Optimizing your site for Google
Google considers many factors when determining where to place your
web site in their search engine. When it comes down to it, content and
back links are among the more important aspects that will change your
listing position. However, it is important to focus on as many page
ranking aspects as possible.
Here are the Do's when optimizing your site for Google
Identify Keywords
Come up with a detailed list of keywords that directly relate to your
page's content. This could be a term associated with a product or
service you sell or a term for a category pertaining to information on
your site. If you have developed a fine tuned list, it will make the
whole optimization process outlined in the following points a lot
easier.
URL
Try to place one of your keywords in either your domain name, directory
or page name. For example, www.mykeyword.com or ../mykeyword/ or
../mykeyword.html.
Page Title
The title is meant to describe your page's content in a nutshell. So
choose the two most popular keywords that describe the content within
your page. Using these selected keywords, put together a point form
sentence for your title. Avoid using special characters and exceeding a
length of 64 characters long.
Site Content
A well optimized page should ideally be between 300 and 400 words. Five percent of these words should be keywords.
Try to make sure you have 2 to 3 keywords within the first paragraph of your page.
If you can, emphasis these keywords by placing them in HTML tags that
standout such as bold headings, h1, h2 and h3 headings or larger font
sizes.
Meta-Tags
Meta-tags are used to describe your site to search engines and are not visible for the user viewing your site.
Create a description tag between 50 and 200 characters long that
describes the theme of your site. This tag is not as significant as it
used to be when determining your page rank but is still considered.
Your keywords tag should only list keywords that are found in the
content of your page. Try to keep this to 200 characters in length.
Avoid using a single keyword more than once so that it is not flagged
as spam. This tag is no longer used by Google, but is still used by
other search engines.
Links
Try to scatter links to other pages on your site which include keywords
in the actual link. Make certain that the links are attached to valid
and useful pages on your site.
Link to external sites of high quality / popularity which relate to the
topic of your page. Keep a close eye on these links so that the page
you are linking to does not change form causing the purpose of your
link to be obsolete.
Page Freshness
The more you update your page or add a new page to your site, the
higher chance that your site will be re-crawled for content changes.
Not only will your users appreciate new content, search engines will
reflect this update in your page rank.
Don'ts when optimizing for Google:
Too much graphics, not enough content
Remember that search engines cannot determine the theme of your site if
you have no textual content. As long as your page content has between
300 and 400 words in plain text in order to convey the theme of your
site, then you should not have to worry about the amount of images
embedded into your page.
Over optimization
Your site can actually get penalized for being too optimized. This
means having a repetition of keywords, using too many heading tags such
as h1 and overcrowding your meta-tags beyond the recommended character
limit.
Linking to bad sites
Placing links on your site to link farms or FFA's is usually considered
bad practice. Any site that has been flagged by Google or any other
search engine as having poor content can reflect upon the reputation of
your site. This is why it is important to keep a watchful eye on your
external sites as you never know when a site may choose to publish
inappropriate content.
Redirecting
Avoid using redirections at any cost. When a visitor goes to a
particular page, they are going there for a reason. So do not attempt
to trick them and redirect them to some other page. This practice could
create a penalty for your site.
Vulgar content
Generally, you would not need to use "bad words" to sell your product
or site. This may seem a bit obvious, but avoid using any word or
combination of words that may not only be flagged as vulgar but also
could be flagged as spam due to their popularity (get rich quick, etc.).
Excessive cross linking
If you have developed a network of websites, make sure that you are
still including links and content from the outside world. If you have
ten or more sites that just link to each other, then you are not
revealing any sort of outside community to your visitors. Every site
can use a little help from other sources, be sure to reveal to your
visitors that your network of sites is not the only thing at work here.
Keyword stuffing
Never over-crowd your content with random keywords in an attempt to be
identified more prominently for a particular topic. If you create
meta-tags or hidden text that just jumble a bunch of random keyword
together, you will be penalized.
Finally
There are many elements tied into search engine optimization which
can lead to frustration and failure. It is important to think of your
SEO strategy slowly and thoroughly. To aid you in this practice, try
using search engine optimization tools such as Seo BackPack.
About the Author
Specializing in web development for over 10 years. For more
information, please visit one of following web sites that I am a part
of:
Webmaster Tools
Seo BackPack
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