Using search engine optimization is a great way to generate website traffic. The goal is to help bring your website to the top of the list of millions of similar websites when someone browses for your keyword. If you can be among the top ten websites listed for a topic, you are far more likely to receive browsing traffic. At the same time, your viewers are somewhat pre-qualified in that they are searching for something that you are offering.

There are several ways to achieve search engine optimization. These include using appropriate keywords on your website, and using links. Website design from step one should also be done with search engine optimization in mind.

The Internet uses search engines to locate websites that correspond to the topic being searched for in the browser. If you put in "house paint" you will see about 138 million websites that deal with that topic. Most viewers only look at the first page or two of listings, so that is where you must aim to come up in a search.

Starting with website design and domain name, use the highest priority keywords for your subject. There are free programs available that will allow you to input a topic and they show you what keywords are most likely to occur related to that topic.

Use keywords liberally in your website content text, headings, and so on for maximum effect. However, do not overuse them as the search engines can tell and do not like that. There are calculators that will tell you what ratio of keywords to use per hundred words, such as 3% to 5% usage.

Another thing to generate website traffic using search engine optimization is to include links from other websites to your website. The more links you have on the Internet, the higher your ranking will be.