Just having a website doesn't cut it anymore. With 7 million sites going up every day you need to increase your odds of being on the first page on Google, or worst case scenario, page three because only 10% of people will look past that. There are certain things only a good programmer can implement but here are some simple things you can do yourself to improve your website.

First of all you need to start with a dynamic website. A dynamic website will allow you to update your own content which goes a long ways towards optimization. A good dynamic site will start at $1,800 and that will be modern for at least four years. This is a small investment in the big picture to build your foundation on.

1. Get referral links. Anytime you get a referral link from a quality website, your page ranking increases. This is equivalent to word of mouth in webland and is a big thumbs up to search engines. Referral link can be from anywhere including your friend’s website, Craigslist, Facebook or an online directory such as Canpages or Yellow Pages.
2. Limit your referral links only to quality sites. If you endorse a site that's poor in search engines’ eyes, it looks bad on you. Would you endorse a poor business or a business you’re not sure about?
3. Fix your broken links. You're deducted points for every broken link you have.
4. Label your images. Search engines can’t read text in images but there are ways for them to ‘see’ your images. Naming them is one way. Ex: wine-brewing-vancouver.jpg. Limit the hyphens to 3 or less. There are other ways such as alt text and long descriptions that help search engine optimization which can be done with a dynamic website with a little more experience.
   
5. Have rich content. The more content you have, the better your chances of being found. Content includes videos, pictures and text and some content is more valuable than others.
   
6. Have relevant content. Keep your content relevant to your product or service. If you’re a car dealership selling shoes, the Google Gods won’t think highly of you.
7. Update your website often. An updated site is relevant site.
8. Know your users. What keywords are people searching to get to your site? And are they finding what they want? A good program such as Google Analytics will help you market yourself better. Google Analytics is free, and there are hundreds of free tutorials. You just need to implement it into your site.
   

Remember this, search engine optimization is an ongoing processes. The main reason why companies that do SEO have the most optimized websites is because they are always analyzing their sites and updating them. Those websites are not born, they are developed over time. A website that brings you business is your best return on investment and by spending a 20 minutes a day on your website you can increase your business.