Search engine optimisation
‘Optimisation’ means adding all the elements to your web site that enable search engines to identify, understand and rank it. Without optimisation, your site will struggle to achieve high rankings in the search engines.
Over a hundred factors lead to the success of a web page. Each search engine has its own unique set of ‘mathematical’ criteria that it applies to every web page in its index, and this is known as a ‘search engine algorithm’. Search engines change their ranking criteria at will and often. This means that search engine optimisation is never complete.
Having done your keyword research and written your content, it is now time to introduce your keyword phrases into areas of your pages that make search engines take note.
Be sure to only add keywords and phrases already included in your content into your meta tags and title tag (written in HTML language). This will avoid the risk of ‘spamming’ the search engines, which means seeking high ranking ‘illegally’. Search engines can apply penalties for this, from which it can be hard to recover.
Title tag
When search engines rank a web page, they take into account the title tag, so it is important to include your keyword phrases here. Along with good content and good quality links, the title tag is a key factor in achieving good rankings.
The title tag is written in the HTML code for the web page. It is in the top bar of the web browser when you view a web page, confirming that the user is on the right page for their subject of interest. Also, when you use a search engine, the clickable link for each search result is the title tag of the web page. So you should find a title that is appealing to both search engines and humans.
The title tag should be around 60 characters long. Your most important keywords should be at the start of the title.
Meta description tag
A meta description is a one or two sentence description for each page in the HTML (Internet language) code for the web page. Google does not seem to take the meta description into account for its rankings, but Yahoo! does to a certain extent. In any case, it is well worth using a meta description that includes your main keyword phrases, because search engines can change their ranking criteria at will. It is better to be safe than sorry. Most importantly, the meta description is often displayed on the search engine results page. This gives you the opportunity to summarise your web page for your audience, who will then be more likely to click on your link.
If you do not use a meta description, or if the search does not include keywords that you use in your meta description, the search engine will take and combine snippets of text from your page. Often these will make no sense to the user, who will then be less likely to click.
The meta description tag should be around 150 to 180 characters long.
Meta keywords tag
The meta keywords tag (keywords written in HTML language) is located in the code for the web page. Although not important in search engine ranking, the tag will not hurt your rankings unless you abuse it, so it is worth including. Put your main keyword phrases in first and then look through your page content for any other phrases that people might search for, even though you are not actively targeting them. Add some common mis-spellings and mis-typings of the words already identified. Between each keyword phrase, place a comma and no space. Make sure there are no more than three instances of a single keyword, even if the repetition seems justified because each phrase is different. Do not put the same keyword twice in a row, even if each time it is part of a different keyword phrase.
The length of the tag is not important, but a rough guide of 300 characters will help to save you from ‘overusing’ the tag.
Headlines
The user should be able to identify immediately with your headline, which is probably the most important part of your web page content. People come to your web site to solve a problem, so you should address that problem in your headline. Internet users may be impatient and fickle, but if your headline can engage their interest, you will have them nodding in agreement and reading on.
A good starting point is to include your main keyword phrase(s) in the headline. The user will identify with these words immediately, having just used them in their search. Search engines will also pick up the keyword relevance of your headline. The correct technical procedure is for your headline to follow HTML protocol and appear as an <h1>. This will be given more weight by search engines than if it was simply made to look like a heading through formatting.
