Choosing a Keyword 1. The first thing you'll want to do before you optimize the page is choose a keyword. Log in to Google Adwords and hover over Tools & Analysis - Click on Keyword Tool. 2. On "Match Types" on the left tick only ''Exact'' search and put in a Keyword inside the search box and hit Search. 3. Look for a Keyword that has 1,000-3,000 searches per month and has Low competition. Don't worry about CPC unless you're into Adsense. This isn't accurate either. Plus you'll only get 68% of what's in there. 4. Find one or two more keywords similar to that one with a bit less searches for diversity. 5. Put it in Notepad, save it somewhere. Creating a post / page 1. Make the title of the page your main keyword. If you want, add your other two keywords after it with pipes, eg. Dog Tricks | How to teach your dog tricks | Simple dog tricks (Keeping in mind Google only reads first 70 characters) 2. Make the page have a H1 heading of the main Keyword only - don't spam it with your other keywords - there's no need. 3. In the first paragraph of your article use your main keyword, use it again 2 or 3 times throughout the article and again on the last paragraph. 4. Use your other keywords 1 or 2 times throughout the article as well. 5. Don't Bold your keywords, this is just about as spammy as it gets and it carries little to no SEO weight whatsoever. Studies also prove that Italics carry more SEO weight than Bold but both hold little or no significance to rankings. 6. Your article should be 450-700 words in length. 7. Make sure your meta description is using the main keyword. 8. Meta keywords hold no significance to Google but do to other engines, so place your keywords in there. Getting Traffic 1. Submit your new post / page to Social Bookmarking sites. (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious etc.) - Use the main keyword as the anchor. 2. Create a new article for ezinearticles that refers to the same topic and include a link at the end of the article to your post/page using your main keyword as the anchor. 3. Create some content on Web 2.0 sites such as Squidoo, Hubpages, etc. - Put a link in the end that points to your post/page and use main keyword as the anchor. 4. Find relevant blogs that relate to your topic and post comments on their blogs with your text as the Anchor alternating between your 3 keywords for diversity and so it's not spammy. Look for PR2+ blogs only. (SeoBook toolbar can help you determine PR easily when you're visiting the blog.) 5. Find forums of PR3-4+ that have visible profiles and set your Anchor text as your signature and make a few meaningful posts to the forums. These get indexed slow but do carry some authority, not as much since the new Panda update. 6. Use answer sites such as AnswerBag or YahooAnswers (The ones that have dofollow) and submit your links when you post a meaningful answer 7. Repeat the above steps for all three of your keywords (Except the Social Bookmarking step where submitting multiple keywords to the same URL is considered spam) 8. You'll see rankings increase by week 3-4 if you continue using this backlink method which costs you nothing but time. Some Tips 1. Avoid abused web directories. Why? Because they have way too many sites and you just won't get any link juice going your way, your time is better invested writing more articles or building unique backlinks. 2. Don't turn your site into a keyword farm. Post accordingly and make sense. 3. Have fun, don't be a spammer. Other Info I said don't worry about the CPC in the beginning because I'm here to help you rank a page, not choose a keyword which has a high payout, and low competition - That's up to you if you're using AdSense. This is just a general guide for you to use on how to rank a page that isn't too competitive for free and for beginners. If you guys want I may post more threads in regards to choosing good keywords with good payouts and how to rank for them. Stick with the low competition unless you've got the firepower to fight the big fish - trust me it aint easy. Feel free to ask any questions or add to this, hope this helps some people out.