Web Page Optimization

Once you've chosen keyphrases for your page, the next step is to optimize your page for those keyphrases. You do that by positioning your keywords in strategic locations within your page. What follows is a checklist of tips and steps you must follow to optimize your page:

Keyphrases in the web page title:

Create a descriptive title for your page: Your web page title is very important because it is what the search engines display as link text as the result of a search. The title must include your main keyphrases, while at the same time it must describe your business very well and should entice readers to click on it.
Don't start your page title with the name of your company. It's not necessary and waists what limited space you have. Instead, start your title with the words search engine users will most likely use (your keyphrases).
Put your main keyphrase at the beginning of your page title (keyphrase prominence) and keep your keyphrases together (keyword proximity).
Put your second keyphrase somewhere else in the title.
Keep the title short (8 words or less).

Keyphrases in your Keyword Meta Tag:

Search engines rarely use the Keyword Meta Tag any more. In fact, Google completely ignores it. Nevertheless, place a list of your main and secondary keywords in the Keyword Meta Tag of your page, just in case search engines decide to use them again in the future.

Keyphrases in your Description Meta Tag:

The Description Meta Tag is still important, since some search engines use them to elaborate on the results link.

Include your keyphrases (main and secondary) in your Description Meta Tag.
Make your description "descriptive", concise and professional. Avoid using hype.
Make it short (no more than 20-25 words).
Your description should not be just a collection of keywords.
Keep your keyphrases together.

Keywords in the body of your page:

It's important to use your keywords frequently throughout your page as it will help the search engines determine its topic. Follow these tips as much as possible. They will help search engines determine your page's relevance to your chosen keyphrases:

Use your keyphrases several times and place them as close to the top of the page as possible.
Place your keyphrases between Header Tags (H1, H2 or H3) in the first two paragraphs of your page.
Place your keyphrases in bold type phase at least once.
Repeat your keyphrases often to increase your keyphrase density. Repeating your keyphrases between 5 and 10 times for every 100 words in your page is considered effective.
Since you have to repeat your keyphrases often, you must be especially careful not to make your text sound awkward. Your visitors should be able to read your page fluently and effortlessly.

A good resource on how to write search engine friendly copy without losing readability is this special SEO writing report by Jill Whalen.

Other Web Page Design Considerations:

Make your page easy to navigate by the search engines. Search engines heavily favor text over graphics, and HTML over other editing formats.
Use text heavily, especially in your navigation bar. Avoid placing text in graphic format since the search engines won't be able to read it.
Avoid frames like the plague. Search engines have trouble following them, and they may index only the framed content page and not the navigation frame.
Avoid Flash and JavaScript: search engines don't follow either one. If you use flash, make an HTML version of your site available to your readers and the search engines. If you use a JavaScript navigation menu, include an alternate text menu at the bottom of the page.
Create a Site Map that includes all the pages in your site and place a Site Map link close to the top of the homepage. When the search engine follows the site map link, it will find and index all the pages in your site!
If you use a left navigation bar, the search engine will read it before the body of your page. Make sure you include your most important keywords there, too.
Make sure that all of your internal pages link to your homepage. Cross link from within your site as often as possible.
Don't try to describe all of your products or services in one page. It will dilute your page's relevance to your selected keyphrase. Instead, create different very focused pages, each with its own content and keyphrases, and optimize them too.

Style Sheets:

If you use Cascading Style Sheets in the design of your web pages, you can move much of the code out of your page. The style sheets can keep you from having to define colors, fonts and many other visual elements of your page over and over. The result is that each page is much smaller in terms of size, and the actual content that the search engine will read is a larger percentage of the overall page.

Some of the spiders will judge your site, in part, on what percentage of the overall page they were able to actually read. The more they can read, the better. So by moving much of the unreadable code into a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file, you can increase your chances at a higher position.

If you don't know how to do CSS, most HTML editors have options have CSS wizards that make it a snap. You just need to use them.

This is pretty much all you have to do to make sure that your page is optimized for your chosen keywords. The next and final step to increase your site's ranking is to get as many links to your site as possible, from quality sites that have a topic related to yours.

You can freely reprint this article. Just include the following resource statement at the end:

Jerry Higdon contributes to several Internet Digests at the Resource Center published by Envisiondustry.net. You will find useful articles and resources on internet marketing, website design, website branding, search engine and website optimization (SEO), including article submission, social networking and backlinking.

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