There are of course many factors that go into your online success; everything from lead generation to having the proper advertising system in place. However there is one element which you will find indispensable to your online success and that is web site search engine optimization commonly referred to as SEO.

SEO refers to the process of constructing your website in such a way that it is looked at favorably by search engines like MSN, The Google and Yahoo. This in turn leads to higher rankings, more internet traffic and free advertising for your website. What makes seo optimization so important is the fact that over 80% of your site traffic will arrive via the search engines. For this reason alone, having a good web site seo strategy in place is essential.

There are a variety of factors you need to consider when putting together your strategy but these three standout in particular:

1. Keyword Prominence

Where do your keyword search terms show up first? Usually the closer your keywords appear to the top of the page, the more prominence search engines give them. This is because they crawl the html code of your site before the content. Putting keyword search terms into places such as your title can give you a distinct advantage over other webmasters who only use keywords in their content. The trick is not to overdo it by stuffing too many keywords (or worst keyword search terms that have no relation to your web content) into the head tags of your html code.

2. Inbound Link

Back in the day, it was vital to get reciprocal links to your website. Search engines placed a lot of importance on who you were linking to and vice versa. Not anymore. Instead of link exchange, search engines are placing more value on inbound links commonly referred to as backlinks. In essence, search engines view this as a kind of referral system. One site is recommending another without having to reciprocate.

To make backlinks really work, you must get them from sites which already rank well in the search engines. All of this does not mean reciprocal links are of no value. A quality link exchange is still looked upon favorably by the search engines and you should definitely use this technique for your website. But concentrate on getting those inbound links first and foremost.

3. Web Site Content

While search engines do value your keyword prominence and amount of backlinks to your site it still comes down to what's on your webpage. The internet is at the dawning of a video revolution but that only means more information will be required. Content is king and will be for a long time.

Write as many unique and quality articles as possible and place them on your website. If you want to, you can outsource this process or just visit the article directories and find content related to your niche and use it on your website. Be sure to read the term and conditions in regards to using other people's articles. Grow your web content slowly, so it looks more natural to the search engines. Update the information frequently.

The importance of web site search engine optimization cannot be overstated. A site that is ranked favorably can bring in tons of free internet traffic. Evaluate your keyword prominence; focus on getting good inbound links while concentrating on providing useful web site content and the search engines will start bringing more and more internet traffic to your website.