Look up "EQ Coach" on google, and you'll see I'm #1, #2, and hold 5 of the top 10 slots. I'm #1 and #5 on yahoo. I'm #5 on askjeeves. Here are some of the ways I accomplished this.
1. Use keywords, and choose terms that you have a chance of getting rated in. In other words, if you're a coach, using "coach" puts you in line with 1,000,000 other sites, but "EQ coach" pares it down quite nicely.
2. Before you go any further, have you ever seen what your website "looks like" to the search engine spiders?
Taking a look at this site - http://spider.searchwho.com/ - will be a revelation to you, and also give meaning to the terms you read about, such as "meta tags" and "keywords." Plug in your website and take a look.
3. Then plug in the website of someone who's #1 in your field (coaching, marketing, shoeleather) and take a look at what their site has on it. Revelation!
4. Create meta tags for every page on your website, not just the first page. Go here - http://www.anybrowser.com/MetaTagGenerator.html - to create metatags for FREE.
5. Use a keyword in your URL. URLs such as http://www.susandunn.cc/aboutme.htm won't help you in ratings, but http://www.susandunn.cc/marketingcoach.htm, "marketing coach" will! At the same time, consider how you name the links on your menu. Those words will count for the SE. Instead of naming your link "About Me," name it "About the EQ Coach."
6. Choose 5 keywords that your page is about (1-2 words). Let's say coaching, emotional intelligence, EQ, transitions and professional coach. Then write your webpage content working in those 5 keywords as often as you can. The ideal density should be 8%. (density=number of times your keyword appears in relation to other words) If you want your website to work for you, you have to design it with this in mind.
7. Get other people to link to your website. This will increase your ranking. I give one of my ebooks in exchange for someone linking to me on their website. You could also agree to exchange links with someone.
8. Your web page's title tag is the single most important thing on there because the search engine's will look first for the keyword within the title tag. You'll learn about title tags when you generate your meta tags.
9. Your web page's title tag is the single most important thing on there because you are also talking to your reader, and the title tag is what will appear when they list your site on the results page.
10. The best way to choose keywords that will work is to go to http://www.wordtracker.com. Take the free trial and see how it works.
----
Permission granted to change title.