Search engines like Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, MSN, etc are the medium between the website and the potential visitor. And search engine optimisation (also known as SEO) is the process that enhances the visibility of a website so that it attracts maximum number of targeted visitors. It is a service that comes under the marketing field whose aim is to popularise ones site among the targeted audience. Numerous techniques are adopted to increase the page ranking of a website through search engine optimisation. Some of them are as follows:

* Web site designing: Design of a website plays a vital role in search engine optimisation that can enhance or hinder the site's readability by the various search engines. For example, if a site is designed using the frames then it will not be indexed by the search engines or if the content of site are displayed using the flash then those flash text can not be read by the search engines. Whereas, if the site is well defined with required applets, it can be easily noticeable. So, one needs to be careful while designing the site so that it increases its visibility.

* Keywords: Research of right keywords that potential visitor can type while looking for the same product which the site provides is very important for effective search engine optimisation. One can not optimize the site without knowing the target audience and right keywords. Relevant text can be designed only if one knows the exact keyword. Search engines might not list the site, if selection of keyword is wrong and will ruin the whole process of search engine optimization.

* Place of keywords: Placement of keywords is again important for search engine optimisation that is only keywords accommodation is not important, its placement especially in title tag and other pages like "company profile" and "about us" is also vital because these pages are highly searched by the search engine crawlers. * Alt tags: Alt tags are the words which can be included on images and are displayed when the visitor palaces the mouse on the image. This technique helps search engines to list the site in result page. So, one should keep in mind while processing the search engine optimisation that it is not only the text but images also help to achieve a higher ranking.

* Sitemap: Sitemap provides the information about every page that site contains. If a website has sitemap, it will be easily navigated by the users and the search engines. With this, all pages of the website are indexed by search engines. But one must ensure that the sitemap is well prepared and complete to get the most from search engine optimization.

* Link exchange: Link exchange is a technique under which links are exchanged with similar sites. If the site has its link on other sites and also contains the number of relevant links from other websites, its increases the traffic and popularity and has greater chances that the search engines place it on top position of result page. Link exchange is also considered as a tool to decide the desirability of a site and hence an effectual tool of search engine optimisation.

About the Author

By Fiona Livnat. Fiona Livnat is an author with expertise on varied subjects like Search Engine Optimisation. She has over ten years of experience in writing.Her commitment to help people is reflected in her writing. For more details please visit SEO Consultancy.