Search Engine Optimization, How To Get Started
August 25th, 2008Optimizing your website is not difficult to do and something that everyone who has a site needs to start doing to be found. Page optimization refers to search engine optimization techniques used directly in the construction of web pages. It is important to provide visitors to your website with valuable content that makes them want to come back to your site again and again. That’ why SEO is not just engine optimization but optimizing the page for human readers.
As well as ensuring your website is full of valuable content, it is important to pay attention to your use of keywords. Avoid keyword stuffing as not only does it make your website look unintelligent and unprofessional, search engines have caught on and you will be penalized for over using keywords. The ideal is to use keywords naturally and sparingly. You want to use the keywords often enough to attract search engine traffic but no more than that.
Although traditional SEO identifies a keyword density of 2-7% as being ideal for on page optimization, changes in Google’s search engine operations indicate that a density of only 1-2% may be preferable (and easier to read). Make a list of commonly used search terms that relate to your subject and subtopics and sprinkle them throughout your site. Google’s latent semantic index (LSI) algorithm will also reward you for the use of similar phrases.
Do not limit keywords within your page content. It is imperative that one includes the chosen keywords in their title pages. Search engines recognize the content of one’s pages mostly based on the words that are utilized in the title pages. Unless you use keywords in your page titles, it will be necessary to include many more alternate links that point to your webpage in order to encourage people to visit your website. When using keywords in the titles of your work, put them close to the beginning of your title and make sure that it is able to be read. To optimize search results, there should always be a title page.
Each page of your website should have its own unique,relatively short page title which utilizes the main keywords for that page. Remember that search engines only allow a certain number of characters to display in search results. Do not use your keywords more than two or three times in your title; for most keyword phrases, once should be enough.
“Meta tags appear while reading about “on page optimization”,but major search engines do not give them much weight as their use has been abused as spam. These days, SEO professionals do not necessarily use meta tags to optimize their pages. If at all you want use only meta keyword and meta discriptive tags and ensure that your listed keywords or phrases are on your page so as to avoid spam.
Links from your site to other related pages will also enhance the popularity of your search engine. Consequently, it is imperative that the links provided are real and sent to sites with similar content that adds value to the visitors. Page optimization is not hard to institute and given that you offer the visitors to your site excellent and relevant content, it will largely benefit the success you will have with the search engines.