Among different linear motors, single-sided linear induction motors have been widely used in industry due to their simplicity and low construction cost. However, these types of motors suffer from low efficiency and power factor. In this paper, an effective procedure is proposed to design single-sided linear induction motors. The designed motor is simulated in MATLAB software in order to investigate the effect of design parameters on the performance of the machine. Regarding the obtained results, the Genetic Algorithm is employed to optimize the design considering product of efficiency and power factor as objective function. The results show significant improvement of the performance. Finally, experimental results and 2D finite element method is used to validate the model parameters and the optimization results.