Here are two brand new tactics that the search engine optimization gurus are talking about:

1. New META Tag: "Aesop"

If you get nothing else from this article, get this. This new tag is popping up on sites all over the Net and will dramatically change the way people search. Essentially, this tag breaks all Internet content into six useful categories. The purpose of this is to allow surfers to more accurately and quickly determine if a search result is, indeed, what they are looking for. It also allows Webmasters to attract more appropriate visits to their sites. Right now, the only engine that recognizes it is aesop.com, but I have it on authority that others are preparing to start recognizing the tag as well.

For more information, here is the official aesop META tag site (includes a free tag generator). If you don't already have this tag on all of your pages, it's critical that you do this right away: http://www.aesop.com/metatag.htm

2. CSS H1 Spoof

In the early days of the Net, search engines were easy to fool. These days, it's quite a bit more difficult, but it can be done. However, any time you use some type of trick to spoof the engines, you always run the risk of the engine catching you and banning your domain for spamming.

OK, with that caveat, here's the trick.

Some search engines will give words found in the "H1" tag a boost in relevancy. The H1 tag is used to specify your page's heading. The problem is, this heading is just plain ugly. It's a huge point Times New Roman heading that doesn't look good in anyone's Web design book.

Here's the good news: you can get the best of both worlds using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). With CSS, you can specify that the browser will render text in the H1 tag any way you please. This is great; because, you can get both a boost in relevancy and get better control of your page's appearance in one step.

Here's the code:

In your head tag, put the following line:

<STYLE> <!-- H1 {font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 12pt; color: black; } --> </STYLE>

(Note that you can change any of the above variables - font size, type, and color - as you see fit.)

Then, in the body of your document, where you want you document "heading" or "headline", use the following code:

<H1>Text for Your Headline Here</H1>

The headline will now appear as you specified in the style code. This is a great trick, and it's brand new.

Apply these new tactics today for some easy traffic courtesy of your favorite search engines.