Sweat Equity Series Continued
Optimizing Your Content for Maximum Visibility

by Nancy Snyder, Marketing & Technologies Vice President, G7 Solutions Search Engine Optimization

Do it Yourself - Web Page Optimization

Not sure how to get higher rankings in the search engines? You really have only two options.

Option 1
Optimize your web pages to be "spider" friendly -- cost zero. Just add energy.

Option 2
Pay to be listed. Just add money.

Regardless of whether you are willing to pay for higher rankings, -organic rankings can bear fruit without monetary cost. We will stay true to this "sweat equity" series and start with option "1".

In this article we will address the primary elements to consider when optimizing your web pages for search engines.

First --- What is all this talk about "spiders"?
Spiders are actually software programs developed by the search engines that crawl the web for websites to add to their database. Some search engine spiders "read" your meta tags and use this meta data in propagating search engines. Meta tags are also used to direct the search engines on which information you want posted and which information you wish to disallow. This will be explained latter in this article.

Finally, and most importantly, ALL search engine spiders read your content even if they disregard meta tags. In this article we will discuss each of these meta-tags as well as recommended content structure.

What is a Meta Tag?
A meta tag is a line of HTML coding that contains information about a webpage. This tag doesn't change how the page looks nor will it be seen by your customers (unless they are viewing your source code).

If they are viewing your source code - they need to get a life.

These tags (AKA spider food) serve to provide information to search engines about your web content and are placed between the tags in the actual html code.

They look something like this ....

TITLE OF YOUR PAGE
YOUR DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT HERE">
YOUR KEYWORDS OR KEYWORD PHRASES HERE">
All"> Right click on a web page to view the source code of a web page.

There are many other potential tags but these four above are the only ones that matter.

If you do a "view source" command from your browser (right click on this webpage in the Internet Explorer or Mozilla browser), and look at the code at the top of the content -- you will see the keywords used to "optimize" this article. Go ahead -- take a look. Right click - view source - look at the top of the code.

Don't Judge a Book By it's Cover (Yeah - Right)
We've all been told "not to judge a book by its cover" but when you walk into a bookstore with rows of shelves lined with books, we look for a title that catches our interest. Titles are the single most important element that determines whether your writing will be read. This holds true for websites as well but instead of hundreds of options - we now have millions. 28 Million Web Pages Have no title

Did you know at last count there were over 28 million web pages that have no title. The tag in a web page is arguably the most important element in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Well â€“ lucky for us, that is 28 million less web pages we have to compete with for visibility! YEAH <h2>So <TITLE> your Web Pages! </h2> Example: <title>Scrumptious Banana Pudding Recipe

Also, although you may be tempted when working late into your "sweat equity" evenings, it is highly recommended you do NOT use the same title on every page. Display of your listing in search engines.

Meta Tag Page "description"
Your 'page description' does not play a large role (if any) in improving your display ranking, however when your content is delivered, (at whatever position), it must appeal to your reader. If you choose not to populate this tag then your title better speak for itself. In essence page descriptions will improve your "click rate", not your search engine ranking.

Example: Scrumptious banana pudding recipe that even Grandma would be proud to serve.">

Meta Tag "keywords"
Although Google does not use the keywords placed in your meta-tags to place your ranking, as they use your content, keyword density etc, that doesnâ€™t mean that all other search engines do the same. Other search bots, RSS bots, and social media sites use your meta keywords. Donâ€™t waste time thinking about if you should spend the energy populating this meta. It takes minutes to post - just do it.

Example: scrumptious banana pudding recipe, grandma's banana pudding recipe, amazing banana pudding">

Content is King, Offline and On
The objective of writing content for the web is no different than writing for any other medium.

Get their ATTENTION
Peak their INTEREST
Create a DESIRE to learn more
Give them a reason to ACT now (hint - click)

HOWEVER, placement in the upper ranks of a search engine requires a few more of what I like to call "content embellishments".

These embellishments include:

Keyword Location Within Content
There are MANY opinions on the number of times your keywords or keyword phrases should be repeated in your content and of course I have one as well.

Here are my simplified suggestions:

Suggestion #1: Consider your audience first when placing keywords -- not the search engines. Overuse of keywords as "spider bait" is not wise and is otherwise known as "stuffing" your content. Google will penalize your rankings for this practice.

Suggestion #2: Use your keywords or phrase two to three times on short pages and five to six on longer pages.

Suggestion #3: Use long-tail keywords and phrases vs. short tail.

Long-Tail Keywords VS Short-Tail
Long-tail is a buzzword coined by Chris Anderson (Wired magazine Editor-in-Chief) and goes something like this ...

Search for embroidery design and Google will deliver 5M results.

Search for cutwork embroidery design and Google now delivers Target marketing for Search Engine Optimization 277K.

So in simple terms, - target marketing is as key online as offline. Using generic keywords renders impossible competition for small businesses. Be specific and use what makes you unique in keyword population -- just as you do in your marketing content.

H1 Headline Tag
Your headline is typically your title and should contain the targeted long tail keywords or phrases.

Example:

Scrumptious Banana Pudding Recipe

Alt Attribute
This is the descriptive text you add as an "alternative" display for images. This image "alternative" is displayed when using text only browsers and is also read by the search engine "spiders". Mouse over any image on the web, and if the webmaster chose to populate the fields this alternative text will display.
Why Use Image Alt Tags

There are some SEO experts who say that image filenames (image name=keyword), or the use of bold or italics with a keyword may make a minute difference. If you have the time to add further embellishments then why not?

Meta Tag "robots"

The "robots" meta tag simply provides direction for the search engine robots as to what to index.

Common options are:
content="index,follow" - You want this page listed or indexed and all links to be followed.
content="noindex,nofollow" - You do not want this page indexed nor the links followed. .
content="index,nofollow" - You want the page only to be indexed, not the links.
content="noindex,follow" - Asking the robot to not index the document but follow links in the document.
content="all" - Same as content="index,follow".
content="none" - Same as content="noindex,nofollow".

You can add this tag uniquely to each page or you can create a universal "robots.txt" and place in your primary web directory.

It is not in your interest to let the robots index everything. You only want them to index relevant information.

Small Efforts Can Produce Large Results

Build Your External Link Inventory
It is a proven fact that when other websites link to yours, the ranking will go up - organically. Yeah - save the money.

How to you get people to list you? Look for sites were you have something of value to contribute to their audience and pick up phone.
I have no magic answer for this one -- other than money.

URL's Actually Make a Difference
When targeting prime content you can also try using the key word combinations in your url.

Allow me to explain:

Example: Keyword Combination - banana pudding recipe

Potential URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/banana-pudding-recipe.htm

Or another way... http://www.yourdomain.com/banana_pudding_recipe.htm

The use of hyphens or underscores are supposedly weighted the same by Google -- so take your pick.

Go Ahead - Google "banana pudding recipe" and you will see for yourself.

Last but not least - the two key ingredients in this process are time and patience. IT TAKES TIME!! The older your website, the better. For new sites, becoming visible in the search engines is likened to planting a crop. Start today and you will reap the visibility harvest in due time. Be persistent in updating your site and patiently wait for the "harvest of placement."