Traffic from search engines is widely considered the best (and cheapest) way to
generate traffic to your site. The increasing popularity of search engines has
led to the development of a whole industry that revolves around ways to
"optimize" websites.
The end result is that many people now think that only "professionals" can help
their website rank high within search engines. But, the truth is that anyone can
structure their site so they rank high for many keywords.
Below, I have listed 8 simple steps that you can take to optimize your web
pages. By following these, you will improve your chances of increasing your
rankings:
1) Target one word for each page: A huge mistake that many beginners make is
cramming numerous keywords onto every page. Instead of doing this, you should
focus on one specific keyword for each page. That way, you can make sure that
the page is focusing on that one word without any distractions. If you want to
target multiple keywords then it is necessary to create a separate page for
each.
2) List your major keywords in the links back to your site: Many search engines,
Google being the most famous, have started to take into account the words that
are mentioned in the title tag of the links that point to your site. So, a great
way to improve your rankings for your keywords is to place it in the title tag.
3) Make your first 100 words on the page keyword rich: Another mistake that most
webmasters make is to have a menu on the left-hand side of a website. Since
search engines primarily focus on the first 100 words of a website, a left side
menu is a misuse of valuable space.
Instead of doing this, you should have your title, description and web copy
within the first 100 words of your site. An easy way to do this is to have your
menu on the right instead of the standard left-hand side.
But, since the left-handed menu is now commonplace, you can also choose to put
your first 100 words above the left-handed menu, so this text will be the first
thing read on your website.
4) Insert the keyword into your title tag: In the source code of most pages are
"header tags" (also known as Meta tags), which help search engines understand
the content of the page.
To fully optimize your website, you can tweak the source code of the page. The
first step is to insert the keyword in the title tag. (This is what is shown in
the results of a search engine when your site is listed)
5) Insert your keywords in the description tag: The description Meta tag is
almost as valuable as the title tag. The information in this tag is listed
directly below the title tag in search engine results. As a result, a good
description can make your website stand out from other listings. To get the
prospect to click on your site, it is important to write a snappy description
while using your keyword.
6) Insert them into your keywords tag: Like the title and description tags,
keyword tags are used to help search engines understand the content of your web
page. Although this Meta tag has become less popular, it doesnt hurt to put
your keywords here.
7) Place your keyword in the header: When writing the actual text of your site,
the first part should be the headline. Whenever a search engine scans your site,
it rates all words in the headline as being more important then the rest of the
web copy. To take advantage of this, you should have your keyword in the page
headline. But, since the header tag (h1) is quite large, you should format it so
that it is smaller.
8) Write your keyword enriched web copy: Now that you have set up the structure
of your page, you can write your web copy. While creating the text, you want to
include the majority of the keywords at the top and the bottom of the page. In
addition, the keyword should be included a few times in the middle. Basically,
the common saying is that the keyword density should resemble an hour glass
shape.
The total web copy of your page should be about 300-500 words. Also, the keyword
should be included about 5-12% of the total words of the page. The percentage
varies according to each search engine, so you might want to play around till
you find the best results.
If you follow all these steps, you will definitely see an improvement in the
search engine rankings for your keywords. The best part is that you do not have
to spend any money on the expensive search engine optimizers!
Good luck!