If you have been into website building or promoting, then there is hardly any chance that you have not heard about SEO or search engine optimization. This means that you design, write and code your whole website such that the search engines will place it at the top of search results for some selected key phrases and keywords.

SEO experts spend a lot of their time working to please those search engines that will bring in most traffic. Some of the search engines directories are AltaVista, Google,

HotBot, FAST Search, LookSmart, Business.com, Lycos, Netscape Search, MSN Search,

Open Directory, AOL Search,  and Yahoo.

If you want to optimize your website for search engines, then you should get it done before designing your website. When your web designer is creating page templates, simultaneously you can hire an SEO expert who will look at those templates and suggest the best option for good indexing.

After selecting your website’s best layout, you can then allow the SEO expert to advice the web designer on placing the keywords as well as key phrases in your HTML tags.

So, is there a way to tell if the professional you have hired is an SEO expert and not a scammer looking for someone to fleece? You can tell that by the results you get. An expert will be able to get you indexed well for Yahoo and Google.

These two search engines are different in their way of indexing sites from the directory. While Inktomi uses meta-tags for relevancy, Google does not. You should inquire to your SEO expert regarding how your website will be tagged for each one of these. In case he or she is not able to give you a different answer for all the three then you will know that you are not working with a SEO professional, time to move on.

If you did not know earlier and already have designed your website, then also an SEO expert will recommend useful design and layout changes. Do not take it personally. They are not suggesting that your website has a bad appearance. They are simply telling you that your layout will not be indexed well for the target key phrases and keywords.

For example, some website having a triple frameset is much more difficult to be indexed compared to a simpler frameset. An SEO professional will tell you and your web designer about any necessary changes that you might have to make.

SEO strategies in no way can compete with a website that has great content combined with a great layout. However, they can help your good content to be noticed faster. It will simply help your prospects to find your site sooner.