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Search Engine Optimization

By admin - Last updated: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - Save & Share - Leave a Comment

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimization (Optimisation) or SEO as it is commonly called refers to the art/science of gaining higher rankings in Google or other search engines. Many Search Engine Optimisation Companies offer various SEO Packages or SEO Services in order to achieve this single aim. If you look at our SEO packages or Local SEO Packages you will notice that our techniques primarily involve building or modifying your website to reflect the target keywords that you are hoping to rank for. This involves choosing search engine friendly URL’s and a directory structure and content that reflects the target keywords.

Your first task for Search Engine Optimisation is to choose a search engine friendly domain name. Ideally one significantly close to your target keywords. This works well now but there is talk about Google reducing the importance of having the target keyword in the domain name. I agree with this because the domain name has taken on an importance far beyond it’s real significance and negates the potential for website branding. Many sites perform well in Google due to this factor alone and a whole industry has grown up promoting this. As a consequence companies are hoovering up domain names with significant keywords especially .coms and as a result there are millions of domain names being sat on with the sole purpose of selling on the domain name like Internet Real Estate.

Optimised Website Structure

Before building any website you must conduct keyword research to decide upon the appropriate website structure that reflects your target keywords as you know that this is one of the factors that Google bots will be measuring when they crawl your site. For instance if your url contains the keyword Google and there is a link form your Home Page Google will most probably rank that site higher than it would otherwise. Website Optimisation begins with the structure.

Title Tags

The Page Title is the text between the <title></title> tags. If there is one necessary element, this is it. Not only for SEO reasons, but also because users rely on it to know what a page is about.

The title is also very important because most of the time, it is used in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). A well put together page title can have a much higher click-through rate.

Here is an example from Hotels.com.

Their main keyword is [hotels]. Its a good title because they the main keyword, once as the first word, and once later in the sentence, and it is also very user friendly. It makes sense. If you try searching for [hotels] in Google, you will see that they have been very successfully. (I must add that that success has come from Off-Page Search Engine Optimization or Link Building.

Body Text
The body text is any text between the <body></body> tags. Body text, or page content is important for on-page optimization, because without it, there is very little for search engines to judge a site by. More body text is generally better, but you want to keep paragraphs short (short paragraphs help hold the attention of readers). Use your keyword as much as you can In A Reasonable Manner. Overuse of your keyword will result in an Over Optimization Penalty (OOP).

Important elements of the Body Text

  • First Sentence of the Body Text

    • Try to use your keyword somewhere in the first sentence of the body text. It sets the tone, and reinforces to the search engine the fact that the keyword is important.

  • H1 Tag and H2 Tag Text

    • The H1 text is the text between the <H1></H1> tags, and H2 tags are used in the same manner. These tags are called Header tags. Meaning that they should describe everything that is under them. Header tags are helpful for on-page optimization, and letting search engines know what a page is about, but if you do not use them, its not the end of the world.

  • Anchor Text (internal)

    • Anchor text is anything between <A></A> tags. In other words these are links. Anchor text helps search engines know what the link leads to. So a link with the anchor text Click Here is not very descriptive, while one that makes use of your keyword is much better.

    One element of the Anchor tag that is usually overlooked is the Anchor Tag Title. This is not visible unless the user hovers the mouse pointer over the link. Here is an example for the keyword [foo].

  • IMG ALT Attributes

    • The IMG ALT is important for on-page SEO and probably more important because it is required by law. For disabled users who cant see your images, the alt text should describe what the image is. This is a good thing because its another place to use your keyword.

  • URL/ File Name

    • It can be helpful for pages to be named using the keyword. For example if a page is about Green widgets, then you would name the page green-widgets.html. Always make sure to use a hyphen and not an underscore (do noteven think about using a space), since most search engines have a hard time with underscores.

Meta Tags
Meta Description and Meta Keywords
Meta tags go anywhere in the <head></head> tags. They are only for search engine use. There is a good reason that I have put Meta Tags at the end of this article. They are becoming less important to on-page search engine optimization. With that said, it cannot hurt to use them. I will briefly describe and give examples of both.

Meta Description:
Include a complete, descriptive sentence that describes the page. Make sure to use your keyword, but do not go overboard.

Meta Keywords:
Include a list of keywords. The best way is to write your body text, and then select keywords from that text. Do not use keywords that are not in the page.

I think you get the idea. 7 SEO follow all the above guidelines when optimising the ‘Home Page’ of a client. For deep pages we prepare an individual proposal based on the keywords you are looking to optimise for. Please bear in mind that as with the hotels.com example no search engine optimisation is complete without Off Page optimisation or Link Building also.

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