While quality content is important for retaining visitors, search engine
optimization is essential to drive traffic to your website in the first
place. Since over 80% of all web traffic comes from search engines, it
is crucial to optimize your website so that it appears among the top
results for searches on keywords related to your site. Various factors,
such as page content and link popularity, are weighed by the search
engine's algorithm to arrive at the order in which it lists sites on the
search result pages.
Ideally, you want your web site to rank among the top ten results for
keywords that you are targeting (keyword in this article refers to both
keywords and key phrases). To improve your search placement, you may
have to sacrifice some visual aesthetics to ensure that your HTML code
is search engine friendly. This section discusses some page elements
that influence your search engine ranking.
1. The <HEAD> area
The <TITLE> Tag
The <TITLE> tag is perhaps the most important factor influencing search
engine placement. Make sure your keyword is present once in the tag. It
is advisable to use five to eight words in the <TITLE> tag. The use of
more words may be penalized by the search engines.
Do not spam the <TITLE> tag with your keyword-- your keyword should not
appear more than twice in the tag. Some search engines penalize you for
using all CAPS. In general, choose a title that is appealing to both
the search engines and the visitors. Keep tag less than 59 characters in
length.
META Description
The META Description is not as important as it used to be; however many
search engines display it as your page description in their results.
Make sure your description is meaningful; if it doesn't make any sense,
chances are, visitors won't click on your link. The meta description
tag should incorporate your keywords into a meaningful sentence. Place
your keywords closer to the beginning of your description to achieve
better rankings. The length of your description should be 159
characters. Do not repeat your keyword more than three to five times.
META Keywords
Not all search engines support META keywords, but you should include
them for those that do. Use this tag to list your keywords in descending
order of importance. Do not repeat the same keyword more than five to
six times times-- doing so may be interpreted as spam. Keep tag less
than 874 characters in length.
--
my motto is "Keep it simple" and "don't leave anything for tomorrow that
can be done today."
If you have any questions or comments please contact me.
Regards Gerald
Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru
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