If you’re finding your search engine ranking dropping, or feel that it should be higher, it may be time to give your site some spring-cleaning tweaks to push it back up in the rankings. There are lots of ways to boost your traffic, and employing as many of them as possible will greatly improve your chances.

It may sound like common sense, but a lot of webmasters forget that content is the number one thing to work on if you want to attract the search engines. Make sure that your copy is human- and spider-friendly: your spelling and punctuation should be excellent, your content original and interesting, and it should be rich in keywords related to your product or service. Remember that pictures are not "read" by search engines, so if you are using images, be sure to use keyword-rich alt tags. Be consistent with your keywords also in the meta tags of each of your pages. Keep your keywords short and on-topic, and try to imagine what you would search for if you wanted to find the product or service your site provides.

Links are also an important part of search engine optimisation. Try to exchange links with complementary websites (rather than direct competitors). If you type "links:" followed by your URL into Google, you can see which pages link to yours. Also, consider posting in a blog or in forums, adding links as you go, and maybe even publish articles on the web which end with a link back to your site. You may also want to investigate pay-per-click advertising schemes such as Google’s AdWords programme.

Finally, bear in mind that Google and other search engines publish guidelines about search engine optimisation with which it is worth keeping up to date. Make sure you stick to the rules, as breaking them can result in your site being penalised.

By Natalie Catchpole

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