A website that has not been optimized for the purpose of search engine ranking will rank very far behind in search engines. If you want to see your website ranks high in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, search engine optimization is a must. Imagine what will happen if your website ranks 1st in Google for a popular search term. Well, most probably Google will bring a lot of free targeted traffic to your website every day which may skyrocket your product's sales, affiliate commission or Adsense earning.
There are two types of search engine optimizations:
1) On-page Optimization
2) Off-page Optimization
On-page Optimization
On-page optimization is the process of structuring or changing the elements on your webpage so that it can be found by search engines for specific keyword(s). The on-page elements or factors that you need to change in order to improve your website's positions in search engines include title Tag, header tags, page content, alt tag, meta description tag and meta keywords tag.
Title Tag/Page Title
Title tag is the tag that defines the text in the top line of a web browser. The title tag is probably the most important on-page factor because search engines usually use the title tag to provide a link to the sites which match the query made by the user. Thus, Adding your main keywords to the title tag will definitely boost your website's rankings. Let's use the following keywords as an example:
a) Make Money Online
b) Make Extra Money
The title tag for your webpage should look like this:
Make Money Online | Make Extra Money
The "|" character can be added by holding the shift key on your keyboard and pressing the backslash key above the enter key.
You should limit your keywords to a maximum of 3 on each webpage because too many keywords in a title tag may be seen as spamming by search engines.
Don't start off with highly popular keywords because these keywords usually in fierce competitions and it can take several years for your website to rank top in search engines. Try to start off with keywords that have less than 10,000 monthly searches. You can go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ to find the keywords or search terms relevant to your website that have less than 10,000 monthly searches.
Header Tags
The H1 header tag will be used as the title of the content on the webpage. As search engines read pages from top to bottom, so the H1 tag should contain your most important keyword and it should be placed at the top of the page which will be seen by your visitors.
If you need to add a sub-heading for your webpage, you can create a H2 header tag and include your second most important keyword into the H2 tag.
Page Content
Use your keywords throughout the page content in natural ways. Try to include your primary keywords within the first or second sentence of your content. Do not over use your keywords in your content. One or two times for a big paragraph is more than enough.
Alt Tag
The alt tag of your images should contain your keywords. Don't add similar keywords to each image as search engines may see them as spam.
Meta Description Tag
Search engines will use your meta description tag as the short description of your website listed in their search result pages. Thus writing a keywords-rich description will surely help in improving your website's position. The length of your description should not be too long, 2 to 3 sentences will be enough and the description should be encouraging people to click the link to your website.
Meta Keywords Tag
Meta keywords tag may have been completely ignored by Google and other search engines but not Yahoo. Yahoo is still encouraging webmasters to use meta keywords tag for improving the rankings of their websites. You can visit http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/ranking/ranking-02.html to read more about Yahoo's webmaster guidelines. Add all your keywords to the tag in order of importance and don't repeat the same keyword.
Click here to read part 2 of this article.
Published by Alan Liew on October 20, 2006 12:51 AM
