The key to on-site SEO tactics is to put the words
and phrases that you found from keyword analysis within
your web site in certain spots and at certain frequencies.
If you do this correctly you will rank well.
First of all sculpting the HTML title tag is critical.
You have 70 characters to work with in that tag so
feel free to use them all up. Put the key phrase you
are after first in the text string. I always
recommend that because it will gives more weight to
whatever is first in the text string. You can then
add additional details after that. Of course, leaving
it blank is a bad idea.
Place your targeted words and phrases within your
headings on each page. This is critical. A lot of people
don't realize that if you use HTML header tags (H1,
H2, through H6) instead of using larger font sizes
it will help your rankings. The search engines are
looking for those HTML heading tags to better understand
what each page is about. You can always use cascading
style sheets (CSS) to style down all your heading tags
so they match your design approach.
Place keywords and phrases within your hyperlinks.
When search engines look at link text, they get a clue
as to what the page that it's linking to is about.
If a link says "click here", then that really
doesn't tell anything about the page it is linked to.
A lot of sites do that. But if you provide really detailed,
descriptive link, then the search engines will read
those links and that gives a hint as to what the page
is about. So use your key phrases within your links
as often as possible. Don't use "click here" or "click
to see" or anything like that, because it's just
not descriptive enough.
Add key phrases within your meta-description. You
may be aware of the HTML meta-keywords and meta-description
tags. These live "under the covers" of your webpage,
within the HTML, and the search engines will look to
them to find out information about your page's focus.
Feel free to use the keywords tag, but it just doesn't
have the impact that it once had. The meta-description
tag is what you see when you search on Google and there
is a paragraph beneath each listing. That's the meta-description
tag being displayed. It shows between 20 and 40 words
(or about 170 characters). Sculpt your meta-description
tag for each page of your site and sprinkle in your
chosen words and phrases from keyword analysis.
Place your keywords and phrases within URLs and file
names. The search engines will also look to the URL
and try to get an idea as to what a page is about.
So put phrases that you are after within the filename
of your HTML pages and folder structure.
Place keywords and phrases within your body content.
The body text on your web pages is the real power for
your search engine optimization efforts. The search
engines are going to scan the text and try to discern
what your web site is about using this body text. So
place keyword phrases from your keyword analysis within
the text. Do so as much you can keep in mind that you
don't want to force the words into the text. But if
you don't use the phrases, even if you're
talking about the topic at hand, then the search engines
can't figure out that those phrases are tied to your
web page. Remember the "bots" are just trying
to read through and understand what each webpage is
focused on. So try to use these phrases as often as
makes sense when you're writing page content. Companies
and organizations will actually hire SEO copywriters
who are basically artists who sculpt text that reads
well for both people and search engines spiders. This
is one of the most powerful things you can do and as
I said, it's a balancing act. You want to create these
pages for the search engines to some extent, but you
obviously want to keep your audience in mind. You want
to provide quality information to them above all.
Paul Kaufman
President
Pitch Perfect Marketing
