For some websites, up to 50% of their web traffic can come from search engines like Google, Bing, MSN, and Yahoo. Optimizing your site for search engines is key to growing the number of visitors to any site. Getting listed in search engines is a good start, but in order to really drive traffic, you’ll need to be listed on the first or second page of search engine results.

These are the basics of search engine optimization—nine steps you can take to increase the traffic you receive from search engines.

The first two steps are related to your site’s meta tags. These are tags that are placed in the “header” of your website code to describe your content to search engines. Most search engines use meta tags as a part of their formula for determining how to rank your page in their directory.

1. Page Titles
Make sure that all of the pages on your site have site titles that are descriptive of their content. In your titles, use keywords that accurately define what people will find on that page. The page title is the primary descriptor that users will see (and use) as a way to determine which page they’ll visit.

2. Be Strategic about your Keywords
Get all of the meta tags on each of your pages set up with keywords that are both highly searched and highly accurate about the content available on the site. There are a number of free tools available to help you identify the best keywords for your site such as Google's keywords tool and http://www.sitesubmit.ca/metatags.htm. Be sure that your keywords are relevant to the site’s focus and target audience. Use keywords in your title tag too, if they make sense. Don’t choose keywords that nobody looks for, and don’t choose keywords that don’t accurately relate to the content on your page. See how your site stacks up against your competitors on specific keywords using http://www.instantrankmeter.com.

3. Image Alt Tags
Whenever you post images on your pages, use “alt tags” to describe the content of the photo. This will help to list your images in image search engines. Also, if your images are relevant to the keywords in your meta tags, this practice may also help to escalate your position in search engines.

4. Get More Sites Linking to Yours
When more websites link to you (and you don’t link back to them), your pages will be better ranked. Submit your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo, and other free directories. If you are running a radio station website, make sure that all of the radio station “yellow pages” or directory sites like radiotower.com and onlineradiostations.com have your site listed. Remember that anytime you post a video on YouTube, you should use keywords and post a link back to your station site in the video description.

5. Use Google Analytics to Measure Your Search Engine Traffic
Google Analytics has outstanding tracking for the specific keywords that are driving traffic to your site. You can see which keywords are most popular and “profitable” for your site (which ones lead people to the pages on your site that are most important). You can also see if there are keywords that people are using to find your site that are not in your meta tags, so you’ll know if there are keywords that you should add. You can also see which search engines are driving traffic to your site, and how much.

6. Create a Sitemap
Somewhere on your site there should be a site map. That’s a page that lists and links to all of the major pages on your site. Create a page that is user-friendly, and create an XML site map for Google, Bing, and other search engines that “crawl” your site looking for maps of all of your content. Learn more about XML site maps.

7. Flash is Trash when it comes to Search Engine Optimization
It looks good, but search engines can’t see any of the content that is in flash. That means that “flash splash pages,” where users see flash animation before they get into your site, will work against getting you healthy search engine rankings. Be strategic about how your site is coded to be sure that search engines can read all of your content.

8. Stay Fresh
Keep your site’s content up to date. Sites that are frequently updated are “crawled” more often by search engines and generally ranked higher. Content that is current is not the only bellwether search engines use to determine rank. They look for sites that are considered “authorities” on the topic being searched, and they look for websites that have been around for a while with a good track record.

9. Scrutinize Broken Links and Site Load Times
When your site has broken images, links that don’t work, or if your site takes a long time to load, your search engine rankings will be negatively affected. Make sure your site loads quickly, and be sure that there are no broken links or images on the site. Google in particular is high on the end-user’s experience, so they pay attention to these attributes as part of their formula for rankings.

Investing your time and energy in getting your site properly configured for search engines will almost always result in a positive return in web traffic. Get your site measured with Google Analytics or another measurement tool, optimize your website, and track your success. If you execute each of these points, you will attract more traffic to your site.