So you've finished your website and think you're ready to
submit it the big-bad search engines? Not so fast Mister.
Before submitting there's a few details you're going to want
to check to make sure the search engines index your site
correctly. These guidelines are not "magic formulas", but
if you pay attention to these details it will help the search
engines give your site a better and more accurate ranking.
Let's take them one by one:
1) TITLE TAGS- I've seen too many title tags like this
index.htm This is a waste of a perfectly
good title tag. Make sure you have a descriptive title on
every page of your site. You should repeat your most
important keyword 2 or 3 times for maximum relevancy,
but make sure the title makes sense and is not just a
jumble of keywords. For example if your site was a
bike shop a good title might be;
"Bicycles for kids and adults browse our online catalog
of bikes or choose one of our bike repair services."
I think you get the idea.
2) KEYWORDS- Placed inside of meta tags which look
like this
Try to come up with 3 to 10 keywords that you think people
would type into the search engines when looking for a site
such as yours. Don't go overboard, less is more in this case.
You'll get much better results by concentrating on your most
important keywords then by diluting the tag with 50 or 100.
Do not repeat the same keyword more then 3 or 4 times or
you take the chance of "offending" some of the search engines.
Separate your keywords with commas or spaces, not both.
Use upper and lower case and plural versions of your words.
3) DESCRIPTION- Placed inside meta tags and looks like this;
of all ages. Onsite bike repair while you wait.">
Once again you'll want to repeat your most important keywords
3 or 4 times max and limit the total length of the tag to between
20-25 words. Make sure it sounds good as many times this is
what shows up in the search engine results page and you want
to entice people to click through to your site.
3) TEXT- Many search engines will concentrate on the first
250 words of your text when looking for keyword relevancy/
density. Try to work your most important keywords into the
text as much as possible to give yourself a boost.
For search engines that don't use meta tags they will
choose part of your text as the description that shows
up in their results page, so make it good.
Remember these tips will help your site when being
indexed by the search engines. They are not a
"magic pill" and will not put you in the top 10,
that's a topic for another article. But by keeping these
guidelines in mind and adhering to them your site will
stand a better chance with the search engines. To learn
more about search engines and how they work visit
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
About the Author
Merle's Cyber Promotions (MC)
http://www.mcpromotions.com
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