If you want to get to the coveted number one position on Google for your chosen keyword or keyword phrase, you’ll need more than luck. You’ll need a strong understanding of search engine optimization related techniques. You can find many of these techniques for free but it could take you a good deal of time to separate fact from fantasy.

Reaching the top of any search engine requires that you apply the methods used by today’s top ranked websites. There are a variety of techniques that are applied to top ranking sites and many that wont improve your ranking a single position. I’ve spent a great deal of time experimenting and determining which techniques work the best and here they are.

Choose your keywords very carefully. Your chances of success for any website, landing page, or blog go up by more than 300 percent if you choose keywords carefully. By finding keywords that receive a fair number of searches yet have little competition, you can quickly and easily reach top placement. Start with internal navigation. Develop a simple navigational structure for your site. Use your keywords for these internal links and make sure navigational items are used consistently on each page. By having your keywords in your navigation, search engine spiders and browsers know where to find important content.

Meta Tags are important to optimization efforts. So many people think that meta tags no longer hold any weight. The truth is that meta tags are just one of many factors affecting search engine rankings. That being said these tags are needed to validate to web site spiders that your content is consistent with your tags. Also, consider that meta tags drive how your search listing appears in search results. You want to provide something that is informative and encourages users to click through to your website.

Pages should load quickly. Speed is everything when it comes to search engines. Sites like Google and Yahoo want to give browsers access to valuable content. This is virtually impossible if they never reach the content they are looking for. If you want to improve rankings, be aware of how quickly your site loads compared to competitive sites. The faster your site loads the better you’ll be.

Build links to your website for optimal results. Achieving top rankings is easy if you know where to focus your SEO efforts. Once you have built a website that is properly designed for fast load times, easy navigation, and highlighting certain key terms, its time to start building links to your website. Find web sites in related niches and begin with link exchanges, link barter and purchasing one way links. This ads value to your site and improves ranking.

When it comes to SEO there’s some good news. Even though Google and the other search engines like Yahoo do not fully disclose their search algorithm, we do know a number of things about how they work. This knowledge, gained through the analysis of many websites can help guide us on where to focus our optimization efforts.