Website Optimization also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing a website to rank well in the search engines.. If you are a Web Developer then you need to have basic knowledge of SEO. It's really okay if you don't go deep in that..
Let's visit this planet : SEO
Website Optimization is the process of specifically designing your webpages to rank high in the Search Engines. If you're serious about your business, optimizing your webpages is a must.
1) Meta Tags :
Meta tags are still essential for search engine optimization though they don't have so much importance as before but you can't ignore it. Meta tags are placed in the section of your web page. The two meta tags that are concerned with SEO are the meta description and meta keywords tags. You should try to enter your target word or phrase in the keywords and description meta tags.
The meta description tells both search engines and searchers what a web page is about. It is often displayed below the title in a search result, and helps people decide if they want to visit that website. The meta description should include keywords that a site's potential customers are using to search, and that accurately reflect what they will find on the web page. Mention location when relevant.
Search engines will generally index 200 to 250 characters. But they may display a smaller portion. It's good to limit the meta description to no more than 150 characters, including spaces.
The META Keywords tag will contain a listing of your keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your page and enable a Search Engine to find you. The most effective use of keywords is to concentrate on just a few Keyword phrases. There are many keyword research tool you will find on internet which can help you to find appropriate keywords.
I advise you.. find the keywords which can provide traffic from targeted users..and give less competiton.. suppose i have web designing studio in rajkot.. and if i want clients from rajkot only then i should use keyword.. web design rajkot rather than web design.. there are many websites which contains the keyword web design .. so i have strong competition for getting search engine rank if u use that keyword.. but if i use web design rajkot...then there are very less websites contains keyword web design rajkot.. so i have less competition for getting search engine ranking.. your keywords should not be more than 800 char..
Note: A word of caution...only use keywords and phrases that are appropriate for your webpage. Just because a certain keyword is very popular, doesn't mean you should include it within your META tags. This is considered to be SPAM and could get your pages banned from the Search Engines.
So Always spend time for creating better meta tags.. description and keywords.. they are much more essential for search engine optimization..
2) Title Tag :
Your Title should contain your most important keyword phrase.
Place your "most" important keyword phrase first. Not just your most important phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think people will use when they do a search.
Instead of capitalizing the first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all lowercase letters when searching. This will assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engines for your targeted audience.
Effective Title tags include only relevant keyword or keyword phrases. Avoid non-indexing filler words, such as a, an, the, welcome and home page.
Search engines consider the text of the title tag to be a strong indication of what the page is about. Accurate keywords in the title tag can help a page rank better. It should be kept between 60 - 90 characters in length.
3) IMG Alt Tag :
Image alt (alternate) text is an attribute of the HTML tag. The alt text can be entered when creating an image tag.
It is used by text viewers (web browsers that only display text – no images) rather than displaying the image itself. So in the example above it will say “web design rajkot” rather than display the image. In case you’re wondering, a visually impaired person might use a text viewer when browsing the web.
It is important that if you have any images on your web page, that you include your keyword or phrase in the alt text of a few of the images.
4) Headings :
HTML headings, e.g. h1, h2, h3 are important when it comes to on page optimization. The headings carry special weight with many search engines. The same rules apply to the headings as applies to the title tag :
Ensure your keyword is present in the heading..
Try to get your keyword as near the beginning of the heading as possible..
Keep the heading as short as possible to ensure maximum weight is given to your keyword..
It is generally good practice to only have one h1 tag per page, so in some respects this is the most important heading to be optimized for your keyword.
A common mistake I see is that people use graphics for their headings – don’t! Sure they might look pretty, but they mean zip to the search engines – they can’t interpret graphics or read what they say. If you want to make your headings look more attractive then by all means use CSS to make the heading look more aesthetically pleasing, but do not use graphics, it’s a waste of an opportunity!
5) Body Text :
The actual content, or body text of your web page is an important factor. To optimize your body text you should try to use your keyword frequently throughout so that it accounts for 4-5% of all of the words on your website. It is also a good idea to try to include your keyword in bold or italics to give additional weight to the keyword. You should also try to place your keyword as close to the beginning of your body text as possible, certainly in the first paragraph of text. Ideally your keyword will be the first word in your body text.
One important thing to remember is not to go overboard and mention your keyword every other word. This is known as keyword stuffing, and the search engines certainly don’t like this as it is seen as an attempt to spam and your site could actually be penalised, or even worse – banned! You should also never use text which is the same colour as the background of your web page (so that it is invisible or hidden), nor should you ever use tiny text, both of these can also be seen as an attempt to spam the search engine and could lead to a ban.
6) Hyperlinks :
Your hyperlinks should contain a keyword frequency of between one and eight. It is a very good practice to use your keywords as your hyperlink title.. rather than give the url in the title.. It also helps for optimization.
Humm Now enough tour of this planet.. There are many other factors to get high rank.. We will see them later.. Surely visit SEO planet soon.. thank you..
