Search Engine Optimization

How I summarise search engine optimisation (SEO):

Search engine optimization is a matter of keyword placement in meta tags and, particularly, inside the web page (off-page considerations not considered here). So identify the right keywords (using Wordtracker, say) and put these keywords in the body of your page as well as the Title tag, and Meta Description and Keywords tag. Putting your keywords inside a H header tags is also recommended too.

Search Engine Optimization - Use Keywords And Metatags To Get The Click!
Article by Steve M Nash

Now everyone knows that you need to choose keywords and meta tags to make your site search-engine-friendly (don't they?).

And pages should be 'optimised' BEFORE you submit them to the search engines.

Search engine optimization is really not that difficult, but it is important: no-one visits your site if they can't find it on the first few pages of a search engine.

A good way of 'getting found' is to choose high-demand low-supply keywords (like "free nokia ringtones"), and to create pages optimised for those keywords. (Obviously, you need to find keywords relevant to your website.) The basic guidelines, below, show you how to optimise your pages - how to make sure your site gets the click.

But how do you find these profitable high-demand low-supply keywords in the first place?

Use these resources

WORD TRACKER
Wordtracker claims to be the ultimate tool to increase your website traffic. It's aims are simple:

• FIND the top keywords searched for on the Internet
• ENHANCE your meta tags, title and document body to increase your visibility
• DISCOVER millions of niche keywords for use in your webpages

You simply add suitable keywords to a basket, and their profitability is determined using AltaVista as the search engine (the paid-for tool determines profitability using all of the major search engines).

Wordtracker is a powerful tool that I use on many occasions. Many top Search Engine Optimization specialists also use Wordtracker.) You should use it too, to improve your chances of getting free search engine traffic.

More Keyword Suggestion Tools

Keyword Analyzer
Ideal desktop software solution for generating hundreds/thousands of cost-effective keywords

And you'll find a couple of good keyword generation tools on this pay-per-click tools page, and you'll find many more (like AdWords and Overture suggestion tools) from a Google search for keyword suggestion tools.

Study these basic search engine optimization guidelines

Many of the major search engines behave differently to each other when it comes to choosing the best pages.

Worse than this though, is that some use metatags and some ignore them completely, preferring only to rely on page content (with weighting given to words at the top of the page). Even worse still, the search engines constantly change their ranking rules (algorithms).

So understand that these are only basic guidelines. However, they should help your web pages rank better with the search engines, over time.

On-page search engine optimization basics:

• TITLE tag should be between 5 and 12 words (Most important tag!)
• Meta DESCRIPTION tag should be between 5 and 20 words
• TITLE and Meta DESCRIPTION should be different. Combine both
  to encourage someone looking at a busy page of search results
  to click your link, rather than someone else's.
• Meta KEYWORDS tag should be between 0 and 50 words
• HEADING Tags should be used, if possible (these tags are used
  instead of Meta DESCRIPTION tag, sometimes)
• Meta KEYWORDS tag should contain words that exist in TITLE and
  Meta DESCRIPTION tag (as well as in page content)
• Do not use too many COMMENT tags, or Image ALT tags,
  especially if you stuff them with keywords
• Word order matters; e.g. uk optimization is not optimization UK

-- sidebar ---

Don't know what the above means? The HTML tags are shown below:

* TITLE - <title>Search engine optimization</title>
* DESCRIPTION - <meta name="description" content="de scription" />
* KEYWORDS - <meta name="keywords" content="key, words" />
* HEADING - H1, H2, H3,...
* COMMENT - <--! comments go here or keywords -->

--- end sidebar ---

Again, these are basic guidelines - don't take them too literally. Remember, the most important content for the search engines is also the most important content for your site visitors - your actual page content.

Read more...

You can find out a great deal more about keywords, metatags etc. from this excellent resource:

- Search Engine Optimization ( @ Search Engine Watch)

Reminder: This page is about using search engine optimization to promote your website -- please rate this page