Search engines use algorithms or methods to determine what your page is all about and where to place your page in search engines results. There are ways you can optimize your pages so the search engines will believe your page relates to your important keyword phrases.
Here are some web site optimization guidelines that have given me very good search engine ranking.
- TITLE tag This is the text that goes between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags in the <HEAD> and </HEAD> section at the top of your HTML. For example:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>This is the title text</TITLE>
</HEAD>
The TITLE should contain your most important keyword phrases. It should be 8 words or less and less than or equal to 60 characters in total length. This should be the very first item in the HEAD section.
- Header Tag Text This is the text that goes between the header tags in the BODY of your HTML. For example:
<H1>This is header tag text</H1>
This is important text that tells search engines what your page is about. It should contain your important keyword phrases.
Use each keyword phrase once near the top of your page.
- Anchor Text This is the text in a link. For example
<A HREF="index.htm">This is the anchor text</A>
One or more of your text links should contain your important keyword phrases. The closer you can put this to the top of your page to better.
Anchor text is a critical component on your site. It tells search engines what your site is about. If all your pages link to your main page using the anchor text "Home", guess what the search engines think your main page is about?
Instead, every page on your site that links to your home page should use anchor text consisting of your important keyword phrases.
Anchor text on external sites that link to your site is also critical. When asking other sites to link to your site, be very specific in telling them the anchor text to use in their link. This text should contain your important keyword phrases.
- Bold/Italic This is text that is BOLD or Italic. Search engines often give text that is bold or italic extra emphasis when deciding what your page is about.
Make sure to enhance your important keyword phrases with bold and/or italic tags. Do this near the top of your page.
- Body Text This is the visible text on your web page that is not in a heading or link.
There are two important considerations for this text.
- Keyword Density The total number of keyword phrases divided by the total number of words should result in a keyword density ranging from 2% to 10%.
- Proximity Your keywords should appear closer to the top of your page. (Though some believe they should be evenly distributed in the top, middle, and bottom of the page.)
- ALT Tags in Images Links This is text that pops up when your mouse hovers over an image. Images that are links are more important than images that are not links.
Here is an example of ALT text in a linked image:
<A HREF="index.htm"><IMG SRC="picture.gif" ALT="This is the ALT text"></A>
This ALT text should contain your important keyword phrases. This is especially important when the image is also a link.
- URL and Filename Some search engines use the URL (http://www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com) and the name of a web page (keyword1-keyword2.htm) as an indicator of what the page is about.
Some people concatenate keywords together (keyword1keyword2.htm). I prefer to separate them with a dash (keyword1-keyword2.htm). There are those who favor one over the other. In either case, use keywords in your URL and in your page names.
Of course this means that you should look like a professional and have your own URL. Do not use a free service.
- Meta Keyword Description Some search engines will look at and even use your META description in determining the topic of a page. Some will actually use the description in the text used in displaying search engine results.
