Boost your site's search engine ranking
Get ahead of the pack by tweaking your home page
By Mike Slocombe for Internet Magazine, May 2004

Research shows that the vast majority of new sites are discovered via search engines - so if you want your website to be found amongst the zillions on the web, you've got to make sure the search engines know all about it.

If you want your site to be a hit, merely being listed on a search engine is not enough - you've got to ensure that when people type in keywords related to your site, it barges its way to the top 30 results. Most surfers won't click any further.

Key to getting your site noticed is your homepage. A well designed, search-engine optimised home page will welcome search engines like a long lost brother. A badly constructed botch-up could consign your hard work to oblivion.

Before we start, let's get one thing straight: if your site is a sloppily assembled collection of pages hosted on some freebie webspace somewhere, you haven't got a hope in hell of getting listed anywhere near the top of the search engine rankings.

To get to the very top, you've got to produce a popular, well built, search-optimised site, stuffed full of regularly updated relevant content.