Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing a sites positions in the Search Engine results. This process of ranking improvement is developed by increasing a web page and/or websites Relevance for a particular query.
Search Engine Relevancy
Search Engines return results based upon who they feel are most relevant for a particular search query downwards. Relevancy is determined by different factors by all the major search engines, such as Google , Yahoo! and MSN . They do use the same two core factors to determine this relevancy: Links and Content.
• The on page factor - the Content of a particular web document allows the search engines to deduce exactly what that page is talking about. By constructing your text correctly you can ensure that the search engine see your particular document as relevant for particular queries.
• The off page factor - the links pointing to your page from other web documents will affect your ability to rank. By having high quality, multiple targeted links you can increase your search engine positioning
Google PageRank
PageRank is the Google measure of Search Engine link popularity and is only visible if you have the Google toolbar installed. The Google toolbar displays PageRank in a scale between 0 until 10. Google PageRank is only relevant to the page being viewed in the browser NOT THE ENTIRE SITE. Remember search engines rank web pages not websites and PageRank is only one part of Google's complex search engine algorithm.
Although Google was the first major search engine to use link popularity as part of its ranking algorithm, most spidering search engines now use link popularity when ranking pages. PageRank evaluates page Relevance through link analysis. The Google PageRank algorithm calculates the quantity and quality of links pointing to each and every page in the Google index.
Pages with many, quality links pointing to them are regarded as highly relevant!
Google's software engineer Matt Cutts comments, "Google's PageRank search technology works by first identifying the link structure of the entire Web, then ranking individual pages based on the number and importance of pages linked to them."
Although Google was the first major search engine to use link popularity as part of its ranking algorithm, most spidering search engines now use link popularity when ranking pages. PageRank evaluates page Relevance through link analysis. The Google PageRank algorithm calculates the quantity and quality of links pointing to each and every page in the Google index.
Pages with many, quality links pointing to them are regarded as highly relevant!
Google's software engineer Matt Cutts comments, "Google's PageRank search technology works by first identifying the link structure of the entire Web, then ranking individual pages based on the number and importance of pages linked to them."
Stop Words
In an attempt to speed up searches and save space, some search engines won't record extremely common words present on the page. These are referred to as "stop words." Stop words are used by AltaVista, Inktomi and Google.
Look at this sentence:
The climb to the peak is difficult when the snow is deep.
"The" has multiple instances. Some search engines may replace these instances with a marker. The sentence could then be stored like this:
- climb to - peak is difficult when - snow is deep.
By using markers the sentence is simplified, retains its relevancy and saves space. Furthermore, Relevance is not grabbed by common terms. The amount of space saved may seem minimal per page but multiply that by millions of pages and the benefit becomes obvious.
On the other hand some search engines, including Google, do store every word on the page. However, to save time they won't include stop words in the search. Consider a search in Google for:
The Edinburgh Tattoo
When google serves up its results it also warns
"The" is a very common word and was not included in your search."
You can force Google to do a search that includes "The" by searching for;
+The Edinburgh Tattoo
or by surrounding the search in quotation marks;
"The Edinburgh Tattoo"
Chances are people will search without the + or quotation marks so it makes sense to use few stop words in your TITLE and free up as as much space as possible for relevant terms.
AltaVista, Inktomi and Google support stop words.
Look at this sentence:
The climb to the peak is difficult when the snow is deep.
"The" has multiple instances. Some search engines may replace these instances with a marker. The sentence could then be stored like this:
- climb to - peak is difficult when - snow is deep.
By using markers the sentence is simplified, retains its relevancy and saves space. Furthermore, Relevance is not grabbed by common terms. The amount of space saved may seem minimal per page but multiply that by millions of pages and the benefit becomes obvious.
On the other hand some search engines, including Google, do store every word on the page. However, to save time they won't include stop words in the search. Consider a search in Google for:
The Edinburgh Tattoo
When google serves up its results it also warns
"The" is a very common word and was not included in your search."
You can force Google to do a search that includes "The" by searching for;
+The Edinburgh Tattoo
or by surrounding the search in quotation marks;
"The Edinburgh Tattoo"
Chances are people will search without the + or quotation marks so it makes sense to use few stop words in your TITLE and free up as as much space as possible for relevant terms.
AltaVista, Inktomi and Google support stop words.
Optimising Heading Tags
Although regularly overlooked, HTML heading tags can greatly improve your search engine optimization efforts. The HTML heading tags are similar to newspaper headlines and search engines consider the Content more important than normal text. Include your important keywords in heading tags on your page if you can.
Search engines consider the H1 tag to be more important than H2 and H2 more important than H3 and so on. Headings can be placed anywhere within the body of an HTML document so consider reworking your page content into separate sections with headings.
One reason heading tags may be overlooked is their default appearance. However you can control the look of your heading tags by using Cascading Style sheets (CSS). Here are the styles used on this page.
h1 - Search Engine Optimization
h1 h2 h3 h4 {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 22px;
color: #0f333f;
}
Search engines consider the H1 tag to be more important than H2 and H2 more important than H3 and so on. Headings can be placed anywhere within the body of an HTML document so consider reworking your page content into separate sections with headings.
One reason heading tags may be overlooked is their default appearance. However you can control the look of your heading tags by using Cascading Style sheets (CSS). Here are the styles used on this page.
h1 - Search Engine Optimization
h1 h2 h3 h4 {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 22px;
color: #0f333f;
}
Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag, as its name suggests, allows you to describe your page content. The description should be a short, keyword-rich paragraph capturing the main topic of the page - giving the search engines an accurate overview of the page.
Remember, the meta description, along with the title, are what encourage people to click on your site from the search engine results pages. The TITLE and description should be written to motivate people into visiting your site instead of your competition.
All spidering search engines provide some support for the meta description tag, Teoma, AltaVista, and AllTheWeb make most use of it. Search engines that don't recognise the tag will grab some text from your page and substitute it for the description. This text grabbed is usually based on the search term.
The meta description tag should contain your pages keywords. Place the Keywords as close to the beginning of your description as you can to achieve the best results. This is where techniques like keyword proximity come into play. Avoid repeating keywords more than 2 times, some search engines consider this to be Spam and may penalise the page.
Different search engines vary the allowed length for meta description tags. Try to use short descriptions around 150 characters. Although some search engines display more than 150 characters, keeping the length to around 150 prevents it from being cut down by those who don't and preserves its message.
It is essential that you write good titles and descriptions for your pages. Some search engines place extra Relevance on the words used in the description. If you take extra care and time when constructing your page titles and meta description tags, and tailor them so that they are enticing, keyword rich and descriptive, your web pages will rank more effectively.
Remember, the meta description, along with the title, are what encourage people to click on your site from the search engine results pages. The TITLE and description should be written to motivate people into visiting your site instead of your competition.
All spidering search engines provide some support for the meta description tag, Teoma, AltaVista, and AllTheWeb make most use of it. Search engines that don't recognise the tag will grab some text from your page and substitute it for the description. This text grabbed is usually based on the search term.
The meta description tag should contain your pages keywords. Place the Keywords as close to the beginning of your description as you can to achieve the best results. This is where techniques like keyword proximity come into play. Avoid repeating keywords more than 2 times, some search engines consider this to be Spam and may penalise the page.
Different search engines vary the allowed length for meta description tags. Try to use short descriptions around 150 characters. Although some search engines display more than 150 characters, keeping the length to around 150 prevents it from being cut down by those who don't and preserves its message.
It is essential that you write good titles and descriptions for your pages. Some search engines place extra Relevance on the words used in the description. If you take extra care and time when constructing your page titles and meta description tags, and tailor them so that they are enticing, keyword rich and descriptive, your web pages will rank more effectively.
Keyword Location and Frequency
Search engine optimization is all about the effective use of keywords. One of the main rules in a Search Engine ranking algorithm involves the location of keywords on a web page. To achieve top rankings in any Search Engine Optimization campaign, create content rich pages with a narrow focus on one or two keywords.
The term keywords does not refer to single words only. In truth, keyword phrases are far more effective than single keywords!
The title tag is the most important element of the web page. The TITLE tag is responsible for displaying the text shown in the windows-bar at the top of the browser. Include your page's most important keywords in the title tag.
Try to write a phrase that is descriptive, reads well, and contains your keywords. Most search engines use the title in their result listings - you want to entice people to click on that link.
The other main factor used by search engines to measure relevancy is Keyword Frequency. A search engine will look at a web page and analyze the frequency of the words appearing on the page. The higher the frequency the more relevant the words are deemed. If the content of the page was written in such a way that the main keywords had the highest frequency, this will tip relevancy towards your keywords.
Search engines regard words with a higher frequency as more relevant than others.
When these two areas are combined so that the keywords used in title and the Keyword Frequency of the page return the same terms, then the whole page is deemed as relevant for the keywords.
Also Include your keywords in the following areas:
1. Headline Tags H1, H2 H3 ....
2. The first and the last paragraph of body text.
3. In the ALT attribute of the IMG tag (sometimes referred to as the ALT Tag).
4. Throughout the web page, not too many times that it could be mistaken as spam.
5. Move the readable copy as far up in the HTML code as possible.
The term keywords does not refer to single words only. In truth, keyword phrases are far more effective than single keywords!
The title tag is the most important element of the web page. The TITLE tag is responsible for displaying the text shown in the windows-bar at the top of the browser. Include your page's most important keywords in the title tag.
Try to write a phrase that is descriptive, reads well, and contains your keywords. Most search engines use the title in their result listings - you want to entice people to click on that link.
The other main factor used by search engines to measure relevancy is Keyword Frequency. A search engine will look at a web page and analyze the frequency of the words appearing on the page. The higher the frequency the more relevant the words are deemed. If the content of the page was written in such a way that the main keywords had the highest frequency, this will tip relevancy towards your keywords.
Search engines regard words with a higher frequency as more relevant than others.
When these two areas are combined so that the keywords used in title and the Keyword Frequency of the page return the same terms, then the whole page is deemed as relevant for the keywords.
Also Include your keywords in the following areas:
1. Headline Tags H1, H2 H3 ....
2. The first and the last paragraph of body text.
3. In the ALT attribute of the IMG tag (sometimes referred to as the ALT Tag).
4. Throughout the web page, not too many times that it could be mistaken as spam.
5. Move the readable copy as far up in the HTML code as possible.
Meta Keyword Tag
How does the meta keyword tag further your Search Engine optimization efforts? Although most crawling search engines no longer support the tag it is still a useful way to reinforce your keywords on the Crawlers that do, namely Inktomi and Teoma. AllTheWeb, AltaVista and Google ignore the tag. However, it should be pointed out that any benefit derived from the meta keyword tag is minimal, many SEO's experienced in Search Engine Optimization no longer use the tag.
If you have a page about search engine optimization you will naturally repeat the term "search engine optimization" at various places through your body text. Including the term "search engine optimization" within the meta keywords tag will help boost your page for those terms in the search engines that still support the meta keyword tag.
The text in the meta keywords tag works to support text in your body copy. If the term "search engine optimization" does not appear on the page, then placing it in the meta keywords tag is unlikely to boost the page to any great extent for the term, and indeed may be seen as spam.
The meta keyword tag is also a means to include synonyms; different and common misspelling of words that appear on the page. If you had a page about "website design", people may instead search for "web site design". Having the term in your meta keywords tag may increase the odds of coming up if someone searched for "web site design".
Another example would be the different spellings of optimization (if you are in the US) or optimization (if you are in the UK or Australia) You could use both terms on the page but this method may end up diluting your keyword relevancy. You would however, greatly increase the chances of being found if you created two unique pages, one using optimization throughout the page and the other optimization. The same goes for the previous example.
If you have a page about search engine optimization you will naturally repeat the term "search engine optimization" at various places through your body text. Including the term "search engine optimization" within the meta keywords tag will help boost your page for those terms in the search engines that still support the meta keyword tag.
The text in the meta keywords tag works to support text in your body copy. If the term "search engine optimization" does not appear on the page, then placing it in the meta keywords tag is unlikely to boost the page to any great extent for the term, and indeed may be seen as spam.
The meta keyword tag is also a means to include synonyms; different and common misspelling of words that appear on the page. If you had a page about "website design", people may instead search for "web site design". Having the term in your meta keywords tag may increase the odds of coming up if someone searched for "web site design".
Another example would be the different spellings of optimization (if you are in the US) or optimization (if you are in the UK or Australia) You could use both terms on the page but this method may end up diluting your keyword relevancy. You would however, greatly increase the chances of being found if you created two unique pages, one using optimization throughout the page and the other optimization. The same goes for the previous example.
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