Search engine placement is so important these days. It can mean the difference between your website having a million visitors or just a few hundred. One of the most effective search engine placement strategies that you should consider when promoting your website is search engine optimization (SEO). One search engine, in particular, Google, has taken search engine marketing to new heights. The search engine giant has provided search marketers with many search marketing strategies to earn high search traffic.
Tips on Search Engine Placement
Pick Your Target Keywords
Let’s say that you have a stamp-collecting page. You want your page to show up in the top ten results when someone searches for “stamp collecting” on a search engine like Google. As a result, these are the keywords that the page is aimed at.
If you have a lot of different pages on your website, each one will have a different set of keywords that match the content of the page. Then, let’s say that you have a separate page for stamp history. Stamped history could be your page’s main words.
At the very least, your keywords should be two words long. Most of the time, there will be a lot of websites that deal with one word, like “stamps.” As a result of this “competition,” your chances of getting what you want are less likely. The odds are against you, so don’t waste your time fighting against them. The more words in a phrase, the more likely you are to succeed.
In the article “Keyword Research,” you can learn more about how to choose key terms.
Position Your Keywords
Make sure that your target keywords are prominently displayed on your website. The most important thing on a web page is its HTML title tag. Including target keywords in the title tag is the most common reason for well-matched web pages to be ranked low. How to Use HTML Meta Tags talks more in-depth about the title tag.
When you write the titles of your pages, think about the top two or three words you want people to search for when they find your page. The titles should be short and look good. Consider the headlines in the newspaper. These words make you want to read a story. In the same way, the titles of your pages are also page headlines. They show up on search engine results pages, and a good title could make people want to go to your site.
Also, search engines like pages that have a lot of important keywords, as explained in more detail on the Search Engine Ranking page. If you can, put your keywords in the title of the page. In the first few paragraphs of the website, put them.
Tables can have the same effect as a lot of JavaScript code. For this reason, the standard HTML text is shown below. The search engine reads this first, so this text is shown first. If you can, put your script at the bottom of the page.
Create Relevant Content
You can change the title of your page, but it doesn’t mean that it will rank well for your target keywords if the page isn’t about the subject. Your keywords must be in the content of the page.
This means that your page must have HTML text. Websites sometimes use graphics to help people understand long sections of text. Because the graphics look good, search engines can’t read them. As a result, they don’t read the text that could make your website more useful. Some search engines may look at ALT text and comments. To be safe, always use HTML text. In addition, some of your human visitors will also like it.
Make sure you can see the HTML text you’ve added. Some web designers try to fill up search results by repeating keywords in small fonts or in the same color as the background, which hides the text from browsers. These and other ways to get people to your website are well-known to search engine spiders. If you don’t see the text in a web browser, a search engine isn’t likely to look at it.
Finally, think about “expanding” your text references where it makes sense. The words “collectors” and “collecting” might show up on a stamp collecting page. In these references, the words “stamp collectors” and “stamp collecting” are used legitimately and naturally to back up your strategic keywords. Because your page is about stamp collecting, unintentional changes may have made it less important.
Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks
Some search engines treat the web in the same way that a browser from a few years ago would. They may not be able to understand image maps. They may not be able to figure out where things go. You need to think about these things, or a search engine won’t be able to index some or all of your web pages.
Create HTML links
Designers often use image maps to link to internal pages from the home page. A search engine that can’t follow these links won’t be able to get inside the site. It’s a shame that the most important and descriptive pages are often found in other parts of the site, not on the home page.
The best way to fix this is to add some HTML links to your home page that point to important internal pages or parts of your website. This will also be good for some of your human visitors, too. Add these links to the bottom of the page. They will be found by the search engine.
Consider making a site map page that lists all of your website’s pages with text links to them. This page can be used by search engines to help them find pages on your website.
Finally, make sure that you’re linking your pages well. When you link to different pages on your site naturally, you make it more likely that search engines will follow the links and find more content on your site.
Frames Can Kill
All of the major search engines don’t follow links that are inside of frames. You should make sure that there is another way for them to get to and index your sites, like meta tags or a clever design. For more information, check out the framing tips.
Dynamic Doorblocks
Are your pages made by CGI or by a database? Likely, some search engines won’t be able to find them. Static pages can be used when possible. You can update them from a database instead of making them on the fly. Also, don’t use symbols in your URLs, especially the? symbol. It can slow down search engines.
Final Thoughts
Remember that search engines have a very hard job. If you stop and think about it, all search engines have to do is read the whole Internet every few days looking for new content! They can’t search with keywords, so they’re forced to use pattern-recognition programs.
These pattern-recognition programs are getting better and better, but search engines are still not able to understand the content like people do. A search engine may get confused by misused words, punctuation errors, and grammar mistakes.