Whether you have recently built a new website or are considering it, one aspect that must be considered is how to get people to see it. The best way to generate traffic without running up a huge advertising budget is to rank well in search engine results. This process of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is competitive, yet fairly straightforward - and it can result in long-term, targeted traffic that does not cost you per user.

SEO begins with identifying the keywords that relate to your product or the topic of information you provide. Ideally, the text of the domain name should match these targeted keywords because this will be the first clue that helps the search engines understand what the website you are building is all about. A site named OrangeWidgets.com will have a natural advantage if people are searching for orange widgets. Of course, you don't have to focus exclusively on the keywords within your domain - you can write about anything you like. Other keywords just won't have quite the same advantage.

The second important step is to include content on the web pages directly related to the search terms you want to rank highly for. This would usually involve explaining the product or concept, comparing it to similar alternatives, and/or including reviews and testimonials. The title tags of each page should match the specific topic of the page, and additional pages should have URLs that match the title and most important keywords. Target search words could be bold, or written in a larger font, but the best bet is to keep this to a minimum because over-optimization could be seen as a sign of spam. A safe guideline here is to make sure that the page is useful and readable for your web visitors.

The final fundamental key to SEO is building links back to your website from other domains. Link building is probably the most important aspect - search engines won't even know your domain exists until another websites show them where you are with a link. Three main factors will cause these links to improve your search engine rankings:

• the readable text of the link should match the target keywords;

• the links should be placed in related pages that discuss similar topics;

• and it is best if the links come from sites that rank highly already

The fine details of this SEO process are debated and refined daily, but the basic strategies outlined here will help anyone get started with online promotion and building better search engine rankings. Most keywords are very competitive, but if you produce comprehensive information on your website it is fairly easy to rank for longer search phrases that ask more specific questions. As time goes on and your links grow, your site will rank higher for the shorter targeted phrases and words.

John McDonald writes about website building, SEO, and website hosting at his newest website.