Well, in my journey of learning SEO I have made many mistakes -- and it's cost me traffic. If you're trying to learn search engine optimization, you know the frustration of not knowing what to do, let alone not knowing what works, what doesn't work and what you shouldn't do.
Here is an article I wrote, it's a quick read, but I hope it helps you. As they say, if you can take even one morsel of information away and utilize it on your site with success -- it's worth it.
SEO-What Am I Doing Wrong?
By Vickie J. Scanlon
When I first put my website up I anxiously waited with high anticipation for the traffic to arrive. And let me say, I waited, and waited -- and got excited when I saw some clicks, before realizing they were my own. Then my patience turned to frustration. I had to find a way to get traffic to my site--for my own clicks were definitely counterproductive.
As with most newbies, I did not have a lot of money to work with, so I was looking for a free option to get my website moving. That's when I came across this thing called Search Engine Optimization. It was free, required a lot of work, but the rewards would be long term. At least that was what I read.
So, what am I doing wrong with SEO?
First, most people tend to want to shy away from Search Engine Optimization. Why? It's seems complicated, they're not quite sure where to begin or they feel the results are too long-term and not immediate (usually). Well, all I can say is, take a deep breath, step through your fear and tackle the monster of SEO, or your online business will suffer.
The first mistake many webmasters make, I included, is to assume that you only need to optimize your home page. Not true, you should optimize for traffic on all your web pages. If you have in the beginning, say, 20+ pages, do you want people to just hit your home page or all 20+ pages? I bet you're saying all 20+ pages. If not, you should be. You must make your website accessible to your target market, thus, open the entry points where you want them to enter.
Second mistake, many webmasters do not fully understand the importance of keywords in their meta tags. Thus, SEO begins first with optimizing your meta tags with your keywords or keyword phases.
Meta Tag Title -- your keywords should be in the meta tag title. Well, let's see, what did I have -- my index web page had the welcome title that I used on the web page.Well, this could be a good thing if it has your keywords in it -- but if it doesn't you're losing the search engines and traffic. Translated, what title you have on your web page for visitors to view, doesn't necessarily have to be the title in your Meta Tag Title.
Meta Tag Description -- your keywords should be included in the description as well. It's almost like writing a concise ad to draw the search engines and traffic. If you go to Google and type in one of your keywords, you may very well see the meta description drawing people to your site. It depends on what the search engines find to be relevant.
Meta Tag Keywords -- some say that the search engines ignore the keywords, while others believe they are giving the competition an unfair advantage. I personally use the meta tag keywords, both as a personal reference and for any of the search engines that may still use the keyword meta tags.
Alt tags -- not all search engines utilize the alt tags, but some still do. So, don't ignore the images, where you can put a keyword in an alt tag. It's rather simple, just put alt="keyword here" within the image.
Content -- you should have keywords within your content. For me, emphasis should be audience first, then keywords. So write your content first, then try to incorporate your keywords.
Things To Avoid
To keep you in good standing with the search engines you should avoid some of the following:
1. Blackhat tactics -- No hidden keywords. Which means, having keywords that are the same color as your background and are not visible to the human eye.
2. Keyword stuffing -- Stuffing your keywords into your copy. You can tell rather easily by the fact that the content does not flow smoothly and may have little or no learning value to the reader.
This is a good starting point, and if you're new to SEO it will keep you busy for a while. So, create the mindset of "getting it done" with long-term goals and you should begin to see traffic coming your way for years to come.
About the Author:
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site My Affiliate Place. She's been on the Internet for two years, learning and sharing information on all the facets of Internet Marketing. Her site, which is ever expanding, offers how to articles, ebooks, tools, software and computers for marketers.
Check my web pages on SEO Information and SEO Keyword Search and Research
Read more...
Showing posts with label keywords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keywords. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
SEO and Your Targeted Market
SEO -- you may be getting tired of hearing it, but SEO is a vital facet of your Internet Business. In fact, I seen one local company advertising for individuals who were well versed in SEO -- salary plus a commission, if they were able to get their designated page in the top 10 of the big 3.
SEO helps people to find you, and hopefully, the ones that want to buy. I've written an article on some of the issues you should look at, to get to your targeted market.
SEO helps people to find you, and hopefully, the ones that want to buy. I've written an article on some of the issues you should look at, to get to your targeted market.
SEO and Your Targeted Market
SEO is a continuing process and one that should not be ignored. As you know, or will soon realize, is that the search engines are the main entry point at which your customers will find your website. But there are other issues you must be aware of to get the targeted customers that you want.
Keywords
You may have optimized your webpages and people are coming -- but not many. Why? It could be the keywords you are choosing.
Choosing the right keywords take time and effort, and it is an important factor to consider. When choosing keywords you should be asking yourself -
1.) What are the exact words people are using to find the product or service that you are offering. For example: Is it refurbished tools, cheap tools, free tools, red, ugly tools -- you get my meaning.
2.) Are my keywords too general, or overused. If the keywords are too general, you may receive visitors that are not buyers, just browsers. If the keywords are overused, you may be so far down in the search engine rankings that your site will never be seen.
3.) Do you have your keywords or keyword phases in your "Title Tag". Your keywords in the Title Page should be relevant to what your web copy relates too. If it doesn't, you've just wasted an important keyword tool that the Search Engines utilize.
4. Meta Keywords Tag -- Some people use the meta keywords Tag and others say that the search engines no longer use them. And still others, claim that it gives their competition an unfair advantage. I personally will continue to use them, because I don't believe all the search engines ignore this tag.
Finding the correct keywords is no easy task. However, did you think of asking the people around you what keywords or phases they would use to get to one of your web pages. You might be surprised -- it may not have been a keyword or phase that you even considered.
Popularity
Even though a keyword may be popular to the masses, you also must consider if it is targeting your specific market. Why? You may begin to get the traffic, but not the specific target market that will buy your products. And that is the bottom line, not so much the popularity of the word, as the quality of the traffic that the keyword brings.
And if the keyword is popular, you may find your web page competing with established websites -- which translates into poor positioning. Thus, you could consider other smaller niche words, and still get the ranking you seek.
Experiment
You will have to experiment with the keywords that you use on your webpage/website, to determine if the keywords you are using is giving you the sales you want.
I have found testing, evaluating and re-evaluating is the name of the game of SEO. If you keep that in mind, you will begin to see the results you want.
However, once you are in the top ten of the search engines, do not think your job is done. You must continue to monitor -- because the Internet is not a static environment -- and people can come online that can slide your web page or website down the line in the search engines.
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place for tools, articles, ebooks, how to info on SEO, affiliate marketing, where to report scams, software, computers and more.
Read more...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Content, Keywords and SEO
In my wanderings I came across an article by Ed Rodriguez called "SEO Content Writing – Converting Artificial Keywords Into Natural Keywords" which I found rather interesting. This article gives you the how to of SEO Content Writing -- using natural keywords, as well as, artificial keywords in your article.
First and foremost, write the article on the subject matter that you want with the quality that you expect when you read an article. Then go back and see if you can revise and rework your copy to include the keywords or phases that you want to emphasize. Then begin submitting your article to the article directories.
Second, keep abreast of SEO information and keyword rules, or you will be penalized.
Third, keyword density, I would agree with Ed Rodriguez in the case of err on the side of caution. Go on the lower side of the 20% density, keeping you within the save graces of the search engines.
SEO Content Writing – Converting Artificial Keywords Into Natural Keywords.
by Ed Rodriguez
The Role Of Keywords Within SEO
One of the major aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) is the use of keywords both in the Meta tags of a site and throughout the website content. In particular, the density, the placement and the actual keywords themselves are hotly debated topics. It is certainly no secret that keywords play a vital part to any good SEO program, but because search engines like Google and many others change their algorithms on such a regular basis it may seem difficult to keep up with the current best practice. However, there are some good general guidelines to follow that should always ring true regardless of how you personally approach SEO.
Keeping Abreast Of SEO Times
It can be difficult to say at any given time what the keyword rules are when it comes to SEO content writing, but there are always common worst-practice factors that should be avoided completely. That is, search engines like Google will not only ignore your website content but they will actively penalize you for certain things.
Spam – The Big NO!
Search engines do not take spam, or the sites that contain it, lightly. This is the most important thing you should remember. It used to be ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of search engine robots for your content to be 100% keywords with absolutely no meaningful text. However, this practice of keyword cramming or keyword stuffing is now something that does not go unnoticed and you will face a penalty for using this technique. Yes, keywords are important but you also have to provide solid and informational text for your visitors.
So, What Is The ‘Correct’ Keyword Density Then?
Of course, this leads to the question of how to determine what is considered spam and what is considered an acceptable level of keywords within your text and again this is a topic that leads to debate between SEO experts, webmasters and content writers alike. The general belief was that including a keyword within your text with a range of 5% to 10% was best practice. It certainly wouldn’t get you penalized and it made it blatantly obvious that your site was relevant to that topic. However, some believed the figure could legitimately be taken as high as 20% without any negative search engine effects.
Err On The Side Of Caution
While these high densities of around 20% may not have got you penalized at one time it is increasingly likely that they will be regarded as being geared primarily towards search engines. Search engines do not want to display sites that are created for this purpose; their aim is to display websites that are geared towards visitors. As such, sticking to a lower percentage is likely to produce better results for you.
Playing It By The Rules
Keeping the keywords to this sort of level is an art, but it is not one that should elude most people. The art, of course, is to combine search engine optimization with informative content that will appeal to your visitors as well. In order to do this it is important that you use natural keywords.
What Are Natural Keywords And Artificial Keywords?
A natural keyword is one that you would use in everyday conversation relating to a given topic. In the case of your website, if you were to sit down and write 500 words of informative content you would find that certain words naturally creep into the article and appear several times. These are your natural keywords, but unfortunately natural keywords may not provide you with the results you require. For example, a little keyword research may prove that a natural keyword of “divorce attorney” is a very well searched phrase but there are also 2 million websites geared towards this key phrase. Further research may turn up the fact that “Find Divorce Attorneys” may be a little less popular with regards to searches but there are only 10,000 sites aiming for this keyword. This instantly improves your chances of being closer to the top of the search results and that coveted top spot.
Replacing Natural Keywords With Artificial Keywords
So, you now need to go back over the content you have already written and see if the term “Find Divorce Attorneys” appears within your content. In all honesty, it is quite unlikely that it would appear more than once, if at all. You have to make it fit into your content and you have to make it appear to do so naturally. Find the areas where you specifically used the keyword “Divorce Attorney” and see if you can swap the phrases with just a little alteration of the surrounding text.
Start From Scratch With Your Artificial Natural Keywords
Another method is to look for your artificial keywords before you begin and make sure you have them in the back (or the front) of your mind when you sit down to write your website content. Because you are already thinking of the phrase you want to use you will naturally include it within the content of your site. It’s not a trick, although you may want to consider it a subliminal tactic if you wish, but it will work.
The Result Of Keyword Conversion
By converting your artificial keywords into natural keywords you should be able to effectively optimize pages towards both search engines and your visitors and this will mean improved search engine rankings as well as improved conversion rates. Even a small increase in visitors combined with a small increase in conversion rates will show a good level of increase in your income so you should not overlook this technique.
About This Author:
Ed Rodriguez is the owner of Mysearcharoo http://www.mysearcharoo.com a metasearch engine part of the ISEDN network providing website owners affordable and effective search engine and advertising
For additional information, check my web page on SEO and Keyword Search
Read more...
First and foremost, write the article on the subject matter that you want with the quality that you expect when you read an article. Then go back and see if you can revise and rework your copy to include the keywords or phases that you want to emphasize. Then begin submitting your article to the article directories.
Second, keep abreast of SEO information and keyword rules, or you will be penalized.
Third, keyword density, I would agree with Ed Rodriguez in the case of err on the side of caution. Go on the lower side of the 20% density, keeping you within the save graces of the search engines.
SEO Content Writing – Converting Artificial Keywords Into Natural Keywords.
by Ed Rodriguez
The Role Of Keywords Within SEO
One of the major aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) is the use of keywords both in the Meta tags of a site and throughout the website content. In particular, the density, the placement and the actual keywords themselves are hotly debated topics. It is certainly no secret that keywords play a vital part to any good SEO program, but because search engines like Google and many others change their algorithms on such a regular basis it may seem difficult to keep up with the current best practice. However, there are some good general guidelines to follow that should always ring true regardless of how you personally approach SEO.
Keeping Abreast Of SEO Times
It can be difficult to say at any given time what the keyword rules are when it comes to SEO content writing, but there are always common worst-practice factors that should be avoided completely. That is, search engines like Google will not only ignore your website content but they will actively penalize you for certain things.
Spam – The Big NO!
Search engines do not take spam, or the sites that contain it, lightly. This is the most important thing you should remember. It used to be ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of search engine robots for your content to be 100% keywords with absolutely no meaningful text. However, this practice of keyword cramming or keyword stuffing is now something that does not go unnoticed and you will face a penalty for using this technique. Yes, keywords are important but you also have to provide solid and informational text for your visitors.
So, What Is The ‘Correct’ Keyword Density Then?
Of course, this leads to the question of how to determine what is considered spam and what is considered an acceptable level of keywords within your text and again this is a topic that leads to debate between SEO experts, webmasters and content writers alike. The general belief was that including a keyword within your text with a range of 5% to 10% was best practice. It certainly wouldn’t get you penalized and it made it blatantly obvious that your site was relevant to that topic. However, some believed the figure could legitimately be taken as high as 20% without any negative search engine effects.
Err On The Side Of Caution
While these high densities of around 20% may not have got you penalized at one time it is increasingly likely that they will be regarded as being geared primarily towards search engines. Search engines do not want to display sites that are created for this purpose; their aim is to display websites that are geared towards visitors. As such, sticking to a lower percentage is likely to produce better results for you.
Playing It By The Rules
Keeping the keywords to this sort of level is an art, but it is not one that should elude most people. The art, of course, is to combine search engine optimization with informative content that will appeal to your visitors as well. In order to do this it is important that you use natural keywords.
What Are Natural Keywords And Artificial Keywords?
A natural keyword is one that you would use in everyday conversation relating to a given topic. In the case of your website, if you were to sit down and write 500 words of informative content you would find that certain words naturally creep into the article and appear several times. These are your natural keywords, but unfortunately natural keywords may not provide you with the results you require. For example, a little keyword research may prove that a natural keyword of “divorce attorney” is a very well searched phrase but there are also 2 million websites geared towards this key phrase. Further research may turn up the fact that “Find Divorce Attorneys” may be a little less popular with regards to searches but there are only 10,000 sites aiming for this keyword. This instantly improves your chances of being closer to the top of the search results and that coveted top spot.
Replacing Natural Keywords With Artificial Keywords
So, you now need to go back over the content you have already written and see if the term “Find Divorce Attorneys” appears within your content. In all honesty, it is quite unlikely that it would appear more than once, if at all. You have to make it fit into your content and you have to make it appear to do so naturally. Find the areas where you specifically used the keyword “Divorce Attorney” and see if you can swap the phrases with just a little alteration of the surrounding text.
Start From Scratch With Your Artificial Natural Keywords
Another method is to look for your artificial keywords before you begin and make sure you have them in the back (or the front) of your mind when you sit down to write your website content. Because you are already thinking of the phrase you want to use you will naturally include it within the content of your site. It’s not a trick, although you may want to consider it a subliminal tactic if you wish, but it will work.
The Result Of Keyword Conversion
By converting your artificial keywords into natural keywords you should be able to effectively optimize pages towards both search engines and your visitors and this will mean improved search engine rankings as well as improved conversion rates. Even a small increase in visitors combined with a small increase in conversion rates will show a good level of increase in your income so you should not overlook this technique.
About This Author:
Ed Rodriguez is the owner of Mysearcharoo http://www.mysearcharoo.com a metasearch engine part of the ISEDN network providing website owners affordable and effective search engine and advertising
For additional information, check my web page on SEO and Keyword Search
Read more...
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Adwords, Adsense, SEO – Common Denominator, Keywords
When you first get on the Internet and put up your website, you are amassed with information. To sort through the information, determine what is useful for you and for your website is another thing. In addition, the Internet is a constant evolving and changing medium that you need to keep abreast of everyday.
If you are wanting to have multiple streams of income, you need to know the basics, and build upon them. With that being said, here is an article that I have written that shows the interrelationship of Adwords, Adsense, SEO and Keywords.
Adwords, Adsense, SEO – Common Denominator, Keywords
If you have just put up a website, you probably all ready have heard words like:keywords, Google Adwords, GoogleAdsense, SEO. Adwords, Adsense, SEO have one thing in common – Keywords. How important are keywords? Very Important.
Google Adwords
Adwords, be it through Google, Miva, or any pay-per-click search engines, you need keywords. With Adwords, you create a three-line ad – 25 word title, with two 35 word lines of ad copy – then you create your keywords. To get the hits, you have to brainstorm for different keywords, that are different but relevant to your target audience. Sound easy? It’s not. It takes time, patience, constant tweaking, and hoping that the product you are selling is not already saturated -- to much competition, makes it a little more difficult for the novice to make a profit.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is an advertising program created by Google, and which is beginning to be explored by other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN – that allows you to put targeted ads on your website. If someone clicks on the ad, you earn a small amount of money. These ads are keyword driven and are relevant to your web page or website. Sounds simple? Well, not really. There is more too it than just putting an ad on your website and expecting someone to click on it. What’s involved? Let’s see – color, position, style, to name just a few.
SEO
Search engine optimization – this for me has been a time-consuming process – since I am still learning. SEO is keyword driven – the search engines pull the keywords from your web copy – not, to my surprise, from the meta keywords tag. Granted, I still use the meta keywords tag, but maybe in the near future, I will slowly eliminate the tag from my web pages… The search engines do, however, pull information from Meta Description, Meta Title, and the content of your webpages. Thus, content does reign supreme. Since content reigns supreme, each page should contain useful content and most importantly, your most relevant keywords that you want to emphasize. Secondly, it is best to try and base your keywords around a central theme. I have found that when the keywords diverts away from the main theme – that sends a red flag to search engines. So, if you want to look at your keywords and the density of the keywords on your webpage or webpages – You can get a quick rundown at: http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html . It’s a free tool, and very helpful.
To conclude, keywords is one of the main ingredients that leads people to your website, product, service and/or ad. …AND, keywords based around your quality content will help with your positioning on your website.
Read more...
If you are wanting to have multiple streams of income, you need to know the basics, and build upon them. With that being said, here is an article that I have written that shows the interrelationship of Adwords, Adsense, SEO and Keywords.
Adwords, Adsense, SEO – Common Denominator, Keywords
If you have just put up a website, you probably all ready have heard words like:keywords, Google Adwords, GoogleAdsense, SEO. Adwords, Adsense, SEO have one thing in common – Keywords. How important are keywords? Very Important.
Google Adwords
Adwords, be it through Google, Miva, or any pay-per-click search engines, you need keywords. With Adwords, you create a three-line ad – 25 word title, with two 35 word lines of ad copy – then you create your keywords. To get the hits, you have to brainstorm for different keywords, that are different but relevant to your target audience. Sound easy? It’s not. It takes time, patience, constant tweaking, and hoping that the product you are selling is not already saturated -- to much competition, makes it a little more difficult for the novice to make a profit.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is an advertising program created by Google, and which is beginning to be explored by other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN – that allows you to put targeted ads on your website. If someone clicks on the ad, you earn a small amount of money. These ads are keyword driven and are relevant to your web page or website. Sounds simple? Well, not really. There is more too it than just putting an ad on your website and expecting someone to click on it. What’s involved? Let’s see – color, position, style, to name just a few.
SEO
Search engine optimization – this for me has been a time-consuming process – since I am still learning. SEO is keyword driven – the search engines pull the keywords from your web copy – not, to my surprise, from the meta keywords tag. Granted, I still use the meta keywords tag, but maybe in the near future, I will slowly eliminate the tag from my web pages… The search engines do, however, pull information from Meta Description, Meta Title, and the content of your webpages. Thus, content does reign supreme. Since content reigns supreme, each page should contain useful content and most importantly, your most relevant keywords that you want to emphasize. Secondly, it is best to try and base your keywords around a central theme. I have found that when the keywords diverts away from the main theme – that sends a red flag to search engines. So, if you want to look at your keywords and the density of the keywords on your webpage or webpages – You can get a quick rundown at: http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html . It’s a free tool, and very helpful.
To conclude, keywords is one of the main ingredients that leads people to your website, product, service and/or ad. …AND, keywords based around your quality content will help with your positioning on your website.
Read more...
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Keywords and How To Use Them
When you're looking for ways to get traffic to your website, you must look at your webpages and optimize. I found a great article by George Peirson, who goes through the 5 ways in which you can optimize your site for better search engine placement. It's a great how to with optimizing your site.
The Five Ways You Should Be Using Keywords
by George Peirson
We have all read lots of articles on how to gather keywords, how to compile a huge keyword list, how to make these keywords relevant to our web site. But exactly what do we do with all these keywords once we have them?
Knowing where and how you can use your keywords will greatly improve the efficiency of your search engine optimization.
There are 5 places in a web page where you can use keywords:
The Title Tag
The Keyword Meta Tag
The Description Meta Tag
Alt Tags for images
Body copy on the page
Of these the page Body Copy, the readable text on the page, is the single most important place for your keywords. More about this later.
Let’s first take a look at the Title Tag. This is one of the tags in the head section of the html code of your web page and lists the title that is displayed in the web browser. For instance, Internet Explorer displays this tag in the top bar of the browser window. But there are other uses for the Title Tag as well. Most search engines will index this tag for information about your site and many search engines will use this tag as the title of your listing.
In general you can use from 60 to 115 characters in a Title Tag. The Tag can include the company name, especially if it is a well known company, and should include your most important keywords. Consider this a short description of your web page. One more thing, the Title Tag is also used as the link when the URL is saved into a web browser favorites list.Sponsored Links
Related Articles
Sneaky (But Legal) Places To Insert Keywords For Higher Rankings
Creating Keyword Rich Pages
8 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Website
Search Engine Basics: Title And META-Tags
Keywords and SEO. The Facts.
The Keyword Meta Tag used to be the main way search engines indexed your page. Now-a-days many search engines will simply ignore this tag, but that may not always stay the case. Some search engines still take s look at this tag to help categorize your site. There is no reason not to have this tag on your page, just in case. You are not penalized for including a Keyword Meta Tag.
The keywords should be separated by a comma. Put more specific keywords first then put the less important and general keywords later on. Search engines no longer pay attention to the case of a keyword, so the keywords can all be lower case. I have seen recommendations of 25 keywords or 1000 characters in the list. In general Keyword pairs or triplets are better than single keywords. I try to have one or two lines of keywords if I use this tag.
The Description Meta Tag is slowly joining the Keywords Meta Tag on the lack of support list. But right now it is still a valuable place to use your keywords. Many search engines will look at the description Meta tag for keywords to compare against your body copy. Yahoo goes one step further and will use your description tag as the description of your site in their listings.
Consider the description tag just like it is named, a concise description of your site. Keep it to a short paragraph, under 50 words.
Alt tags are text descriptions that are included with the code used to display images on a page. Basically an Alt tag is the Alternate Text version of the image in case the image is not displayed. Alt tags are important for creating a fully accessible site for people who use screen reader technology that reads the page out loud through their computer speakers. Obviously an image cannot be read aloud, but the Alt tag can.
Alt tags are also displayed as a quick popup when you “hover” your mouse pointer over an image. Many search engines, including Google, will index the Alt tags along with the rest of the body copy, making these ideal places to slip in a few more keywords. Just keep in mind that the text should accurately reflect the content of the image. Plus don’t use Alt tags on images that would not normally be read out loud, such as separator lines or bullets.
This brings us to the main place to use your keywords, the body copy on the page, the text that your visitors are reading when they visit your site. The major search engines will no longer give you a top placement just for having the most instances of a particular keyword on your page. They will give top listing to what they believe is the most relevant page on a topic.
Your job is to work your keyword into the text frequently, but appropriately. Select one or two keywords and make the page specifically about those keywords. Think of yourself giving a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of your best customers. Your PowerPoint slides will be your paragraphs. They should be concise and to the point, using your keywords to drive home your point. And, just like in a PowerPoint presentation, you can use bulleted lists to call out the several benefits of your site or product, each time relating it to your selected keyword.
So use your keywords appropriately on your site and use them where you can. This will greatly increase your search engine effectiveness.
George Peirson is the CEO of How To Gurus. He is the author of over 30 multimedia based tutorial training titles. To see training sets and other articles by George Peirson visit How To Gurus
Read more...
The Five Ways You Should Be Using Keywords
by George Peirson
We have all read lots of articles on how to gather keywords, how to compile a huge keyword list, how to make these keywords relevant to our web site. But exactly what do we do with all these keywords once we have them?
Knowing where and how you can use your keywords will greatly improve the efficiency of your search engine optimization.
There are 5 places in a web page where you can use keywords:
The Title Tag
The Keyword Meta Tag
The Description Meta Tag
Alt Tags for images
Body copy on the page
Of these the page Body Copy, the readable text on the page, is the single most important place for your keywords. More about this later.
Let’s first take a look at the Title Tag. This is one of the tags in the head section of the html code of your web page and lists the title that is displayed in the web browser. For instance, Internet Explorer displays this tag in the top bar of the browser window. But there are other uses for the Title Tag as well. Most search engines will index this tag for information about your site and many search engines will use this tag as the title of your listing.
In general you can use from 60 to 115 characters in a Title Tag. The Tag can include the company name, especially if it is a well known company, and should include your most important keywords. Consider this a short description of your web page. One more thing, the Title Tag is also used as the link when the URL is saved into a web browser favorites list.Sponsored Links
Related Articles
Sneaky (But Legal) Places To Insert Keywords For Higher Rankings
Creating Keyword Rich Pages
8 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Website
Search Engine Basics: Title And META-Tags
Keywords and SEO. The Facts.
The Keyword Meta Tag used to be the main way search engines indexed your page. Now-a-days many search engines will simply ignore this tag, but that may not always stay the case. Some search engines still take s look at this tag to help categorize your site. There is no reason not to have this tag on your page, just in case. You are not penalized for including a Keyword Meta Tag.
The keywords should be separated by a comma. Put more specific keywords first then put the less important and general keywords later on. Search engines no longer pay attention to the case of a keyword, so the keywords can all be lower case. I have seen recommendations of 25 keywords or 1000 characters in the list. In general Keyword pairs or triplets are better than single keywords. I try to have one or two lines of keywords if I use this tag.
The Description Meta Tag is slowly joining the Keywords Meta Tag on the lack of support list. But right now it is still a valuable place to use your keywords. Many search engines will look at the description Meta tag for keywords to compare against your body copy. Yahoo goes one step further and will use your description tag as the description of your site in their listings.
Consider the description tag just like it is named, a concise description of your site. Keep it to a short paragraph, under 50 words.
Alt tags are text descriptions that are included with the code used to display images on a page. Basically an Alt tag is the Alternate Text version of the image in case the image is not displayed. Alt tags are important for creating a fully accessible site for people who use screen reader technology that reads the page out loud through their computer speakers. Obviously an image cannot be read aloud, but the Alt tag can.
Alt tags are also displayed as a quick popup when you “hover” your mouse pointer over an image. Many search engines, including Google, will index the Alt tags along with the rest of the body copy, making these ideal places to slip in a few more keywords. Just keep in mind that the text should accurately reflect the content of the image. Plus don’t use Alt tags on images that would not normally be read out loud, such as separator lines or bullets.
This brings us to the main place to use your keywords, the body copy on the page, the text that your visitors are reading when they visit your site. The major search engines will no longer give you a top placement just for having the most instances of a particular keyword on your page. They will give top listing to what they believe is the most relevant page on a topic.
Your job is to work your keyword into the text frequently, but appropriately. Select one or two keywords and make the page specifically about those keywords. Think of yourself giving a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of your best customers. Your PowerPoint slides will be your paragraphs. They should be concise and to the point, using your keywords to drive home your point. And, just like in a PowerPoint presentation, you can use bulleted lists to call out the several benefits of your site or product, each time relating it to your selected keyword.
So use your keywords appropriately on your site and use them where you can. This will greatly increase your search engine effectiveness.
George Peirson is the CEO of How To Gurus. He is the author of over 30 multimedia based tutorial training titles. To see training sets and other articles by George Peirson visit How To Gurus
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