Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the act of optimizing websites around a targeted keyword or keyword phrase (recommended) to rank well in the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Prior to optimizing a website or its internal webpages, a thorough keyword research and analysis needs to be performed to determine the targeted keyword or keyword phrase that the website will be optimized for. The optimization consists of two tasks: on-page optimization and off-page optimization. On-page optimization are the aspects that involves a website’s source code (i.e. HTML) and off-page optimization are the aspects that involves a website’s reputation from other websites on the Internet.
On-page SEO consists of:
- Proper h1, h2, and h3 Tag Usage: Delegate the h1 tag for the most important targeted keyword only, use the h2 tag for the secondary targeted keyword, and h3 for the third targeted keyword. For example, if the targeted keyphrase is “shih tzu dog collar” then use the h1 tag for this exact phrase, use h2 for “buy shih tzu dog collar”, and use h3 for “shih tzu dog collars on sale”.
- Page Title Tags: Ensure that the Page Title tag contains the targeted keywords. Ensure the Page Title matches the targeted keywords in the h1 tag. Verify if the targeted keywords in each page’s title and h1 tag match. If not, fix to match them. For “shih tzu dog collar”, “shih tzu dog collar” needs to be in the page’s title (title headers) and also used in one instance with the h1 tag.
- Bold, Underline, Italicize Targeted Keyword: Ensure that the targeted keyword is either bolded, underlined, or italicized.
- Images Contains Targeted Keyword: Ensure that the image tags contain the targeted keyword. Ensure the image’s filename contains the targeted keyword (i.e. instead of collarpic1.jpg, rename to shih-tzu-dog-collar.jpg)
- Targeted Keywords Used At Least Once Beginning And End: Place the targeted keyword once towards the very beginning of the web page. Place the targeted keyword once at the end of the web page. Make sure to mention your main keyword at the very top left and the very bottom right hand side of the webpage. A simple tip for placing the keyword at the end is to include the keyword in the copyright information line at the bottom of the website.
Off-page SEO consists of:
- Backlinks, Backlinks, and More Backlinks: Search engines rank websites based on the number of “votes” a particular website has received from other websites on the Internet. The term “vote” is synonymous to the term “backlink” and we will use the term “backlink” from here on. The more backlinks a webpage has, then the higher it will place in the search engine results page (SERP). Various factors are considered in determining the ‘weight’ for an individual backlink and here are to name a few: anchor text, the age of the website that is linking to yours, the Page Rank, the domain age, the surrounding content of the linking anchor text, and the relevancy of the website that is linking to yours. The most important factor out of this list is the anchor text. Anchor text is the text used on the referring website that links (the backlink) to your website. An example of an anchor text is, if you are optimizing a webpage for “shih tzu dog collars” (this is the targeted keyword phrase) then you will want to obtain backlinks that contain the text “shih tzu dog collars” or any variant of it, “shih tzu,” “dog collars,” “dog collars for shih tzu’s”, “shih tzu choke collar,” or “pink shih tzu dog collar.” Also, not all backlinks are counted as equal. An example of the website relevancy factor is, if you have a webpage about “shih tzu dog collars,” a backlink from a website that sells pet products will have a higher weight than a backlink from a website that sells car tires.
There is also the concept of white-hat SEO and black-hat SEO. White-hat SEO is the label for standards and practices that does not involving tricking the search engines to manipulate rankings. Black-hat SEO is the label for exactly that. For long-term results that stays permanent and without consequences, white-hat SEO is the obvious standard SEO practice that should always be followed.
The above are the basics and fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization. However, Google claims they use over 200 signals in their Google search algorithm. Obviously, only Google knows exactly what these signals are, but there are tools, books, and SEO consultants that can help in your journey of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
{ 0 comments }
