Search Engine Optimization
- Enhancing Web Site Visibility
by Norm Euker
I've had several prospects and clients say to me "I
want my web site to come up on top in search engines."
And some have been contacted by an SEO company asking
for lots of money and claiming that they can guarantee
top search engine results, which in many cases is just
false promises. There is no quick and easy way to make
a web site display in the top 10 on search engines. Getting
a web site to come up high in search engines "naturally"
can take time and effort. When I say naturally, I mean
without paying to be a sponsored link. The content of
the web site has to be relevant. By this, I mean the web
site content should be very descriptive, and ideally unique,
about your business, product or service. This way search
engines can rank your site according to this detailed,
descriptive and relevant content. Some reasons that a
web site will rank high:
The title of each page needs to be descriptive of the
page and not just the web site. So keywords and the site
or business name should be built into the title of each
page. Avoid using any word more than three times in the
title tag.
Make Meta tags keyword-focused. Meta tags are tags in
the HTML web page that describe certain things about the
page such as the page description, list of keywords, page
author, etc. The tags that are important here are the
keywords and description Meta tags.
For images on the site, alternate text should be set
to keywords as well. Alternate text is the text displayed
before an image is completely downloaded and displayed.
Alternate text will be displayed in place of the image
for text only browsers and if you've disabled the show
pictures option in your browser settings. A title can
also be set for an image, and by hovering your mouse over
an image; the title text will be displayed in most browsers.
Header tags should be used in your web pages, where possible.
Search engines look for the h1-h6 Header tags as important
indicators for what the text of the document will contain.
Here is an example of building keywords into your hierarchical
web page to enhance search engine results.
View an example diagram here of building keywords into
your hierarchical web page to enhance search engine results.
Prominent tags used are title, description Meta tags,
keyword Meta tags and h1 and h2 header tags. Keyword phrases
relavent to the business of the web site should exist
in the content of the web page as well is in these important
HTML tags. Search engines analyze the text for relevant
keywords, among other things, and rank the page accordingly.
Additional keywords can be used throughout the document.
Many experts recommend not using any keyword in excess
of 5% of the total text of the page. Doing so may actually
lower your ranking.
A site map can help your search engine ranking as well
as help your web site visitors find what they’re looking
for. For more information on this topic, and other search
engine optimization topics, visit google.com.
These are some basic techniques used to achieve higher
visibility in search engines, and should help you attain
higher results if they are used along with efficient,
valid HTML markup. Contact us if you'd like more information
on how we can help you achieve high web site visibility.
Norm Euker of NJE
Design provides high quality web design, Internet
and email marketing to small businesses.
