Thursday, June 19, 2008

Search Engine Optimization, Some Basic Tips

By Ricardo d Argence

Optimizing your website is not difficult to do and something that everyone who has a site needs to start doing to be found. Page optimization refers to search engine optimization techniques used directly in the construction of web pages. It is important to provide visitors to your website with valuable content that makes them want to come back to your site again and again. That' why SEO is not just engine optimization but optimizing the page for human readers.

It is crucial to be aware of your exercise of keywords, if you want to guarantee your website is full of valuable content. Stay away from keyword stuffing; it gives your website the appearance of ignorance and low principles. Also, search engines can punish your website for keyword overuse if they notice. Use of keywords sparingly and naturally will be ideal. A benefit of using a lot of keywords is attracting search engine traffic, but do not use too many.

Although traditional SEO identifies a keyword density of 2-7% as being ideal for on page optimization, changes in Google's search engine operations indicate that a density of only 1-2% may be preferable (and easier to read). Make a list of commonly used search terms that relate to your subject and subtopics and sprinkle them throughout your site. Google's latent semantic index (LSI) algorithm will also reward you for the use of similar phrases.

Keywords should not be limited to your page content. It is very important to include your keywords in your page titles. Search engines identify the content of your pages largely on the words used in your page titles. Without the use of keywords in page titles, you will need to have a lot of external links pointed to that page to encourage website traffic. When including keywords in your titles, place them as close to the beginning of the title as possible but be sure that it is readable. The page title is essential to on page optimization because it shows as the link in search engine results.

Each page of your website should have its own unique,relatively short page title which utilizes the main keywords for that page. Remember that search engines only allow a certain number of characters to display in search results. Do not use your keywords more than two or three times in your title; for most keyword phrases, once should be enough.

"Meta tags appear while reading about "on page optimization",but major search engines do not give them much weight as their use has been abused as spam. These days, SEO professionals do not necessarily use meta tags to optimize their pages. If at all you want use only meta keyword and meta discriptive tags and ensure that your listed keywords or phrases are on your page so as to avoid spam.

On page links to other relevant sites can also add to your search engine popularity. However, it is important that the links you provide are genuine and are directed to sites with related content that adds value to your visitors. On page optimization is not difficult to implement and provided you offer your visitors high quality, relevant content, will greatly enhance your success with the search engines.

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