Improving your website's search engine rankings will increase traffic to your site. 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. It doesn't matter what the website is about--these are absolute requirements.

But what should your focal point be?

The most important thing on your page is the keywords you are targeting. Is there a group of words that you'd like to denote as keywords for this web page? To find the most targeted phrase with little competition, you must carefully research your keywords. You should spend a lot of time picking your keywords so that you give yourself the best possible chance for a top 10 ranking.

There are two major parts of getting a good ranking - on page factors and off page factors. What you actually put on the page is an "on page factor." This includes the tags in the header, the title and the content itself. You're not going get website hits if you don't have the subject matter that draws people in.

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. Also, use your keyword phrase in the filename - having the phrase 3 times in the article will do, you don't need to overdo it.

When it comes to increased ranking, on page factors are important, but it's the off page factors that really count. This means the links that point back to your page. It is important to make sure that the anchor text for many of the links to your page contain your keyword phrase. It's not good, however, to have all your inbound links be the same so you want to mix it up a bit and use variations. 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.

Getting as many links as you can is the key to improve search engine ranking. For getting your site to a high position in the SE's, the inbound links are more important than what is on your web page, it is your content, however, that will keep them coming back. If you want a top spot in most search engine results, you need more links than your competing pages. This will get you a good amount of traffic - what you do with it once it gets to your page, is up to you.

If you want to see real life proof of how getting more links to your site can increase your position in the search engines, then check out my case study at http://www.uniqueturnkeywebsites.com/backlinkstestcase.php