Web Design Packages (UK)

Maximising Search Phrases

October 4th, 2007

We were recently asked the following question about search engine optimisation…

>>>Please can you tell me what search words/phrases I should write for my web site? I need to make sure I’m maximising the searchability aspect as much as possible.

What a difficult question! – Every search engine is different in that their indexing systems place varying amounts of emphasis on different sections of a web site. Google the main one (some say the only one worth bothering with) puts great emphasis on page content…

Other search engines don’t bother with content but use the hidden META TAGS (descriptions/keywords) of what the page is about. Meta Tags have been abused by ‘keyword stuffing’ – deliberately placing keywords in them even though the page has nothing to do with those keywords!

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Google is right in that by analysing the page content (titles, paragraphs and image descriptions) they have a more realistic idea of what the page is about. So a web site owner must really ensure he/she is writing quality content that keeps to the page topic and is keyword rich in the titles, sub titles and general text. Adding META data still needs to be done because other search engines need them. Other search engines use a combination of both META and content.

Please bare in mind that Search Engines (SE) don’t tell you exactly how they filter your web pages. It’s a bit of a guessing game. Plus they periodically change/improve there filters without telling anyone. They are closely guarded secrets. In fact Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a skill in its own right now and keeping up to date / the learning curve is a difficult one.

The good news is… there are general rules that web pages should follow when it comes to ‘on-page’ optimisation (off-page is another story !!!). Remember all SE are different.

Search Engine Text Optimisation in a Nutshell…

To help you I have done a Keyword Report of your website which you can see real examples of what I am talking about… but it is not possible for me to answer in-depth it would take too long and I don’t know all there is to know (no-one does ?).

1) Main Page Title: This is used by most SE and important for keywords. This is used in the search results usually in blue bold type. When viewing a page it is displayed at the top-left corner of the browser (above the browser tool bars)… usually followed by name of the browser: E.G. “BBC – homepage – Home of the BBC on the Internet – Windows Internet Explorer”

2) META TAGS: These are hidden at the top of the page coding and are there for search engines really. There are 3 main META tags worth bothering with: Page Description; Keywords and Classification (subject categories). See attached for your sites.
- Description is used to describe the page content, a keyword rich summary of the page subject
- Keywords, a comma separated list of keywords for that page/site
- Classification is a list of potential subjects the page could be filed under, used mainly for directories like www.dmoz.com

3) Content Headings (sometimes called Titles and Sub-Titles): These serve to help the reader scan-read sections, looking for textual clues about the site content so important for the reader to see keywords – same for the SE so it places more emphasis on these content headings. Again keyword rich headings to gain max’ search potential. In the coding these titles have a special mark-up tag so SEs know they are titles and not just bold text. E.G. <h1>This is the main content title</h1> … <h2>This is a secondary (sub) title</h2>. There are 6 levels of title. I only bother with <h1>, <h2>, <h3> usually

4) Paragraph Content: Some SE ignore these completely. Better ones like Google love them !!! The general rule is keep content rich and relevant, don’t waffle, don’t keyword stuff deliberately. Use bullet lists if poss’, put headings where possible / needed. The reader also appreciates short, sharp summaries. If detail is needed then give a keyword rich summary at the top of the page.

5) Image Description: SE cannot read images as these are not text (that’s why sometimes heavy imaged web pages are low in SE listings, there is no quality textual content to grab hold of). BUT each image tag can have an alternative description (technically known as ALT text). Using a few keyword rich words you can describe the image for the sake of readers with visual impairments, or who choose not to have images on OR in your case for SE to use. These descriptions usually appear when you hover your mouse cursor over an image – a little pale yellow box with text appears !!!
E.G. on your ABC Services page the pic of the arrow has an ALT text of “ABC, making your mark”… probably not the best ALT text so it might want to be “Image: Ensuring we target your business services to right market”

6) Link Text: Important to Google. Link text should be short and keyword descriptive. ‘CLICK HERE’ is useless !!! Better to say
“Learn more about our Marketing Services” with the keywords as the link. SE will read the link text and it’s obvious to the reader as well…. Same with menu bar links (buttons) – short (3 words max) but instantly readable and obvious what might be on the next page.

7) Footer: Some SE will use snippets of the page (too lazy to index all !!!) so a summary sentence in the footer seems to get picked up by SEs. Yours may be something like:
“ABC Marketing Services : Marketing for Leeds, Harrogate, Bradford, York, Wakefield in Yorkshire, UK”

That’s about it for ‘on-page’ Search Engine Optimisation. But you should read around the subject (a lot) – what I know has taken a while to harvest but I stress things change so you have to keep up-to-date. And there is loads more about SEO, Books/websites galore !!!

READ GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRE

Hope this helps – got carried away as usual !!! I keep threatening to write this kind of thing properly so I can pass it on to my customers. Write once, use several times.. but time is the enemy!

Posted in Search Engines |

Tags: google, keywords, link text, meta tags, optimisation, ranking, seo

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