If you want free search engine traffic to your website, then it is crucial that you get good search engine rankings. It is widely know that the most important factors needed to improve search engine ranking are, optimization of your pages, quality back links and original content. These are key elements in any niche.

But what should your focal point be?

You should make a list of keywords to consider first, before getting started. Is there a group of words that you'd like to denote as keywords for this web page? Carefully researching your keywords will help to get a targeted phrase that has little competition. You should spend a lot of time picking your keywords so that you give yourself the best possible chance for a top 10 ranking.

For good search engine rankings, one must consider both on page and off page factors. The things you put on your web page are called on page factors. This includes the actual article or content and any title, alt and meta tags. Value-added content makes your site more appealing to the people who go there and will also help to build visitor trust which will eventually translate to more sales.

Using your keyword phrase in the description and keyword meta tags, the title and in the beginning, middle and end of the content will help to improve search engine ranking. In addition, use your keyword phrase within the name of the file.

While on page factors are important, it's the off page factors that really will help with your ranking. Off page factors refer to the links coming in to your site. It is essential that the keyword phrase you are highlighting is used in the anchor text of the majority of links to that page. That being said, you don't want all the inbound links to have your keyword in the anchor text, so you should use different variations as well. The best links provide both highly relevant content and quality writing and design; still, links from pages that have general interest appeal should not be overlooked.

The more links you get the more you will improve search engine ranking for your webpage. That is the single most important thing, even above the 'article' that you have on your page. If everything else is equal, receiving more links that your competitors in the top ten results of search engines will place you on the first page.