Search engine optimization (SEO) has been more prominent since last year when Stomper Net opened its doors. There's no doubt that if you make a page search engine friendly, you're going to get lots of free search engine traffic. But to keep an SEO system working well, you really need specialized knowledge. Does that mean it's not for you? Absolutely not! You can use some simple SEO strategies to get your list building pages seen.

We've discussed before how important it is to put your opt-in box anywhere you can--on the homepage of your website, on your blog, on your MySpace profile, etc. If you haven't done that, now's a good time to stop reading and go do it! Then, come back, of course, but you see how important that is? Your list building efforts can multiply when you do those things.

To help people find your site, which increases your list building potential, you also want to know a few specific keywords that apply to your niche. My suggestion is to sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and list as many words as you can imagine that surround your niche.

For instance, if your niche is jewelry, you might have diamond jewelry, bracelets, gold, silver, and so on. Just think of as many terms as you can. Then, go to http://inventory.overture.com and plug them in, one at a time, and see how many people have searched on each of those words in the previous month. Decide which words get the most hits and forget them. Forget words that get less than 10,000 searches. Find words that apply and that are somewhere in the middle. Those will be your less-competitive, but still frequently searched terms. Make a separate list of those, too.

Then, from the words that are remaining, choose three to five and those will be the words you want to rank for. Use them in every blog post you make, but not all at once. Use the first word in a post, then the second, and so on. You'll need to use them at a keyword density of around 2%. That means, if you write 500 words, about 10 of them should be your keyword. It's not that easy, and it's very difficult to get 2% for all of them in one post. It will look and "sound" funny to the reader's ear. Plus, search engine spiders will think you're trying to spam them. Not good.

OK, so we're list building. Right? How does this apply? Hang on, you'll see...

When you've finished your post, and you're sure your keyword density is around that 2% mark, go to your post and make the one of the keywords you used bold or italic. Also link to your website with one of the keywords you used, and make the hyperlink to your list building page. After making several posts in your blog, you should start to see your site rise in the rankings, and you'll be getting more people on your list. Don't expect immediate results because SEO takes a while to kick in. Just keep posting and using your keywords, and you should see some results.

Do the very same thing with your MySpace profile, or wherever you hang out, and use your keywords. Your homepage should have your keywords in it for around a 2% density, too. If you do these simple things, you'll be amazed at how much they really help.

Tellman Knudson, Internet Marketing master, is CEO of Overcome Everything, Inc. Get your Free list building CD and a free trial of Tellman's List Building Club when you visit http://listbuildingpower.net



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