Search Engine Optimization companies are making a fortune by doing the
menial work that is overlooked by many designers. It is ridiculously easy to
do most of the work done by most SEO companies, all you have to do is create
good habits.
There are 9 main points you should focus on:
. Keywords
. URL Text
. Description, Meta tags
. Title tags
. Image Names
. ALT tags
. Heading tags
. Content
. Hyperlinks
The focus of these 8 steps is to load your pages with as many "keywords" as
possible.
Keywords
Keywords are the most important aspect of good SEO, this is where you tell
the Search Engines what your site is about. Search Engines use an algorithm
to determine the "Keyword Density" of your site, this formula is:
Total Words ÷ Keywords= Keyword Density
Use this formula on your competitors web site and see how they score, then
aim to beat that score.
Choose keywords that best relate to the information, products or services
that you are offering. For instance, if I am designing a site about "Web
Design", I want my site to include the words "Web Design" as many times as
possible.
However, most people don't just search for just one word, they type
phrases, so you should consider the phrases that best suit your sites target
market. For example, if I am creating a site about "Web Design" in New
Orleans, I would include "New Orleans web design" in my keywords. Another
way around this is to not separate my keywords with commas, just use spaces,
and the Search Engines will make the phrases for you. The most important
thing to remember is that the content of each page is different, so only use
keywords pertaining to that page.
URL Text
When you name a new page you have the option to call it anything you could
possibly think of, why not se a keyword? After all, the URL address is the
first things a search engine comes across when indexing your pages. You have
to remember content doesn't come easy to everyone, so you gotta slip in your
keywords when the process gives you an easy one.
Description Meta tags
These tags are dwindling in importance since Search Engines are now looking
at content, but every little bit counts.
Optimize your meta tags to match your content, products, and services, and
the Search Engines that still look at meta data will reward your efforts.
Title Tags
Title tags are the tags that tell the Search Engine the title, or formal
description of the document or page. This is the word or phrase that is seen
at the top of the browser window. The most important rule about title tags
is, don't put anything in the title tags but keywords. Once again this is an
easy time to slip in your keywords, so don't miss out.
Image Names
As I said before, content doesn't come easy to everyone, so slip in your
keywords whenever possible, this applies to image names. If you are saving a
picture of a guy working on a computer for your web design web site, don't
call it "some_dude.jpg", call it "web_site_design.jpg". The Search engine
will look at the code for the site and see the image pertains to the content
of the site and this will be another relevant element on that particular
page. You have to take the easy ones when you are given a chance.
ALT tags
Alt tags are keywords that you can attach to images, giving more weight to
the image since Search Engines can't analyze the content of the image
itself. Here is a chance to slip in more keywords without writing great
content, use it.
Heading tags
Heading tags are associated with the bold font that leads into a section of
text. Like this:
Web Design
Web Design Inc. offers custom web site designs...
Your heading tags should only be keywords, and should be presented in the
order that your Meta tags follow.
H1= first meta tag, H2= second meta tag...
Try to utilize all 6 heading tags on each page to ensure maximum page
optimization.
Content
As every expert will tell you, "Content is King." Each web page should have
at least 350 words on it, and the more the better, but keep in mind the
formula for keyword density. You don't want to fill a page with 1500 words
of jibba-jabba and only 5 keywords in it. Some people get hung-up on how
browsers display text, and use images with text in them because they want a
cool font, but browsers can't read the text embedded in images, so this
content ads no weight to the page in a Search Engines eyes.
Linkbaiting is the new trend among high ranking sites. Linkbaiting means
writing quality content, or articles that other web sites can display on
their pages as long as they give credit, and a link to your site.
You don't have to be a vi or emac expert to write good web content, just be
thoughtful of how you word things and incorporate your keywords.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are text links to other pages on your site. The rules of SEO and
hyperlinks are easy:
. Use hyperlinks so the Search Engine will have a text link to follow to
the next page
. Don't use one word links, use long link phrases, preferably keyword
phrases
. Use bullets, or some sort of small image that you can attach an ALT tag
to, this will ad more importance to the link, and throw in a couple of free
keywords for you.
Keep these 9 aspects in mid when designing a site, and you are sure to have
a leg up on the competition.
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