Title and Meta Tags
Good search engine optimization includes several factors that are explained in these SEO articles to help you achieve better search engine placement. Most of the advice given can be achieved almost immediately; where as other factors explained will take a lot of your time and effort. If you are serious about SEO then you're on the right track. Please note that the tips mentioned in these SEO articles are used by SearchBliss and some of the information stated is merely our opinion.
Before you begin reading these articles, please keep this in mind. The most important advice I can give you is to build your web pages with your visitors in mind. We have all been to sites that "don't make much sense" because of webmasters targeting keywords that they have trouble placing into readable text. You can have thousands of web site visitors each day, but it is useless traffic when they exit your page out of frustration, and they may never return.
Targting the Right Keywords
Choose the right keywords. This is extremely important. Optimizing a site takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work. Doing this targeting the wrong keywords can be devastating. Find relevant keywords that are searched for often. Make sure you target "phrases" rather than single keywords. For example, targeting "hosting" alone will not help you. There are too many search results. But targeting "web hosting provider", "web hosting service", and "hosting business" will get you more realistic results (and a ton of traffic). Plus you are still targeting "hosting". I would suggest targeting ONE "reach phrase" and TWO "realistic phrases". Three phrases may seem like a lot, but not when one or two key terms is in all three phrases. When this occurs, things don't get watered down, giving better results.
Let's begin with the "bare bones" of SEO. Title tag and meta tags. Most search engines give little to no relevance to some of these, however, since no one really knows how each engine factors them, they are still important steps in optimizing any web site.
1: The TITLE tag
Here is an example Title tag, which should appear in-between, the tags of your web page(s):
The title tag is very important. Why? Because search engines not only give it value in relation to optimization, SE's use it in their search results. Search on ANY search engine, and you'll see the content of this tag used in the anchor text of the links for each web site. Here is a little experiment. Search Google for "Untitled".
There are 28,100,000+ pages in Google with the title tag
So what should be in the title tag? The name of your business or web site with the "keyword phrase" you are targeting. For example, your business sells "watches". This is a broad search term and using it alone my not work out for you. There are 42,500,000 estimated search results in Google. However searching for the term "Swiss watches" I get 2,760,000 estimated results. The likelihood of your site appearing in the first 3 pages of Google is much more realistic using "Swiss watches". Plus, the keyword "watches" is still present, so you are actually targeting both terms.
Here is a good title tag using this example:
Keep it short and to the point. Targeting too many keywords can "thin out" your website's relevance.
2: The DESCRIPTION Meta Tag
Here is an example description meta tag which should appear in-between the tags of your web page(s):
The description meta tag is less important for optimization, but it is still utilized by the search engines. Google for example, will use the web pages body text, image alt tags, and yes even portions of the description meta tag will show at times. The body text and alt tags will be discussed later on in these articles.
So in my opinion, it is important enough to use. The best way to use it is to place your keyword phrase inside this meta tag "once", then split up the phrase and add the keywords again separately. But keep it readable, and avoid too many comas. This can be viewed as "spam", so don't do it or your site could be black listed and ignored by search engines all together. Also, use two sentences maximum and avoid "sales pitches" like "The best shop ever", and so on.
Here is a good description meta tag using the "watches" example above:
Notice that "Swiss" and "watches" appear twice, but the second time is split with the term "precision".
3: The KEYWORD Meta Tag
Here is an example keyword meta tag which should appear in-between the tags of your web page(s):
The keyword meta tag is believed one of the LEAST recognized meta tag by search engines. It carries very little weight when it comes to search engine optimization. However, it is not ignored by all engines. For example, through my own experiment, I have used a single keyword (like spaloof - which means nothing) that had very little if any results when searching for it. After being indexed, SearchBliss had appeared at the top of MSN. The keyword was NO where else on SearchBliss. Only in the keyword meta tag. This says to me that some search engines DO give the keyword meta tag some weight. So as a result, I still use the keyword meta tag.
I suggest adding your target keywords 3 to 4 times without REPEATING THE SAME TERM. This is viewed as "spam". Spam example: Swiss watches,Swiss watches,Swiss watches,... This is more commonly know as "keyword stuffing". It also applies to everything else being covered is these articles.
Here is a good keyword meta tag using the "watches" example:
Notice that the keywords listed 3 times (Swiss & watches) are not only split up using other key terms, but are also never too close together. I do this by adding other keywords/phrases in-between the ones with the target terms. The term "Swiss watches" only appears together one time.
There are also several other meta tags like the "abstract", "robots", etc. But I feel that there is no need to cover these. I believe they are not an important part of search engine optimization and have no use in this article.
Body Content
Page text is very important part of search engine optimization. Many search engines like Google "strip" the body text and use it to not only to display sections in their search results, but they also use the body text to determine the subject matter of web pages. This way mostly relevant sites are found in their search results.
Keywords and phrases should appear toward to the tops of your web pages and "trickle" down the page. Here is how. Let's start with the HEADING tag.
Here are example Heading tags in order, which should appear in-between, the BODY tags of your web page(s):
My 1st Business Heading
My 2nd Business Heading
My 3rd Business Heading
I would suggest no more than 4 headings on a page and each heading should be accompanied by text with subject matter that pertains to the heading above it. Then I would add your keyword phrase 1 time inside one heading, preferably the first heading.
Here is a good heading tag example:
Since 1987, Time Shop Inc. has been the foremost provider of Swiss watches
I believe that SE's like Google view the text inside heading tags as important. After all, it does set the tone of the entire web page. The same importance is applied to text that is BOLD and/or in ITALICS. But DON'T over do it. If a page text is mostly headings, in bold, and/or in italics, it may not appear as important. It certainly wouldn't to the viewer.
The paragraph(s) to follow would then be a summery of the heading. Somewhere inside this summery should be your keyword phrase. I would suggest separating the keywords like I showed you in the description meta tag on page 1 to avoid any "spamming". Example: "Swiss precision watches".
Example:
Time Shop Inc. has been the foremost provider of Swiss watches
Since 1967, Time Shop Inc. has been manufacturing Swiss precision watches for buyers and time piece collectors around the world. Founder John Schmit who...
In my opinion, use NO MORE than 1 keyword or phrase for every 50-60 words.
Don't forget, you can use bold and/or italics in place of the heading tag(s).
Now let's take a look at image ALT tag tips. The purpose of the image ALT tag (Alternative Tag) is to display a text description in place of an image that doesn't 't load for whatever reason(s). ALT tags are also used in conjunction with computer programs used by the visually impaired.
Here is an example:
Image alt tags are an important part of SEO. Google and some other SE's use the alt tag content in the same way they use the body text. So if you use an image (like your business logo) at the top of your web page(s), make sure there is an alt tag with your keyword/phrase inside.
Here is a good example:
Note that the alt tag is the same as the title tag we used in the example on page 1. I did this because this is the alt tag of the business logo. I also believe that some search engines, like Google, ignore (or give little merit to) alt tags that are not hyper linked. So I would link the LOGO image to the home page on EVERY page of your site. This includes linking the business logo ON the home page to ITSELF.
Here is an example:
Linking Structure
Your web pages anchor text and structure is one of the MOST important aspects of SEO, for two big reasons. The first is for the web site visitor. You will lose visitors if your site is tough to navigate and/or confusing. The second reason is that many of the search engines not only give the linking (anchor) text a lot of weight, but good navigation helps their indexing robots or "spiders". If the robots get stuck or have nowhere to go, they will stop indexing.
So let's begin with static text links.
Here's an example:
My Link Text
This is basic enough. Now you should again add your keyword phrase inside the anchor text linking to a RELEVANT web page.
Here is a good example:
browse through our large selection of Swiss watches
Note that the link text, AS WELL AS THE PAGE TITLE it is linking to, have the keyword phrase. This will help your SEO greatly. If you search for anything on Google, you will notice that the key search terms (if present in the url) are highlighted as well as the key terms "striped" from the URL's body content. This says to me that naming your links with the key terms for THAT web page is important. I would suggest adding your keyword/phrase 3-5 times in the link text (with 15-25 INBOUND links present). In other words, 1 time for every 5 links.
Now let's look at a good way to implement the links into your body text.
Example:
Time Shop Inc. has been the foremost provider of Swiss watches
Since 1967, Time Shop Inc. has been manufacturing Swiss precision watches for buyers and time piece collectors around the world. Founder John Schmit who... Please browse through our selection of Swiss watches.
Note that the text link is now embedded inside a readable paragraph but DOES NOT take the place of the other key terms in the paragraph text. SE's like this. We will still need a "menu" for navigation that will contain some of the same links.
I will now be covering good navigation for both your visitors and search engine robots.
Every "important" page on your site should link to every "important" page on your site. Here is what I mean. First, "important" refers to pages (for example) that DO NOT include "thank you pages" after making a purchase or submitting a form. Pages like this have one purpose so you wouldn't want to link directly to them (but link FROM them for your visitors). If every important page on your web site follows this, the search engine robots will have no trouble indexing your site.
A static link (text) menu is important and is easy to build. It can be a basic as the links show at the bottom of this page.
What if I use a fancy JavaScript or DHTML menu? This is OK, but use both if you decide on the fancy menu. Search Engines do not read the content within