Search Engine Optimization - How to get more traffic 1
Search engine optimization is very important because it is the process of improving a website for higher search rankings.
It's the first of many steps in achieving higher rankings. After optimization can you submit a site and hope for good page rank results.
Web Design affects search engine optimization and rankings
- Directory editors, such as Yahoo! will review your site before accepting it.
- When search engine spiders become confused or slowed down because of design issues, your page becomes less relevant.
- Search engine spiders can't see what you and I see so they must rely on the specific algorithms set for them.
Some of these algorithms are going to depend on design issues in your web site. - For more Web Design factors, read my Web Design Tips.
Analyze your competitor's web pages for search engine optimization
- Analyze HTML titles, Meta tags, ALT descriptions, headings, subheadings for keyword frequency and weight.
- Analyze link popularity.
HTML title tag
- HTML title should not be any longer than 70-100 characters, including spaces. Google – DMOZ
- Title should not begin with the domain name. It is often considered as spam.
- You should place the most prominent keyword first in the title tag.
- Each page title should describe the page content.
- Stop word such as “a”,“the”, “and”, “to” should be avoided.
Meta description tag
- Meta descriptions should not be any longer than 100 characters. Google
- Use a different Meta description tag for each page, as each page is different and stands a better chance of being found in the search results.
- Take your time to write a good description, consider adding your keyword phrase toward the middle of your description tag instead of the beginning. Yahoo!.
Meta keyword tag
- Meta keyword shouldn't be any longer than 268 characters (20 keywords). AltaVista
- It should not repeat the same keyword more than 3-7 times; you can get penalized for spam.
- Put important keywords first.
While Meta tags certainly are not the most important methods of search engine optimization, they do still provide useful information to the spiders.
Text keywords
- Do put keywords at the beginning and middle of your paragraph.
- You should write between 100-1000 words in page text. Same keywords should repeated 3-7 times.
Strategic keyword placements Place keywords in the following areas will not cause for penalties.
- Domain name
- Custom 404 page
- Navigational scheme
- Anchor text
- Page name
- Text link
- ALT text
Link popularity
- Google, MSN, Hotbot, AltaVista Google and others use links to measure of a site.
- Google considers link farms and link exchange programs spam. These links are poor quality and temporary.
- Exchange links with a website that is relevant to your content. Don't exchange links with a website that has no PageRank.