If you have a website, you know that website traffic is vital to the success of your business. Without traffic, you don't have a business in most cases. Search



engine traffic is important to website owners. Google is one of the most popular search engines in existence today, and it is important to learn how to rank high in

Google.

First you should note that there is only one number one spot for each keyword or keyword phrase in Google's search results. Many companies will promise that they can get you into that number one spot. Stop and think about that before you hand them your money.

There is only one number one spot. How many clients does this company have?

How many of those clients were promised the number one spot? If they get two or more clients that have identical sites ? which is bound to happen ? one customer may be very happy. The chances are good, however, that both clients will be sadly disappointed. Attempt to learn how to rank high in Google without hiring a ?professional? to do it for you.

Start by making sure that your site is ready for the search engines. Does everything work properly? Are all of the pages complete? Google hates sites that are under construction. If everything is working as it should, and all of your pages are complete, it is time to take it all a step farther. In order to learn how to rank high in Google, you have to take a closer look at your site.

Start with the file name of each page. Is the file name descriptive of the content that is on the page? In other words, if your page is about calico cats, you want the page to be called something like www.yourdomain.com/calico-cats.html, as opposed to www.yourdomain.com/article.html . Google will look at this, and you will be graded!

Now, take a look at your Meta tags. Do you even have Meta tags? If not, you need some. Go to Google, and do a search on your main keyword for your website.

In our example, this particular page of the website is about calico cats. Go to Google and type in that key phrase. You want to take a peek at the top ten sites.

This is not cheating in any way. This is called ?checking out the competition.?

Make your main keyword the title. In other words, if you site is about calico cats, your title should be Calico Cats. Simple enough, but Google looks at the domain name, title and first few sentences to determine what your site is about and if there are many different topics or keywords, you won't be ranked very high since they don't know what your site is about.

Go to each of those top ten sites, and after the page loads, click on view at the top of your web browser, and then choose ?source.? This will show you their HTML coding for that page ? including their Meta tags. Do this for each of the ten sites, and copy and paste the information into notepad. Now, using the information from the top ten sites, create your own Meta tags, which will of course compete well with the top ten sites Meta tags?.we have a long way to go yet before you finish learning how to rank high in Google, however.

Okay, once your Meta tags are perfected, it is time to go back and look at those top ten sites again. From their Meta tags, you should already know which keywords they are targeting. Make a list of those keywords, and use it to determine where and how often they are using their keywords throughout the content on the page. Of course, your content will be different, but you want to use your keywords in much the same fashion as they have.

Remember, you are learning how to rank high in Google, and this is indeed part of the learning process. Now, work on your content until you are using your keywords

like your competition is. As a side note, you should have about 2% density for your main keywords on each page. In other words, if your content on the page is 300 words long, you would use the keyword approximately six times. You don't want to over use it ? but you don't want to under-use it either!

Now, take a look at your graphics on your page. What you want to look at is the file names of the graphics, and the ?alt? tags in the HTML coding for the graphics.

If you don't know HTML, and you didn't design your own site, ask your web designer to change all of the graphic files to file names that use your keywords, and ask him to put a description of the graphic ?using the keyword ? into the ?alt? tags in the code.

Finally, use an HTML validator to check your HTML coding. Google also hates bad HTML, so do the right thing, and make sure that the coding is correct. If it isn't, either make the changes, or have your web designer make the corrections.

The next thing to do is to start a linking campaign. Google likes popular sites. The more quality sites you can get to link to your website, the better Google likes you.

There are many scripts available to manage a linking campaign.

Now, as you're generating inbound links, Google will find your site. Do not insult Google by using an automated submitter to submit your site. You'll also want to go to Google in person, and list your site in their directory, and strongly consider pay-per-click listings as well. Make sure that you add content to your site on a regular basis to keep Google interested, or you will quickly find yourself falling out of Google's grace.

Here's the lazy man's way to increase your Google rank. Do a search for the keyword or keyword phrase you are targeting. Find the #4 listing and click on the

backwards link on the Google toolbar, (you have the toolbar don't you?). If not, download a free one at Google.

Now, all you have to do is have more inbound links to your site than the #4 listing and your web site will be ranked ahead or #4.