Search Engine Optimization - SEO Webpage Basics

Once people have a website, they start to realize the importance of search engine optimization. Why? Because without it, you just have a website, and what good is a website if you don't get lots of targeted traffic looking for products and services which you provide.

I am a senior software architect/developer and until a few years ago, thought I knew enough about search engine optimization to get by. I developed a website for my business, put some keywords here and there and waited for traffic. I waited, I waited and I waited and the traffic never came. Does this sound familiar? This is when I started researching industry best practices when it comes to search engine optimization.

The base of all SEO is content. Content is the text you see on the page. It's what search engines read when they come to your site. It's also search engines job to provide the most relevant content available on the internet and this is why Google is so successful because they do it better than anyone else.

Writing Original Content

Writing original content is the biggest factor which affects your websites' SEO. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are sticklers when it comes to duplicate content. It's search engines' job to provide the most original, relevant content.

If you think you can outsmart search engines by copying content from one page to another and changing a few words, you'd be incorrect. How many similar words in a sentence do search engines classify as duplicate content is not known, but it greatly affects the ranking of your pages. To check if pages content is original, I use a website called "Copyscape". This website checks for other pages on the internet which has content like yours. If someone has copied your content or you've copied theirs, it's sure to find it.

Writing Pages based on Specific Keywords

Each page on your website should be written for one keyword or one keyword phrase only. Say for instance, your company offers "search engine optimization services" and you want to market your website using keywords such as "search engine optimization services" and "SEO services". Instead of creating one page and expecting traffic for both keyword phrases, you'd be better off to create two separate pages; one for "search engine optimization services" and one for "SEO services". Just make sure the two pages are completely different. Otherwise, one of your pages will get flagged as duplicate content and will not rank high or at all in search engine results.

Here are the places you should put your keyword phrase. Please note: These are ordered from most important to least important.

The domain or page name. If you're writing on your blog, most blog software including WordPress uses a dynamic approach to page names such as "http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog/index.php?p=999". This is what you call a dynamic page or database driven page. This can be changed with customization, but will have wait for another article. Having a static page or at least a page which looks like it's static will help your ranking. This is the most important place to have your keyword or keyword phrase. ie: www.yourwebsite.com/seo-services.html Your webpage title. The "<title>" tag goes within the header section of your html. The keyword phrase should also come before your company name. As it was explained to me before; unless you're Microsoft, no one finding your page through search engines will know who your company is, so it's better to market your services rather than your company name. ie: <title>SEO Services | Your Company Name provides service to Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph</title> Description of your page. The description meta tag goes within the header section of your html. This is the description that search engines use when display this page in search results. The description should be 16-25 words in length. ie: <meta name="Description" content="We provide professional SEO services to Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph..." /> Keywords of your page. This keyword meta tag goes within the header section of your html. This is where you list the keywords you want people to find this page. Use only 5-6 keywords per page max. Please note: Google ignores this meta tag. ie: <meta name="Keywords" content="seo, services, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph" /> Body of your page. Your keyword or keyword phrase should be 5% of your total words in your document. Going higher is not always better as you can be penalized for what they call "keyword stuffing". Pages should be between 400-600 words. Image names and alt tags for images. This is the text you see if images are disabled or you put your mouse over an image. Put your keyword phrase in 1-2 "alt" tags only. Otherwise, you'll be penalized for "keyword stuffing". ie: <img src="search-engine-optimization.jpg" alt="Search Engine Optimization Diagram" /> Title tags on links. This is the text you see if you put your mouse over a link. Place a title tag with your keywords on 1-2 links only. Otherwise, you'll get penalized for "keyword stuffing". ie: <a href="search-engine-optimization.html" title="Learn more about Search Engine Optimization in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph">Search Engine Optimization</a>

Placing your keyword phrase in all of these areas will help your site be search engine optimized. Although, this is just the beginning, it's the base of what search engines are looking for.

J.T. Kennedy offers search engine optimization solutions to companies and Churches. For more information visit his website at http://www.2wisemen.com.

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