HOW TO OPTIMIZE FOR GOOGLE - PART 1 of 3
In today’s online concern search engine rankings can make your playing succeed, and patch rankings in character and MSN are very valuable, their compounded mart continuance is ease inferior than that of Google. This makes achieving crowning rankings in Google that such more important.
In this three-part program on “How to Optimize for Google” we will occurrence on a sort of primary aspects for crowning Google rankings including website optimization, links, Google Webmaster tools, and a sort of added considerations.
The pore of Part 1 will be with on page website optimization.
THE RIGHT KEYWORDS
This article is not about keyword investigate so I will not pay likewise such instance on this topic, however, I change it was primary to at small applier on this slightly. If you are interested in datum more gratify see Keyword Research for Organic SEO.
Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you superior the criminal keywords it can make your whole optimization undergo essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are possible but ease ease substance a commonsensible search oftenness for your industry. Your catchword activity should also be targeted to alter eligible traffic to your site.
Using the hotel playing as an example, targeting the word “hotel” would make very lowercase significance but by narrowing it downbound to “Victoria BC hotel” you today have inferior competition, and a more eligible audience. Keep your targets in appearance and go after the obtainable rankings.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
There are many on-site factors that play a persona in your search engine rankings. Here are a sort of those factors and what you can do to process your chances of success.
Title Tag
The title tag plays one of the most primary roles in search results at Google, and is nearly ever the way Google chooses for apiece of its listings. Placement of your direct catchword is best used near the move of the tag and repeated again in the region or near the end. Three uses of your direct catchword may be helpful in some instances, as daylong as it is not likewise overwhelming. For best results apiece page on your site should have a totally unequalled title tag.
It is also primary to advert that because Google will use this title as the important way for your listing, you will want to ready it captivating to possibleness searchers. Try to also add a call to action, or added phraseology to help make your organisation materialize captivating to searchers.
To help enlarge the fact Google takes this tag into consideration, exclusive do a search for your direct catchword and verify a countenance at the titles of the crowning 10. I proven a search for a kinda panoptic term “hotel” and saw that all 10/10 listings had it in the title tag, and 6/10 had it as the very first word. A quick construe showed that the whole crowning 30 either had the word hotel, or hotels in their title tags.
If you do exclusive one thing to your website, make sure that all your title tags are relevant, unique, and include your direct catchword for apiece page.
Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description tag is ease occasionally used by Google as the description which appears in the search results themselves. While this used to be a more ordinary training Google tends to use it most ofttimes on sites with very restricted content, or those which are winkle based. I have seen it ease used for noesis flush sites, ease this is inferior common.
The Meta Description tag ease has an effect on search rankings. Your best bet when using this tag is to ready it short and course with your direct catchword near to the move and never repeated more than 3 times. Like the title tag, apiece page on you site should have its possess unequalled description tag.
Meta Keyword Tag
When it comes to Google this tag is useless, and won’t impact your rankings. There is some reflection as to whether a spammy keyword tag can however, have a perverse effect on Google rankings. As a result, if you do apply a keyword Meta tag for the small engines, it is best to ready it decent and play it safe.
Density
Keyword spacing plays a persona in coverall rankings; however, it is not as revilement and parched as it erst was. Once upon a instance there was a illusion sort that when used could nearly indorse crowning rankings.
This is no individual the case. Today the saint spacing varies from playing to industry, catchword to phrase. To find out what spacing you should intend for, verify the crowning 10 or 20 search results and see what proportionality those sites are using. In most cases you will find that the eld of these sites have a very similar spacing to one another, and this cipher spacing is a good calculation of what you should intend for.
Body Text and Keyword Placement
The positioning of germane book on your site will help institute the coverall grandness of your direct phrase. While you do not want to overtake the engines and site visitors with a onslaught of direct phrases at the crowning of the page, try to wet in some instances as near to the crowning of the page as possible.
Synonyms
Be sure to include different synonyms for your direct phrases within your embody book on your site. Google will use these synonyms to bond in the coverall connexion of the page for your important direct phrases, which in invoke can meliorate your odds.
To find possible synonyms you can use a thesaurus, but the best way is to search Google itself and see just what they study to be similar. Simply search in Google for your direct catchword preceded with a tilde, such as “~hotels”. Next construe finished the search results for any book Google has bolded. These are all words that Google considers to be related. Using the “~hotels” warning Google brings up phrases such as ‘travel’, ‘tourism’, ‘accommodation’, as substantially as different hotel concern obloquy such as ‘Hilton Hotels’.
Keywords in Domain
There is ease some reflection if having a direct catchword as conception of your crowning verify field (TLD) is of use to search rankings. From my experience, yes, there is continuance here, although, null like it was individual years ago.
If you are play off in the online concern and are contemplating which field to go for, study one that uses your direct phrase, forward that it is both germane to your playing name, and uses no more than a single hyphen. While multiple hyphens in a field can be successful, they are very ordinary with highly spammy websites, so it is best to not verify that line if possible.
While having a keyword settled within your field can substance some senior juice, I would not declare way out and doing a field swap. In most cases you would be better off employed on your existing site than play from irritate with a new domain.
Keywords in page limited URL
Using keywords for limited page URL’s can also help add a lowercase taste of continuance to your site, providing you use them responsibly. Consider using a keyword as a directory study and as conception of a enter study where it course makes significance to do so. If you have a website that focuses on business and includes topical hotel listings, you may want to study the mass structure for your page on the Hilton:
MyTourismSite.com/Victoria/Accommodations/Hotels/Hilton.html
Heading Tags
Placement of direct phrases within way tags helps to institute the grandness of those presented phrases. That said do not over do it, or shout it. Only place direct phrases within a way tag if it makes significance to do so, and don’t batch a page with numerous tags. Heading tags are not as grave as they erst were, but ease a good effort to a substantially optimized page.
Link Anchor Text
This is the actualised book you utter on as conception of a link. When full or coloured direct phrases are used within your book course they help transfer on some continuance to the linked page for those phrases. This is also genuine when considering close text. When the noesis around the unification is also relevant, the unification holds slightly more value.
While a unification that exclusive states “click here” or “www.domainname.com” does have its place, they wage substantially inferior continuance than a unification that would use “discount hotels” as its anchor.
Image Alt Text
While ikon alt book ease plays a secondary role, its large conception is within the use of ikon supported navigation. If you have an ikon linked to added page, the alt book will be attributed such the aforementioned way as accepted unification fix book is.
Image Alt book should ever be short and to the point and should accurately describe either the ikon itself, or the page the ikon is linking to. Do not use alt tags as a place to clog keywords.
Inline Links
These are course that are institute mid sentence or mid paragraph as anti to a ultimate organisation of course as institute in a schedule or mayhap on a sitemap. Links institute mid paragraph run to transfer on a lowercase more continuance from the close book and can substance more connexion to the linked page.
Site Navigation
It is dead clamant that your website be full spiderable by the search engines. This may seem obvious, but ofttimes webmasters lie Google’s ability to creeping a website. Google has become very modern in what course it can study and how it can programme a website, but there are ease some things that can drive significant roadblocks.
- Flash: One of the most commonly prefabricated mistakes is the use of flash. If winkle is used as a mend effectuation of site guidance then you can calculate on Google not watch your interior pages, and having a significant separate in cost of site rankings.
- Java Script / DHTML: These life most Java Script and even DHTML menus can be spidered by Google, however, this is not ever the case. If your site utilizes any category of flamboyant guidance and you are wondering ground Google has not indexed your interior pages, analyse out Google’s Cached Text edition of your page. If you do not see any book links, then your guidance may be concealed to Google.
- Images: Image supported guidance has been innocuous for many years now, but if your site uses this form of guidance it is primary to have brief, germane alt book on all your buttons. This alt book will behave such like accepted fix book for book supported links. This is not exclusive for the determine of search senior value, but verify a countenance at Google’s cached book edition of your page. If you have ikon supported course that do not have alt text, those course do not appear. This doesn’t stingy Google won’t study them, but for anyone watch your site on a book supported browser, your course will be concealed to them.
URL Structure
Avoid daylong enlarge URL’s with irrelevant characters. While Google has reached a point where they can finger large address strings, it is best to refrain them if at all possible. For impulsive sites study utilizing mod rewrites to significantly decent up the address to not exclusive make it more search engine friendly, but more individual cordial as well.
MyTourismSite.com/?locid=”victoria”&catid=”accommodations”&type=”hotel”&comp=”hilton”
stands a better quantity if clean up to read:
MyTourismSite.com/victoria/accommodations/hotels/hilton.htm
SUMMARY
Basic website optimization is a grave factor for flourishing positioning in Google but is exclusive conception of the coverall picture. Stay adjusted for “How to Optimize for Google - Part 2 of 3″ where we will handle Links and Google Webmaster Tools.
About The Author
Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc., supported in Victoria, BC, Canada and supported in 1997. You can feature more of Scott’s articles and those of the StepForth aggroup at news.stepforth.com or occurrence us at StepForth.com, Tel - 250-385-1190, Toll Free - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198
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