Website
Optimization
Website optimization
is the process of specifically designing your webpages to rank high in the
Search Engines. If you're serious about your business, optimizing your webpages is a must.
Although many Search Engines are no longer using Meta tags to assist them
in ranking a webpage, some still do, and it's worth the effort to include
them.
When designing
your webpage, you must specifically design it to rank high in the Search
Engines. This involves much more than just including META tags. Your Keywords,
Title, Image Alt text, Text and overall design, all play an important role
in determining how your website will rank.
If your site doesn't rank in the top 10 or 20 results when doing a keyword
search at the Search Engines, your target audience won't be able to find
you.
A significant amount of website traffic originates from the major Search
Engines. Most Internet users will go to a Search Engine, type in a keyword
phrase and look through the top 10 - 20 results. Most of the time, they'll
find what they're looking for in the first 10 results. The percentage of
click throughs is even smaller. Listing near the top and grabbing the attention
of your target audience is the top priority.
There are many components of your webpage that you should pay close attention
to when preparing it for listing in a Search Engine.
The first step towards improving your listing is selecting keyword phrases
that best reflect your webpage.
Keywords and Keyword Phrases
A keyword
is a word that best describes your webpage. For example, if your webpage
is focusing on dogs, your best keyword will be "dogs."
A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your webpage. If your webpage is focusing on grooming a dog, then your best keyword
phrase will be "dog grooming."
When preparing your webpages, you should concentrate on just a couple of
keyword phrases (for each page) used in different variations. Avoid using
general one-word keywords, as you definitely won't rank high in the Search
Engines. For example, if your website focuses on "dog grooming" you wouldn't
want to use the word "dog" as one of your keywords. Why? Because it's too
general. Instead, you may want to use a keyword phrase such as "dog grooming
tips" or "how to groom dogs".
You have to put yourself in your potential visitors' shoes and imagine what
words they will type into a Search Engine to find your site.
Selecting the BEST keyword phrases is the MOST important step towards optimizing
your pages for the Search Engines.
Another great way to use keyword phrases is to use very unique words. For
example, if you're selling computers, instead of using the word
computers as a Keyword, use the specific brand name or model of the
computer. This will drive highly targeted visitors to your website.
Overture
provides a wonderful tool that will enable you to type in a keyword, click
on a button and receive a complete list of similar keyword phrases you can
use.
If you would like to view some live searches to help you determine what keywords
Internet users are searching for, visit any of the following sites:
Excite
Search Voyeur
Ask
Jeeves
Search.com Snoop
Wordtracker
MetaSpy
(Caution - there are two live search options
to choose from. One is filtered and the other one is not. The
unfiltered searches may be offensive to some users. If this is the
case, make sure you only view the filtered searches).
META Tags
META tags are
HTML code that is placed between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags
and instruct the browser.
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.
Your description should focus on your site's main topic and not generalize.
Make sure you include your most important keywords towards the beginning
of your description. In addition, make sure your description describes your
page in detail. You want your potential visitors to know exactly what you're
offering. Your description should be less than 200 characters, including
spaces.
Example:
| <META
name="DESCRIPTION" content="Dog grooming tips from top professional dog
groomers"> |
The META Keywords
tag will contain a listing of your keywords and keyword phrases
that are relevant to your page and enable a Search Engine to find you. The
most effective use of keywords is to concentrate on just a few
Keyword phrases.
Example:
| <META
name="KEYWORDS" content="dog grooming, dog grooming tips, dog groomers, pet
care, animal groomers"> |
You can find
a variety of tools to assist you in creating an effective list of keywords
at WordTracker
Keywords.
| Note:
A word of caution...only
use keywords and phrases that are appropriate for your webpage. Just because
a certain keyword is very popular, doesn't mean you should include it within
your META tags. This is considered to be SPAM and could get your pages banned
from the Search Engines. |
IMG ALT
Tags
An image Alt tag follows your graphic address or url in your HTML code. These
words will be displayed in place of your graphics through an older browser
or when your visitors have their graphics turned off. To fully optimize your
graphics, insert a readable keyword phrase within the Alt tags of
your graphics.
Example:
| <IMG
SRC="mainlogo.gif" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="60" ALT="dog grooming tips"
BORDER="0"> |
TITLE
Tag
Your Title should contain your most important keyword phrase.
Place your "most" important keyword phrase first. Not just your most important
phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think people will use when they do
a search.
Instead of capitalizing the first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people
type in all lowercase letters when searching. This will assist you in ranking
higher in the Search Engines for your targeted audience.
Effective Title tags include only relevant keyword or keyword
phrases. Avoid non-indexing filler words, such as a, an, the, welcome
and home page.
Heading
Heading tags are used to separate topics and range from <H1>
being very large and bold to <H6> which is very small and bold.
Your page heading should contain your most important keyword phrase to assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engines. Not all Search Engines
place relevance on heading tags. However, many do and it is well worth
the effort.
Text
Optimizing your text is another important step in ranking higher in the Search
Engines. Your webpage should contain plenty of text and should contain each
of your keywords and keyword phrases used in different variations.
If all of your keywords and keyword phrases you've listed within
your META tags aren't found within your text, the Search Engines will simply
ignore them.
Your keywords and keyword phrases should appear within your
text at least three times, but not more than seven.
Tables
If you'd like to set up your webpage using tables, try to place your Heading text above your Table code. If this isn't possible,
make sure you include your keyword phrases within your top left Table
cell to assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engines.
| Note:
Always place your most
important information above the fold of your webpage. This is the top portion
of your webpage that is visible when your page is first loaded, without
scrolling. This is the most important part of your entire page -- use it
wisely. |
Basic Search
Optimization Engine Guidelines
Each Search Engine is different and has different guidelines in regard to
how they rank a webpage. In addition, their guidelines change very frequently
and it is literally impossible to keep up with them. Your best option is
to optimize your website to the best of your ability, submit your pages to
the Search Engines and forget it. (Resubmit your main pages any time you
make any significant changes.) Your time can be better spent using other
marketing techniques other than fighting the Search Engine wars.
Here are some basic guidelines to assist you in optimizing your pages:
Title
Your Title should have a word count of between five and six with a keyword
frequency of one and a keyword prominence of at least 60%.
A Keyword that appears at the beginning of a specific area will have a prominence
rating of 100%.
A Keyword that appears in the middle of a specific area will have a prominence
rating of 50%.
A Keyword that appears at the end of a specified area will have a prominence
rating of 0%.
Keyword prominence plays a critical role in determining your site's ranking,
not only in the Search Engines, but also in prominent directories such as
Yahoo.
Alt
Your Alt tags should contain a word count of about one to thirty five and
have a keyword frequency of one to two.
Hyperlinks
Your hyperlinks should contain a keyword frequency of between one and
eight.
Body Text
Your body text should contain a keyword frequency of between one and six,
a word count between three and four hundred and a keyword prominence of about
50%.
Your webpage should contain a total frequency of between five and twenty.
Take your time and optimize each of your webpages to the best of your ability.
When you're satisfied with your pages, manually submit them to the major
Search Engines and directories. If you would like to automatically submit
your pages to a large variety of Search Engines and Directories, visit SelfPromotion.com.
Additional Tutorials:
Creating an Ebook
Work at Home
Opportunities
Internet Marketing
Strategies
Internet Marketing
Tools
Developing
an Internet Business
Developing
a Professional Web Site
Free Content
Webpage Optimization
Hosting Your Site
Promotion
Internet
Marketing
Building Your Site
Listing Your Site
Internet
Advertising
Developing Traffic
Web Development
Strategies |
