Have you ever wondered how some websites manage to appear on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search?

This is not a random coincidence. A technique called search engine optimization is what helps to get such remarkable results!

This is a methodology which will elevate the ranking of your website in a search engine listing. It also helps improve the number and position of search results for a wide variety of relevant keywords. Now this might seem difficult or confusing. But the truth is that all you need is to pick up some skill and Voila! …

Take down a few handy tips and watch the magic.

Avoid awkward designs – This is for all you people who love website frames, flash, JavaScript, image maps or dynamic URL’s. You have a problem here!

§ Search engines are poor at indexing framed sites. Try to do away with the frames for better listing. But should you necessarily need to use frames, then the best thing you can do is use the tag.

§ Dynamic URL, flash, image maps or JavaScript also come in the way of a higher listing.

Select relevant keywords - Your choice of keywords is very important as these will be used throughout the entire search engine optimization process. Choose the wrong keywords and bingo, you’re nowhere to be found in the listing. Using specific key phrases will help your website cater to a larger target audience.

Write a proper title tag - Take care with the way you write the title and meta tags. This is what search engines generally use as the heading of a website while listing it in the search results. The length of the title tag should be anywhere between 50 - 80 characters including spaces. Including the key word in the title enhances the search engine optimization process.

Optimize your site’s copy - 'Copy' here means the actual text that a visitor to your website would read. For best results, it is advisable that each page you submit has at least 200 words of copy on it. This text should include the most important keyword phrases, if possible multiple times, yet remain logical & readable.

Don’t ignore images - Each image on your web page offers the opportunity to include a keyword phrase in the title or description. While this does not work on all search engines, it certainly does not hurt, so we recommend you give it a shot wherever you can!

Do not spam! - While spamming can help you get listed higher on a search engine, never try to use this trick. Search engines can detect spam and your site might be blacklisted by them.

A couple of other tips which might aid the search engine optimization process are the following:

Wire the hyperlinks - Search engines act weird at times! They think that if you have a link going out from your page then it’s likely that the hyperlinked page is related to the content on your page. This is why they look for keywords in the hyperlinks and any text immediately surrounding them. Therefore try to include your most important keyword phrases in the hyperlink. Again, make sure the links and surrounding text are still readable and continue to make sense even after including a keyword phrase or two.

Tweak the headings - HTML heading tags can also help improve your website’s ranking. Since they are headings, search engines tend to think that they are closely related to the content on the page. Try to include your most important keyword phrases in heading tags.