Search engine optimization of content
Once you've decided on the keyword phrases, the next step is to make sure that they appear in the right places on your webpages. Here are the critical areas:
- The main text of your pages.
- The title tag of your pages (this is what Google displays most prominently in search results).
- The meta description tag of your pages (this usually displays in search results under the title).
- Image alt tags (in a manner that still reflects what the image is).
Those are the most important spots for initial keyword placement. However, I would also suggest the following:
- The text within links on your page (this also implies that it is beneficial to link to related pages within your site, as well as to high quality and related external websites).
- The comment tags on your pages (you could perhaps use comments to indicate sections of the page).
- The meta keyword tag (this is less important than it used to be, but there's no reason not to use it).
*Avoid frames and Flash-only web pages. Search engines cannot yet reliably spider sites that use Flash, and frames are considered old technology that confuses search engine indexing. Therefore, avoid using either on your website. However, it is okay to have Flash components (e.g. movies) embedded on a page, as long as the majority of the content is spiderable.
Keyword density considerations
- For ideal search engine optimization, each page of your site should be focused on just 1-2 keyphrases.
- Keyphrase placement should read naturally, and should not be misleading. Usually this will require that your tags contain more than just the keyphrase. Google will judge whether your keyword density is "reasonable" and matches the profile of a legitimate webpage.
- Most experts seem to believe the optimal keyword density to be between 3-8%, and optimal word count to be between 300-600 words. If your keywords placement is too dense, Google's formula may perceive the page "keyword spam".
- Use this keyword density tool to check your initial efforts, and adjust as needed
Another important SEO tag: Headings
Heading tags, including h1, h2, and h3, should always be used to organize the layout of your pages, and should also be optimized for your keywords. Heading tags are one reliable way that Google has of determining the subject matter of sections throughout your page, and will give more weight to keywords found there.
The <h1> tag will be at the top of your page and should closely correspond to the page's title tag. The <h2> tags should break down your page into it's main sections. On longer pages, the <h3> tags can organize subsections of <h2>s. The majority of these tags (especially h1/h2) should ideally use some variation of your keywords.
I avoided using heading tags for several years because I found their appearance to be ugly, and even recently heard a search engine optimization expert mentioning the same thing. However, there's no reason to fear the appearance of heading tags; simply use CSS in the header of your pages to set the appearance of the H1/H2/H3 tags however you like. Here's an example. Using CSS will also show Google that your website utilizes the latest design methods, which may indicate a better user experience.
