In today’s post, we are going to focus exclusively on the natural search piece of the puzzle. (Since paid search would require its own post, hopefully Stylo Creative will invite me back in the future for a post that focuses exclusively on paid search. )

Having spent the past nine years as a search marketing professional, I can tell you with absolute authority and conviction that a well targeted SEO campaign will result in highly targeted traffic and conversion (which in turn will add to the bottom line of your business).

To get you started in the right direction, I have assembled a list of twenty ways you can make your website more Google friendly (which will also help benefit it’s rankings in Yahoo and MSN). Before we dive in, I want to point out that this list assumes you have done keyword research to identify your target keywords. If you haven’t taken the time to do that, bookmark this page, research what keywords you should optimize your website for, and then come back to this list and dive right in:

Have good title tags: Not only do the title tags tell the search engines what your site is about, but compelling title tags will also give users a reason to click through to your website when it appears in their search results.

Have a well written meta description: The meta description is used to provide the text under the title link in search results, so you want to write a good meta description that contains keywords and accurately describes your site.

Use keywords in your link anchor text: Search engines pay a lot of attention to the links on your site, along with the words that you use in them. Instead of using phrases like “click here” or “for more information,” use anchor text that contains keywords and tells users where they will be going.

Use relevant keywords in your general copy: This can be tricky, but it’s worth the effort. While some people will say you should ONLY write for humans (while others will say you should write for search engines), the truth is that you need to find a balance between the two. While stuffing a keyword into your content dozens of times will sound ridiculous when humans read it, you can find creative ways to include a couple of keywords for the search engines to come across.

Use a good link structure: Instead of domainname.com/page.html, you would want to use domainname.com/descriptivekeyword.html. If you are using WordPress, you will want to change the default permalink structure.

Use descriptive alt text on images: All images on your website should have alt tags (alternative text). Alt tags are used to describe the image, and in the event that the server cannot find the image it’s looking for, this text will display to visitors. This text also improves the accessibility of your pages (for example, when a visually impaired user visits your website with a screen reader), and this is something that Google will take into account. Alt tags are also a great opportunity to legitimately add some extra keywords to a page.

Use descriptive file names for images: If you have an image of a frog, you would want to name the file frog-1.jpg (instead of something generic like 1.jpg).

Have an XML sitemap: The XML sitemap is a coded site map that makes it easier for search engine spiders to index all the pages of your website. WordPress users can create one with the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, while other website owners can use the XML Sitemaps Generator. Once it’s created, you will want to register your sitemap with Google Webmaster Tools.

Have an HTML sitemap: An HTML sitemap on your website will not only make it easier for Google to crawl your deep content, but will also provide users with a better navigational experience.

Use keyword in heads and subheads: An important aspect of basic on-page optimization, this allows you to tell Google and users what your website is all about.

Have a clean link structure: Instead of cluttering your HTML with style attributes for links, use CSS to style your website without hindering search engine spiders from crawling your code.

Validate your source code: Like the tip above, validating your source code will ensure that search engine spiders don’t run into any technical difficulties when crawling your website.

Focus on home page optimization: This is the most important page of your website, and the key to your site being found in the search engines. Your home page should be easy to understand and summarize the rest of your website. Your home page should have your main keywords spread throughout the title, heading, content and alt tags of the homepage.

Start a link building campaign: Having quality inbound links shows Google that your site can be trusted. There are many different ways to build links, including commenting on do-follow blogs, writing link bait articles, or exchanging blogroll links with other bloggers. You can click the link at the beginning of this tip to see a total of 101 legitimate link building strategies.

Guest post frequently: In addition to helping you build links, this will also allow you to network with other people in your industry (which can lead to them linking to you on additional occasions).

Have a company blog on your website: The nice thing about this one is it can also aid in your social media efforts. However, in regards to SEO, publishing new content will ensure your website is being crawled on a regular basis.

Avoid most WISYWIG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors: It’s good to avoid most WISYWIG editors, because of the amount of excess they will add to your source code (which can cause issues for search engine crawlers). While I have not had too many problems with the editor in WordPress, an example of a troublesome editor is the one included with cPanel.

Add your site to Google Webmasters tools: There are multiple reasons to add your site to Google Webmaster Tools. For an in-depth look at all of these reasons, check out my post from November: Learn How Google Robots View and Index Your Site.

Have a robots.txt file: As mentioned above, you can create this with Google Webmaster Tools. The benefit here is that you can tell Google if there are pages of your site that you don’t want indexed.

Last but not least: While this one only applies to WordPress users, I highly recommend installing the All in One SEO Pack, which will automatically do many of the things we have discussed today.

Gerald Weber is president and founder of Search Engine Marketing Group in Houston, TX. He also maintains a Search Engine Marketing Blog.