Six Steps to Optimizing Your Web Site for Search Engines

"It's a balancing act between the quality of information on the page and keywords used," Quinn said.

Include keywords in:

• URLs, if possible, so that URLs can be read and understood.
• Metadata. Page title metadata appears in the blue bar at the top of browsers. When a search is done on Google for a keyword, the searcher will see the page title and often the metadata description of a page.
• Link text. Use your keywords to link to your own pages, and encourage others to do the same. Create titles that are friendly to link to to encourage people to use those rather than write their own text for links to your site.
• Image alt tags. These get thrown into the pot as keywords for your site and can help get your images on Google Images.

5. Ensure a search-friendly site architecture.
Have a simple link to each page on your site. Spiders can't follow JavaScript or drop-down menus. Linking to a sitemap from your homepage can help.