This is the third and final segment of our article on Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Techniques. Read Part Two of Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Techniques here.

#8. Page Titles. A Page’s title shows up in the top most part of the browser window, to the left of “Mozilla Firefox” or “Internet Explorer.” If you simply use your domain name as the page title for all of your pages, you’re not telling Google any more about what is on your page. Pick a page title that is relevant to your content or article, and if possible use some of your keywords as well. Try to keep your title to 65 characters or less, so it fits on most browser’s displays.

#9. Headings. More HTML stuff here. A heading is a special HTML tag that shows up usually larger than the rest of the text and in bold. It can help indicate what the page’s content is about and break it up into meaningful pieces. There are different levels of headings, from 1 to 6. You shouldn’t use more that two <h1> tags, and it’s better to use only one. You can use multiple <h2> through <h6> tags to organize your content, but try to keep things from looking too busy or confusing. Making the page easily readable and understandable to people is far more important than trying to stuff every heading possible.

#10. Build a Sitemap. A sitemap is a special file that the search engines use to get a map or layout of all the pages on your site. Within the sitemap, you can indicate the relative importance of a page, how often it might change and when it was last changed. All of this is important to the search engines being able to index your content and be able to show it to potential customers when searching.

Search Engine Optimization takes time. It can be weeks before the Search Engines index your site. And a couple more weeks before any new content appears in their indexes. By that time you should have more content. So it’s a never ending process of examining how your existing pages are indexed and ranked, and coming up with new content that better focuses on your keyword strategy. But the more often you add content to your site, the more often the Search Engines will decide they need to come back to your site, so the faster your content can start to show results.

SEO is not a science, it’s more of an art. Not only do the Search Engines constantly change their algorithms, they also do not disclose what those algorithms are. So it’s nearly impossible to point to a specific strategy and declare “this works best.” But if you focus your efforts on providing unique, specific content for your site, make updates often, and follow your keyword strategy you will make headway. No one can guarantee you long term success when it comes to SEO. It’s something that you have to continue to work at and continue to learn about.