Web Page Optimization
Web Page Optimization is a very important part of web design. Selecting good keyword phrases for each web page is the first step towards ranking high in the Search Engines.
In addition to selecting targeted keyword phrases, you must also strategically optimize your page including:
• META description tag
• META keyword tag
• Title
• Image ALT tags
• Heading tags
• Image names
• Hyperlinks
• Body text
Meta Tag – <meta>
The META description tag will contain a description of your site. This description will be visible in some of the Search Engines when your site is returned in a search. Therefore, it is important to word your text very carefully.
More importantly, your description should include your web page’s most important keyword phrases. Include between 120 – 156 characters.
Example:
<meta name="description" content="Learn how to groom your dog with dog grooming tips, supplies, training and video tutorials for all of your pets needs.">
The META Keywords tag will contain a list of your keyword phrases separated with a comma. What’s more, your primary keyword phrase should be first, followed by one or two secondary keyword
phrases.
Example:
<meta name="keywords" content="dog grooming tips, dog grooming supplies, dog grooming training">
Image Alt Tag – <img alt>
Another consideration in web page optimization is the image Alt tag. An image Alt tag follows the graphic address or URL in your HTML code. These words will be displayed in place of your graphics through an older browser.
Additionally, to fully optimize your graphics, insert your keyword phrases within the Alt tags of your graphics. In addition, at a bare minimum, make sure you use enough images to display all of your keyword phrases. Remember…your primary keyword phrase should always come first.
Example Images (Notice the images are named using the three primary keyword phrases):
dog_grooming_tips.jpg
dog_grooming_supplies.jpg
dog_grooming_training.jpg
Example:
<img src="dog_grooming_tips.jpg" width="80" height="105" alt="dog grooming tips">
<img src="dog_grooming_supplies.jpg" width="80" height="105" alt="dog grooming supplies">
<img src="dog_grooming_training.jpg" width="80" height="105" alt="dog grooming training">
Title Tag – <title>
Another important step to optimizing a web page is to include the primary keyword phrase within the web page title.
Example:
<title>Dog Grooming Tips, Supplies, and Training – Your Website Name</title>
Include between 47 – 68 characters for your web page title.
Heading Tag – <h?>
Heading tags are used to separate topics and range from <h1> being very large and bold to <h6> which is very small and bold. Some Search Engines place relevance on text displayed within the heading tags. Furthermore, top priority is placed on the highest listed heading tag.
In addition, keyword phrases should each be used as a heading for sections within your web page (placed in the same order as your keyword phrases within your META keywords tag) and placed within an appropriate heading tag. In addition, these headings should be followed by some descriptive text.
Headings should look something like this:
<h?>Dog Grooming Tips</h?>
<h?>Dog Grooming Supplies</h?>
<h?>Dog Grooming Training</h?>
A Tag – <a>
Web pages need hyperlinks to enable easy navigation. Your links should be displayed together with a small image in front of each link. This image might be a graphic bullet, arrow, or whatever you’d like. These images will not only enhance your web page, but they will also enable you to place your keyword phrases within the Alt tags.
What’s more, When you begin creating your links, make sure the page name, image name and page description text all contain your keyword phrases.
Your HTML code might look something like this:
<img src="dog_grooming_tips.gif" alt="dog grooming tips">
<a href="dog_grooming_tips.htm">Dog Grooming Tips</a>
<img src="dog_grooming_supplies.gif" alt="dog grooming supplies">
<a href="dog_grooming_supplies.htm">Dog Grooming Supplies</a>
<img src="dog_grooming_training.gif" alt="dog grooming training">
<a href="dog_grooming_training.htm">Dog Grooming Training</a>
Body Tag – <body>Text</body>
Optimizing your text is another important step towards ranking higher in the Search Engines. Your web page should contain plenty of text and should contain each of your keywords and keyword phrases used in different variations. If all of the keyword phrases you’ve listed within your META tags aren’t found within your text, the Search Engines will simply ignore them.
Search Engine Submissions
Once you’ve optimized your web pages and uploaded them to your server, your next step will be to submit your main pages to the Search Engines. However, don’t submit your pages to Google. Your pages will rank much higher if you allow this Search Engine to find your pages on its own.
You may want to consider creating a sitemap for your site and submit this page to Google instead. A sitemap is a page that outlines how your pages are set up and linked together. If you design a site map with links to all of your pages, the Search Engine robots can easily spider and index them.
Taking the time to optimize each of your web pages is the most important step you can take towards ranking high in the Search Engines and driving your more traffic to your website.