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I consider myself a successful writer, writing trainer and e-book author. I might be just as successful if I didn't have a website, but I'd spend a lot more timeand moneyon marketing.

Last year, 75 per cent of my new clients found me through my website. There are two reasons for that high number: Canadians are heavy users of search engines, and my site is optimized to show up prominently in search results.

To put the importance of search engines into perspective, almost 85 per cent of the Canadian Internet population conducts at least one search per month, according to comScore Networks. In total, Canadians conduct about 575 million searches each monthan average of 40 searches per user. Americans average between three- and 3.5-billion searches each month.

Google accounts for about 60 per cent of all Web searches, Yahoo! 19 per cent, MSN Search and other search engines split the rest. Since many users don't read more than the first pages of links, your website should rank high in their search results. Setting it up so that it ranks higher in the results is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

To optimize my site, I first determined the keywords people might use when searching for a writer with my expertise. Then I wove those keywords into my website copy. I also associated keywords with images on my site. If you go to my website and place your cursor over my picture, you will see a yellow flag containing some of my keywords.

Those words can be read by web crawlersautomated programs that access websites and follow the links they contain. The web crawlers then index website addresses and associated content in search engine databases. Web crawlers cannot read images. So, if you have an image-based homepage, you have feed textlike the keywords associated with my pictureto the web crawlers. Otherwise your graphics-only homepage will not show up in search results.

I also included my keywords in meta tagsa keyword list, site description and page title. Other than the page title, meta tag information is not seen by regular site visitors. Many SEO experts say using meta tags are a waste of time, because web crawlers tend to ignore them. But, writing meta tags helps you think about your keywords and how you want to describe your site. As well, when a visitor bookmarks your site, a title meta tag makes the site easier for people to find it in their favourites list.

However, all this keyword work won't necessarily get your site listed in search engines. While you can submit your website information to search engines, it can take several months (or longer) for your site to be included in search results. What you should do is make it easy for web crawlers to find your site.

Since web crawlers swing from site to site looking for links, you need to have other websites linked to your site. What you want is quantity and quality. To acquire links to my site, I entered reciprocal arrangements with several writers and other associates. They provide links to my site and I provide links back. As well, I sold several articles and chapters of my e-books to content sites that now link to my own website.

Many SEO experts recommend that you maintain a weblog, also called a blog, or an on-line journal. Bloggers frequently read other people's blogs, and if they find something interesting, they often will comment on it and link to it. This creates links that web crawlers will find. But if you think you can boost your search-engine rank by simply littering thousands of blogs with links to your site, think again. Web crawlers are able to detect this type of "blog spam" and can issue the search engine equivalent of a death sentencethe removal of a site from the search engine database.

While blogs can help with SEO, I don't maintain one because of the time it requires. However, as an alternative, I am looking at generating Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds from my site. RSS is a way of notifying site visitors and search engines of new content on your blog or site. Like blogs, RSS can drive traffic to your website and boost your search engine rank.

Since links are crucial to raising your site's profile with search engines, some unscrupulous website owners and so-called SEO "experts" set up link farms and doorway web pages. Link farms are websites that contain nothing but keywords and links back to a specific site. Doorway sites, which also contain keywords, automatically redirect people to certain sites. While these type of techniques might boost your site's rank, web crawlers will eventually catch on and remove them from search engine indexes.

It's not easy to have a website rank highthe first page of a Google keyword searchif you are in a competitive field. However, based on my keywords, my site ranks high in Yahoo! and MSN Search. Google loves my name, but it's a hit-and-miss with some of my keywords.

While you cannot buy your way into the major search engines (other than the Yahoo! business directory, which is different than the regular Yahoo search engine), if you are in a hurry to have your site appear on Google, Yahoo, or MSN Search, you can use pay-per-click advertising. These ads, which the advertiser associates with keywords, are not regular search results, but they display to the right of the free search engine listings. You only pay if someone clicks on your ads.

And if SEO seems too big a mountain to climb alone but too important to ignore, find an Internet marketing or SEO company. However, beware of any SEO service provider that guarantees you a No. 1 rank. As many have said before me, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.