Seven Often-Missed SEO Opportunities
By Donald Nelson
If you have good content and present it in a reasonable way,
then you have an excellent chance of achieving good positions in
search engine queries for your main keywords and keyword
phrases. You don’t have to resort to any trickery to get your
site noticed. However, many web designers and web masters fail
to take advantage of opportunities to get high search engine
rankings by mishandling a few crucial components of their web
pages. Here is a list of the seven most frequently missed
search engine optimization opportunities:
1. You’ve got to display your text as text!
This sounds elementary, but it is not. Many designers want the
site to look good and replace headlines with gif images. The
headlines (or headers) are one of the most important elements on
any printed page. If you want to know what a magazine article is
all about, then you just have to glance at the headline and the
sub-headings to get a good idea. Similarly, search engines place
great importance on headers, which are usually marked with the
html codes H1 H2 or H3. If you are selling blue widgets
and want to be found in the search engines by people who make
the query “blue widgets” then you should put these words in a
text headline, properly marked, at the top of your page.
Some website building programs often render entire paragraphs of
text as images. A person viewing such a page will be able to
read it, but a search engine’s robot will not see the text. So,
check your web pages, and if vital text is being replaced by
graphic images, then it is better to substitute the images with
text.
2. Put a good amount of text on your pages
It’s not just headlines that count, body text is also needed.
It’s true that a picture is often worth 1000 words, but
following this strategy is not good when it comes to search
engine optimization. If your page is about blue widgets, then
an opening headline saying “Get the Best Blue Widgets from the
ACME Widget Company” is a good start, and a picture of a blue
widget would be OK, but why stop there?
People come to the web looking for information. They come to
find a solution to their problem or to find something that will
benefit them in some way. If it takes you a few paragraphs or
even a whole page to explain all the benefits that your widgets
offer, then by all means add that text to your page. It will
help your users, and in the process you will be repeating your
keywords and phrases again which in turn will tell the search
engines that this page is truly about blue widgets. So, more
text is good for search engine recognition and for the end users
alike.
3. Don’t use the same title tags on all the pages
Title tags are even more important than headlines in letting the
search engines understand what your web page is all about. The
title tag is displayed as the first line of text in the blue row
at the top of the browsing window. The code for the tag is in
the head section of the html document and is labeled
title /title.
Normally you will want your site to rank well for a variety of
phrases and keywords. You can’t stuff all of these keywords and
search phrases in one headline or in one title tag. It will
cause “indigestion” for both your viewers and for the search
engines. A better strategy is to organize your website into
different pages, with each page emphasizing a certain aspect of
your activity.
In fact, most websites are built this way. But the problem is
that instead of emphasizing the unique aspect of each particular
page with a properly crafted title tag, many websites repeat the
same tag on all the inner pages. This is truly a missed
opportunity to get ranking for a large number of different
keyword phrases. So, don’t miss this one: make a separate title
tag for each of your pages
4. Don’t try to do your branding in the title tag
Unless you are already well known it makes no sense to overly
emphasize your company name in the title tag. People are not
searching for the XYWZ MP3 Player Company. They are searching
for MP3 players. The first words in a title tag are the most
important. If you are Coca-Cola then maybe it makes sense to
have these as the first words, but if you are yet- to-be-famous
then it makes more sense to put your most important keywords and
keyword phrases in the forefront of your title tags. Your
company’s logo at the top of the pages can do the branding for
you, but leave the title tag for the more important task of
being found in search engine queries. You can consult my
previous article “How to Write Title Tags”,
http://www.a1-optimization.com/how-to-write-title-tags.htm , for
more suggestions.
5. Your link structure should be easy for search engines to
follow
Even if you have great text and well-written headlines and a
unique title tag on each of your pages, it will not do you that
much good if all of your pages are not indexed by the search
engines. Normally a search engine robot will visit one of your
pages and then look for more links and if it finds those links
it will visit those pages and add them to the search engine’s
data base or index. If your links are easy to follow then all
of your inner pages will end up in the search engine index and
will be displayed when they match queries made by searchers.
Some site navigation structures are not search-engine friendly.
Links found in java-script, which is used in many drop-down
menus, may not be followed by the robots. Similarly links on
image maps (particular segments of graphic images) may also be
missed by the robots.
The best way to make sure that your links are followed by the
robots is to make a simple text navigation menu at the bottom of
your pages. This kind of navigation bar can supplement your drop
down menu or other navigation system and it has multiple
benefits. It helps the search engines follow the links, and it
reminds your users, as they reach the bottom of the page, where
they can go next. On top of that, it helps you with opportunity
number 6.
6. Use your site’s “anchor” text to your advantage
Just as the title tags and headlines give a good indication
about the contents of your pages, so do the descriptive words in
the internal links on your website. The clickable portion of a
site’s text links are known as “anchor text.” Instead of having
all of your anchor text read “Click Here,” find a way to put the
words “mp3 Player,” “Blue Widgets,” “Illinois Real Estate” or
whatever your keywords are in the text links of your site.
Once again this works to the advantage of your readers as well
as giving the search engines better information about the
contents of your pages. The more descriptive your text links
are, the better they are for your users. In fact, one of the
best methods of site navigation is to refer to the relevant
pages of your site from within the text on your page, linking to
them using descriptive keywords. And as I mentioned above, if
you make a text based navigation bar at the bottom of each page
you have still another chance to include keywords in your anchor
text.
7. Use keywords in your file names
Instead of naming your files as if they didn’t matter, such as
page1.html, page2.html, put your keywords and keyword phrases in
your file names. If you do a search on Google for any particular
item you will see that wherever your search keyword appears it
is listed in the Google results in bold text. Usually you will
see this bold text in the title that is displayed, and in the
descriptive text that Google displays underneath the title. You
will also see it in the url. If your site already has some of
your keywords in your main url then that is helpful. But even if
it doesn’t you can still have file names such as
www.xyzwcompany/blue-widgets.html etc.
Do the keywords have to be separated by hyphens? Once again if
you look at Google results you will see keywords in file names
are displayed as bold text even if they are part of a longer
stream of text. This is a process known as stemming, where the
search engine can recognize keywords within longer text blocks.
Still, I personally like to use hyphens just to make sure!
So, check your web pages and do whatever you can to help both
search engines and your end users enjoy and benefit from their
contact with your web pages. Take advantage of these seven SEO
opportunities to improve your site’s performance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By Jeff Houdyschell providing proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs, visit:
http://www.eSmartJob.com
If you have good content and present it in a reasonable way,
then you have an excellent chance of achieving good positions in
search engine queries for your main keywords and keyword
phrases. You don’t have to resort to any trickery to get your
site noticed. However, many web designers and web masters fail
to take advantage of opportunities to get high search engine
rankings by mishandling a few crucial components of their web
pages. Here is a list of the seven most frequently missed
search engine optimization opportunities:
1. You’ve got to display your text as text!
This sounds elementary, but it is not. Many designers want the
site to look good and replace headlines with gif images. The
headlines (or headers) are one of the most important elements on
any printed page. If you want to know what a magazine article is
all about, then you just have to glance at the headline and the
sub-headings to get a good idea. Similarly, search engines place
great importance on headers, which are usually marked with the
html codes H1 H2 or H3. If you are selling blue widgets
and want to be found in the search engines by people who make
the query “blue widgets” then you should put these words in a
text headline, properly marked, at the top of your page.
Some website building programs often render entire paragraphs of
text as images. A person viewing such a page will be able to
read it, but a search engine’s robot will not see the text. So,
check your web pages, and if vital text is being replaced by
graphic images, then it is better to substitute the images with
text.
2. Put a good amount of text on your pages
It’s not just headlines that count, body text is also needed.
It’s true that a picture is often worth 1000 words, but
following this strategy is not good when it comes to search
engine optimization. If your page is about blue widgets, then
an opening headline saying “Get the Best Blue Widgets from the
ACME Widget Company” is a good start, and a picture of a blue
widget would be OK, but why stop there?
People come to the web looking for information. They come to
find a solution to their problem or to find something that will
benefit them in some way. If it takes you a few paragraphs or
even a whole page to explain all the benefits that your widgets
offer, then by all means add that text to your page. It will
help your users, and in the process you will be repeating your
keywords and phrases again which in turn will tell the search
engines that this page is truly about blue widgets. So, more
text is good for search engine recognition and for the end users
alike.
3. Don’t use the same title tags on all the pages
Title tags are even more important than headlines in letting the
search engines understand what your web page is all about. The
title tag is displayed as the first line of text in the blue row
at the top of the browsing window. The code for the tag is in
the head section of the html document and is labeled
title /title.
Normally you will want your site to rank well for a variety of
phrases and keywords. You can’t stuff all of these keywords and
search phrases in one headline or in one title tag. It will
cause “indigestion” for both your viewers and for the search
engines. A better strategy is to organize your website into
different pages, with each page emphasizing a certain aspect of
your activity.
In fact, most websites are built this way. But the problem is
that instead of emphasizing the unique aspect of each particular
page with a properly crafted title tag, many websites repeat the
same tag on all the inner pages. This is truly a missed
opportunity to get ranking for a large number of different
keyword phrases. So, don’t miss this one: make a separate title
tag for each of your pages
4. Don’t try to do your branding in the title tag
Unless you are already well known it makes no sense to overly
emphasize your company name in the title tag. People are not
searching for the XYWZ MP3 Player Company. They are searching
for MP3 players. The first words in a title tag are the most
important. If you are Coca-Cola then maybe it makes sense to
have these as the first words, but if you are yet- to-be-famous
then it makes more sense to put your most important keywords and
keyword phrases in the forefront of your title tags. Your
company’s logo at the top of the pages can do the branding for
you, but leave the title tag for the more important task of
being found in search engine queries. You can consult my
previous article “How to Write Title Tags”,
http://www.a1-optimization.com/how-to-write-title-tags.htm , for
more suggestions.
5. Your link structure should be easy for search engines to
follow
Even if you have great text and well-written headlines and a
unique title tag on each of your pages, it will not do you that
much good if all of your pages are not indexed by the search
engines. Normally a search engine robot will visit one of your
pages and then look for more links and if it finds those links
it will visit those pages and add them to the search engine’s
data base or index. If your links are easy to follow then all
of your inner pages will end up in the search engine index and
will be displayed when they match queries made by searchers.
Some site navigation structures are not search-engine friendly.
Links found in java-script, which is used in many drop-down
menus, may not be followed by the robots. Similarly links on
image maps (particular segments of graphic images) may also be
missed by the robots.
The best way to make sure that your links are followed by the
robots is to make a simple text navigation menu at the bottom of
your pages. This kind of navigation bar can supplement your drop
down menu or other navigation system and it has multiple
benefits. It helps the search engines follow the links, and it
reminds your users, as they reach the bottom of the page, where
they can go next. On top of that, it helps you with opportunity
number 6.
6. Use your site’s “anchor” text to your advantage
Just as the title tags and headlines give a good indication
about the contents of your pages, so do the descriptive words in
the internal links on your website. The clickable portion of a
site’s text links are known as “anchor text.” Instead of having
all of your anchor text read “Click Here,” find a way to put the
words “mp3 Player,” “Blue Widgets,” “Illinois Real Estate” or
whatever your keywords are in the text links of your site.
Once again this works to the advantage of your readers as well
as giving the search engines better information about the
contents of your pages. The more descriptive your text links
are, the better they are for your users. In fact, one of the
best methods of site navigation is to refer to the relevant
pages of your site from within the text on your page, linking to
them using descriptive keywords. And as I mentioned above, if
you make a text based navigation bar at the bottom of each page
you have still another chance to include keywords in your anchor
text.
7. Use keywords in your file names
Instead of naming your files as if they didn’t matter, such as
page1.html, page2.html, put your keywords and keyword phrases in
your file names. If you do a search on Google for any particular
item you will see that wherever your search keyword appears it
is listed in the Google results in bold text. Usually you will
see this bold text in the title that is displayed, and in the
descriptive text that Google displays underneath the title. You
will also see it in the url. If your site already has some of
your keywords in your main url then that is helpful. But even if
it doesn’t you can still have file names such as
www.xyzwcompany/blue-widgets.html etc.
Do the keywords have to be separated by hyphens? Once again if
you look at Google results you will see keywords in file names
are displayed as bold text even if they are part of a longer
stream of text. This is a process known as stemming, where the
search engine can recognize keywords within longer text blocks.
Still, I personally like to use hyphens just to make sure!
So, check your web pages and do whatever you can to help both
search engines and your end users enjoy and benefit from their
contact with your web pages. Take advantage of these seven SEO
opportunities to improve your site’s performance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By Jeff Houdyschell providing proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs, visit:
http://www.eSmartJob.com
posted by Jeff Houdyschell at
3:16 PM
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