TIPS FOR A BETTER WEBSITE SEARCH

The tips below will help you come closer to this goal, both for the keywords you think are important, and for phrases you may not even be anticipating. 

Pick Your Target Keywords. 

How do you think people will search for your web page? The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your target keywords. For example, say you have a page devoted to stamp collecting. Anytime someone types "stamp collecting," you want your page to be in the top ten results. Accordingly, these are your target keywords for that page. Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content. 

For example, say you have another page about the history of stamps. Then "stamp history" might be your keywords for that page. Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success. 

The article available to Search Engine Watch members provides additional information about selecting key terms. 

Position Your Keywords 

Make sure your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. The page's HTML title tag is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. 

More about the title tag can be found on the Build your titles around the top two or three phrases that you would like the page to be found for. The titles should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper headlines. With a few words, they make you want to read a story. Similarly, your page titles are like headlines for your pages. They appear in search engine listings, and a short, attractive title may help encourage users to click through to your site. 

Search engines also like pages where keywords appear "high" on the page, as described more fully on the page. To accommodate them, use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible. Have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page. Keep in mind that tables can "push" your text further down the page, making keywords less relevant because they appear lower on the page. This is because tables break apart when search engines read them. 

For example, picture a typical two-column page, where the first column has navigational links, while the second column has the keyword loaded text. Humans see such a page like this: Home Stamp Collecting Page 1 Page 2 Stamp collection is worldwide experience. Page 3 Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions Page 4 can be made from this hobby/business. Search engines (and those with old browsers) see the page like this:Home Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Stamp CollectingStamp collection is worldwide experience. Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions can be made from this hobby/business. 

See how the keywords have moved down the page? There is no easy way around this, other than to simplifying your table structure. Consider how tables might affect your page, but don't necessarily stop using them. I like tables, and I'll continue to use them. Large sections of JavaScript can also have the same effect as tables. The search engine reads this information first, which causes the normal HTML text to appear lower on the page. 

Place your script further down on the page, if possible. 

Create Relevant Content 

Changing your page titles is not necessarily going to help your page do well for your target keywords if the page has nothing to do with the topic. 

Your keywords need to be reflected in the page content. In particular, that means you need HTML text on your page. 

Sometimes, sites present large sections of copy via graphics. It looks pretty, but search engines can't read those graphics. That means they miss out on text that might make your site more relevant. Some of the search engines will index ALT text and comment information. But to be safe, use HTML text whenever possible. Some of your human visitors will appreciate it, also. 

Be sure that your HTML text is "visible." Some designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same color as the background color to make the text invisible to browsers. Search engines are well aware of these and other tricks. Expect that if the text is not visible in a browser, then a search engine may not index it. 

Finally, consider "expanding" your text references, where appropriate. For example, a stamp collecting page might have references to "collectors" and "collecting." Expanding these references to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner. Your page really is about stamp collecting, but edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally. 

Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks 

Some search engines see the web the way someone using a very old browser might. They may not read image maps. They may not read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages. 

Create HTML links 

Often, designers create only image map links from the home page to inside pages. A search engine that can't follow these links won't be able to get "inside" the site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside pages rather than the home page. 

Solve this problem by adding some HTML hyperlinks to the home page that lead to major inside pages or sections of your web site. This is something that will help some of your human visitors, also. Put these hyperlinks down at the bottom of the page. The search engine will find and follow them. 

Also consider creating a site map page with text links to every page within your site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate pages within your web site. 

Finally, be sure you do a good job of linking internally between your pages. If you naturally point to different pages from within your site, you increase the odds that search engines will follow links and find more of your web site.