Website Search Engine
Optimization Tips

Tune-up your website page in 1 hour and improve your search engine rankings

Some key elements to check that directly affect your search engine rankings. Listed in order of importance (as ranked by surveys of Search Engine Specialists, NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE!)

1. Keyword use in "Title Tag"
Placing the targeted search terms or phrase in the title tag of the webpage's HTML header.

If you look at the top of your browser, then you should see that text being used, similar to this:

Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete occurence of your key word phrase. Yahoo! definately favours sites that include the key-phrase in the title tag. For an example search "michigan waterfowl hunting reports " or most any other search phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one occurence of the key-phrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. "boarding"). Only the most popular sites (Ebay, TVGuide, Wall Street Journal, etc) do include key-phrases, these sites so popular that even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.

The bolded keywords from the website page title tag are a great way to covert searchers to clickers. After all it is of no benefit to have people find you in a search then not click on your listing.

A few good rules are: each page should be unique (are yours all the same?), with three major keywords for each web page, and three less important keywords. Always consider adding a location name to where you’re doing business, if it applies (If you are targeting Sarasota then Sarasota should be a title word).

If you only do one thing the optimize for search engine marketing then do step #1. Please do not have titles such as "Welcome to mysite.com" or my favorite "untitled-1". This is an easy step to improve Search Engine Rankings.

VIDEO: Beginner SEO Tips,

Featuring Stephannie Leffler,
Sr VP, Network Solution

2. Keyword use in website "Body Text"
Placing the targeted search terms or phrase in the visible, HTML text of the webpage.

Warning!!! Don't over do it. All the major search engines consider loading up the text with key words as "search engine spam" or Spamdexing

It is important to use the keywords or keyword phrase throughout the page where it makes sense. As search engines get more sophisticated, it's not just the targeted keyword phrase that counts, but also the mix of all the words on the page that help determine the pages content.

Logically if someone is searching for a site about "basset hounds" then it would make sense that google, yahoo, etc direct this searcher to a website with the phrase "basset hound" on the page. We have had several clients ask me why their page is not showing up in search engine rankings for a particular phrase only to find that phrase NOT in the title or in the body of text.

3. Keyword use in "H1 and H2 tags"
Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term or phrase.

H1 or H2 tags also known as Heading Tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page's key-phrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page. It is also important that the Heading Tags match the general content of the page.

Once again the heading tags can convert searchers into readers. When a searcher clicks on your listing it helps for the relevant content they were search for to stand out. Else they may click backup and move on.

Text between <h1> and </h1> seem to be given more importance than standard text, so write your headings as carefully as your title tag.

A client asked -"If one H1 tag helps my search engine rank, should I use several of them on each page to increase my rank even more?"

Answer: "Absolutely not! A page should only have one H1 tag. When you use several H1 tags, you're diluting the value of the keywords in those tags. "
If it seems like you need another H1 tag you should probably create another "Landing Page" Pages with specialized content rank better than pages with multiple topics. See Digital Web Magazine's 11 ways to improve landing pages article for tips.

4. Keyword use in Domain Name
Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name,
i.e. keywoard.com.

Many believe this is an effective search engine optimization technique. I believe it is something to consider in the future as you develop your web presence.

Since this is pretty self explanatory and you might feel strongly abut your current domain name I'll leave this subject alone.

4. Keyword use in Page URL
Including the targeted term/phrase in the webpage URL,
i.e. mysite.com/keywoard.html

Not only is this an effective in rankings it also helps convert searchers to readers. When the URL seems to match what the searcher is looking for it should help get them to click on your website. It is certainly easy to do so why not try it?

5. Keyword use in H2,H3 etc Tags
Including the targeted term/phrase in the H2, H3 headline HTML tags

See Tip #3..

6. Keyword use in Alt Tags and Image Titles
Using targeted term/phrase inside alt HTML and img title tags

Always provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text is supposed to accurately describe the image. This means that it is totally appropriate for the totaloccurances for a keyword to increase if the images displayed are a good match.
The ALT text is also used to improve accesablity for the visually impaired.

In the future as more people are searching using images this will also increase your chances of being diplayed in the search engine listings.

If all this sounds to challenging, Call MAKO Web Sales for a web page tune-up.

We happily work with Do-it-yourselfers. If you are own website designer and just need a little assistance jsut call. We will give you the just the help you require. MAKO Web Sales can provide do-it-yourself web designers with Hosting, SSL Certificates, domain name registration (we can assist with transfers), email accounts, shopping carts, Marketing tools such as Traffic Blazer, etc. Check out our wholesale to the public rates.

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