optimisation Ideas for your Website

1. Meta Tags
Meta tags are simple lines of code which are inserted at the top of each of your web page’s programming that tell search engines about your pages. Include the title tag, keywords tag, description tag, and robots tag on each page.
2. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML (if possible)
Quite frequently, navigational items are in the form of Javascript. Even though navigation generally still works in this format, it's not optimised or read by the search engines. Create your navigation in HTML to enhance internal links all through your website. If your web editor doesn’t allow this then create a separate HTML set of links.
3. Create and update your sitemap
Developing a site map is an easy way of allowing search engines to find the information they need to crawl your website. You should be able to find free software packages on the web that can help you generate a sitemap. Once you have created your sitemap, submit it to Google and Yahoo.
4. Check that all images include ALT text
The alt text of the images on your website, is spidered by search engines. Including your keywords in your image’s alt text, means you're taking advantage of a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placements. Make sure all of your images are labelled properly.
5. Use Flash content sparingly
Content generated through Javascript or flash might look impressive but is not a good idea. Webmasters sometimes like to use flash because of the presentation it creates. If you have to, use it sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimised with basic search engine optimisation in mind.
6. Make sure that your website code is clean
Web page crawlers are really only looking at your source code. When programming your web pages, having W3C compliant code might make all the difference. Run your code through a W3C validator as a final check - before promoting.
7. Place keywords in your page content
One of the functions of search engines is to scan your website and individual web pages for keywords. Aim for a keyword density of between two and eight percent. Google likes pages that are at the lower end of this scale and Yahoo at the upper end.
8. Submit your website to search engine directories
They will find you eventually but a helping hand is a good idea to let large search engine directories know that you're out there. Submit your website URL to directories like Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ (although don’t expect overnight success with the latter).
9. Build links to your website
Think about building a link exchange programme or perhaps you could create one-way links to your site using forum posts or articles. It is important to all major search engines to have lots of links leading to your website.
10. Learn the basics
Learning the business of optimising websites for search engines takes time and patience. Start at the beginning by applying basic search engine optimization principles. If you're new to website optimisation, or not so new, begin by working out which pages have the most importance and go from there. Hopefully, you'll soon find yourself moving up the rankings.