Search Engine Optimization
By Shelley Lowery
Web site optimization is the process of specifically designing your web pages to rank high in the Search Engines. If you're serious about your business, optimizing your web pages is a must.
Although many Search Engines are no longer using Meta tags to assist them in ranking a web page, some still do, and it's worth the effort to include them.
When designing your web page, 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 web page 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 web page.
Keywords and Keyword Phrases
A keyword is a word that best describes your web page. For example, if your web page is focusing on dogs, your best keyword will be "dogs."
A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, then your best keyword phrase will be "dog grooming."
When preparing your web pages, 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).
Heading
Heading tags are used to separate topics and range from being very large and bold to 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.
Tables
If you'd like to set up your web page 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 web page. This is the top portion of your web page 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 Engine Guidelines
Each Search Engine is different and has different guidelines in regard to how they rank a web page. 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 web page should contain a total frequency of between five and twenty.
Take your time and optimize each of your web pages 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.
