Search engine optimization is a proven way to get swarms of free traffic invading your website. However, many people choose not to do search engine optimization because they think it is difficult. I agree - it can be perceived that way but it's not difficult if you just follow some basic ground rules for SEO success.

I personally have several websites and dozens of web pages that make it to the first page for competitive keywords, and all I do is simple SEO fundamentals. Yes, it's really simple to optimize your site for the search engines as long as you follow the main rules. You definitely don't need any fancy tricks to succeed at all.

If you want to learn how I get on the first page of Google consistently for competitive keywords, then read on for the simple 2-step process I use:

Step 1 - The first thing I do is on-site optimization. I will optimize my meta tags, including the title, keywords and description to include the main keyword phrase I'm targeting for a high ranking.

Step 2 - Then I do off-site optimization. This involves the building of backlinks to your web site. You'll want to include your main keyword phrase in the these links (to make them anchor text links) so they get recognized by the search engines. Some ways to get powerful backlinks is through article marketing (posting articles all over the web to article directories), forum posting, blogging, and directory submission. All these tactics are effective in generating quality backlinks.