When I first put my website up I anxiously waited with high anticipation for the traffic to arrive. And let me say, I waited, and waited -- and got excited when I saw some clicks, before realizing they were my own. Then my patience turned to frustration. I had to find a way to get traffic to my site--for my own clicks were definitely counterproductive.

As with most newbies, I did not have a lot of money to work with, so I was looking for a free option to get my website moving. That's when I came across this thing called Search Engine Optimization. It was free, required a lot of work, but the rewards would be long term. At least that was what I read.

So, what am I doing wrong with SEO?

First, most people tend to want to shy away from Search Engine Optimization. Why? It's seems complicated, they're not quite sure where to begin or they feel the results are too long-term and not immediate (usually). Well, all I can say is, take a deep breath, step through your fear and tackle the monster of SEO, or your online business will suffer.

The first mistake many webmasters make, I included, is to assume that you only need to optimize your home page. Not true, you should optimize for traffic on all your web pages. If you have in the beginning, say, 20+ pages, do you want people to just hit your home page or all 20+ pages? I bet you're saying all 20+ pages. If not, you should be. You must make your website accessible to your target market, thus, open the entry points where you want them to enter.

Second mistake, many webmasters do not fully understand the importance of keywords in their meta tags. Thus, SEO begins first with optimizing your meta tags with your keywords or keyword phases.

Meta Tag Title -- your keywords should be in the meta tag title. Well, let's see, what did I have -- my index web page had the welcome title that I used on the web page. Well, this could be a good thing if it has your keywords in it -- but if it doesn't you're losing the search engines and traffic. Translated, what title you have on your web page for visitors to view, doesn't necessarily have to be the title in your Meta Tag Title.

Meta Tag Description -- your keywords should be included in the description as well. It's almost like writing a concise ad to draw the search engines and traffic. If you go to Google and type in one of your keywords, you may very well see the meta description drawing people to your site. It depends on what the search engines find to be relevant.

Meta Tag Keywords -- some say that the search engines ignore the keywords, while others believe they are giving the competition an unfair advantage. I personally use the meta tag keywords, both as a personal reference and for any of the search engines that may still use the keyword meta tags.

Alt tags -- not all search engines utilize the alt tags, but some still do. So, don't ignore the images, where you can put a keyword in an alt tag. It's rather simple, just put alt="keyword here" within the image.

Content -- you should have keywords within your content. For me, emphasis should be audience first, then keywords. So write your content first, then try to incorporate your keywords.

Things To Avoid

To keep you in good standing with the search engines you should avoid some of the following:

1. Blackhat tactics -- No hidden keywords. Which means, having keywords that are the same color as your background and are not visible to the human eye.

2. Keyword stuffing -- Stuffing your keywords into your copy. You can tell rather easily by the fact that the content does not flow smoothly and may have little or no learning value to the reader.

This is a good starting point, and if you're new to SEO it will keep you busy for a while. So, create the mindset of "getting it done" with long-term goals and you should begin to see traffic coming your way for years to come.

To Your Success.

Vickie J Scanlon She has been working on the Internet as an affiliate marketer and an avid researcher -- learning and sharing information on all the facets of Internet Marketing.   Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz (My Affiliate Place) for free and have to purchase tools related to all phases of an online business, articles related to affiliate/internet marketing, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities, computers and software utilities and more.