a) many people search for
b) has a low amount of competition, and
c) fits your specialized business niche.

For example, consider the phrase...office furniture. This is a highly competitive phrase. On June 7, 2006, this keyword phrase yielded over 101,000,000 competitive pages at Google. And further research reveals that this phrase received 3,654 searches since April 8, 2006.

Given this low competition/search ratio, a smart marketer will research more highly niched phrases that will net a better return.

For example, the search phrase “used office furniture texas” yields 12,200 competing sites: and 408 searches in a 60 day period.

Less traffic; but also less competition. Research shows that the long tail of search keywords yield a better conversion to sales. Think of it this way: if you are selling car parts on your site, would you rather have a visitor come to your site who is looking for "car parts" or for the search term "2003 Honda Accord Main Relay"? The term "car parts" may generate more traffic, but it is traffic that is less likely to convert to a sale than a very specific search term.

Notice the emphasis on “written”. Search engines cannot read the text that is embedded in images or Flash. If your site has a dearth of written content, you are invisible to the search engines. And notice the emphasis on “information-rich” -- search engines like to see hundreds of pages of highly organized, themed content about your particular topic of expertise.

Here are four of the most important basic writing tips to attract search engines (and customers!):

Write plenty of thoughtful 100-1,500 word articles about the keyword phrases you have researched. Be sure to effectively use these keywords on your web pages. No garbage, please! Simply repeating keyword phrases a few hundred times on one page to try to trick the engines is likely to get a site banned altogether....and prospects hate being tricked into visiting a low
quality, low-information page, as well.

Make sure your title and meta tags reflect the content of your page. Keep your title tags (in your page header) short, descriptive, and snappy....after all, the title tag is what a searcher will click to come to your site. And many search engines will use the keyword meta tag description as the subhead in the link. This means developing short, keyword rich titles for
every page in your website.

You need to provide a clean, clear, easy navigation path for the search engine spiders to follow.

And wouldn't you know it: your customers like clean, clear navigation, too!

Here are two top tips for providing the kind of navigation that search engines...and people...seem to love.

Create a site with a clear, horizontal hierarchy and text links. Every page in your site needs to be reachable from at least one static text link. Don't believe it? Read what Google has to say about site navigation at the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Offer a site map. Make a site map with text links to your site's most important pages. If the site map has more than 100 links, break the site map into several pages. Sitemapdoc offers a free tool that can help you quickly generate a map for a site with less than 750 pages.

Remember, your goal is to build a quality site. Avoid garbage content, keyword stuffing, designing without text and words, and a whole host of other factors that make your site unattractive to the search engines.

Check the QUANTITY of sites that link to your site. To check to see who is linking to you, Marketleap provides a free online tool that lets you see how many sites each of the top three search engines see as linked in to your site. You can see at a glance how you stack up against your competitors...as well as drill down and find out exactly who is linking to you.

3. Write and distribute with search engines in mind. When you write and distribute a press release, use keyword rich copy. And optimize your press release for search by distributing press releases through a service like PRWeb or Marketwire. These services offer inexpensive options that let you syndicate your keyword-dense content on Google News, Yahoo News, Topix, and other popular online news and idea-spreaders. And since inbound links from reputable sites are important for great search engine positioning, regular press releases with keyword rich content can help boost your site in search rankings.

4. Post your own press releases. You have a website: use it to post news about your company. Posting your own releases lets your audience get to know what's important at your organization. It gives the media an opportunity to review your ongoing stories. Plus, keeping your site current shows that your company is active and thriving.

1. Jakob Nielsen provides you with Usability 101 — the What, Why, and How of Usability. Read it, know it, practice it. It really is invaluable information. Like I said, you can significantly improve your business goals by following usability best practices.
   
2. In his recent, easy-to-understand article, Philipp Lenssen patiently describes the difference between usability, approachability, and accessibility. Good stuff to know.
   
3. The US Department of Health and Human Services Research provides a free download page of its 18 chapters of Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines. (One of the chapters covers accessibility.) Note that the title says “Research Based“. These guidelines are not opinion — so even if you are not developing a site for the Federal Government, the content in these pages can give you sharp insights on how to develop a more user-friendly website.
   

In his latest AlertBox, Nielson gives us even more compelling information on how usability can impact your ROI.

Use appropriate keywords in your anchor text. Anchor text is the set of word you request for the hyperlinks back to your site. For example: http://www.maniactive.com/powerpoi.htm and "Free PowerPoint Templates" both point to the same page on the same site, but one uses a descriptive keyword phrase to accurately describe the page's content for the user. Search engine spiders also use anchor text as one of the key factors that determines your site's placement at the engines. As you develop your inbound link strategy, brainstorm a set of keyword phrases you will want to use as your anchor text.

Free Online Tool: The Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer - Which sites are pointing to you right now....and what anchor text are they using? Find out by using this free online research tool, the Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer -- and find out what kinds of keyword phrases that sites are using to link back to your site. In some cases, you may be in a strong position to write to the webmasters and request that they use your preferred anchor text to link back to you.

How anchor text can help (or hurt)  - In some cases, a significant amount of inbound links that contain the same anchor text can get your site to the top of the engines for this phrase....even if the inbound links do not reflect your site's content! This might be wonderful if hundreds of sites link to you using positive and appropriate phrases...but beware of the phenomenon called "Google Bombing", where webmasters band together to link to your site using negative keywords. With the growing popularity of blogging and social media, Google Bombing is becoming easier to do, and has the potential to become a public relations nightmare.

Think about it: the quality of your link relationships is too important to mass produce. On the internet, you can't buy trust...and you cannot develop it by simply pressing a submit button. If you could, everyone would do it, everyone would take the easy way out -- and everyone would be number one at Google!

And of course, that is just impossible. Do not be seduced by the "one click and you are submitted to one million sites...guaranteed!" promises. It's just silly.

In fact, you'll notice that none of these eight steps mentioned anything about "submitting" to search engines. That is because you do not need to submit to Google, MSN, Yahoo, and other legitimate search engines. These engines send out their spiders. If you continually work each of these eight steps, the search engines will find YOU.

Remember, a great position at Google, Yahoo, or MSN is not a quick and easy way to boost traffic. Earning a top search engine position – and staying at or near the top – requires a long term approach to internet marketing. Companies need to continually develop quality content and promote their sites to remain visible not only at the search engines – but also to develop solid relationships with online prospects and clients.