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jabo · 03-13-2008, 10:25 PM

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines.

As a strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure , as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques
White hat and Black hat

White hat SEO techniques conforms to the search engine's guidelines and involves no deception. It is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks the same content a user will see.

Black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.

Keywords are words and phrases that web surfers put into search engines when they are looking for websites that cover particular topics or sell certain products. Optimizing a website so that it turns up near the top of the search engine result pages for keywords can help build its business.

Meta Content

Page Title: Include 1-2 of your most important keyword phrases here. Ideally, around 8 to 10 words or around 70 to 90 characters including spaces.

Meta Description Tag: Is reflective of the content on the page. It should ideally be between 20 to 25 words or 250 characters including spaces. Include the main keywords at the beginning of this tag.

Meta Keywords Tag: Contains the keyword phrases that are also used in the copy of the page, Title tag, Meta description, and other tags. It is advisable to add plurals and common misspelling.

Web page theme

H1, H2, H3 header text: Defines the Size of fonts. For SEO the order of importance is descending starting from 1.

Bold Text/ Emphasis/ Strong/ Capitalized: These tags are used highlight portions of text which are more important.

Alt Tags: Keyword relevant Alt tags give name to the images. These tags are displayed if the browser cannot display images and also explain the image to the search engines.

<img src=”Hello.jpg” alt=”Hello”>

Title Tags for Tables: This serves similar purpose for the table as title tag does for the page.

Internal Link Structure: Content relevant and evenly spread internal links help in optimization and ranking.

External Link Structure: Be careful with the external links. Link only to relevant websites. You do not want to send the spider away from your website unless it has seen enough.

Keyword density and spread

First text on Page: Having keyword as the first word on the page helps. If the first word cannot be the keyword, have it in the first sentence or the first paragraph.

Keyword Density: Maintain keyword density of 2-4% on a web page. Keyword density affects ranking on almost all major search engines.

Keyword Spread: One should take care to have keywords throughout the web page. While some search engines give importance to the first and last paragraphs others read through the entire page.

03-13-2008, 10:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
jabo Master Googler Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 619 Thanks: 1 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts	Search Engine Optimization SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines. As a strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure , as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Search Engine Optimization Techniques White hat and Black hat White hat SEO techniques conforms to the search engine's guidelines and involves no deception. It is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks the same content a user will see. Black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes. Keywords are words and phrases that web surfers put into search engines when they are looking for websites that cover particular topics or sell certain products. Optimizing a website so that it turns up near the top of the search engine result pages for keywords can help build its business. Meta Content Page Title: Include 1-2 of your most important keyword phrases here. Ideally, around 8 to 10 words or around 70 to 90 characters including spaces. Meta Description Tag: Is reflective of the content on the page. It should ideally be between 20 to 25 words or 250 characters including spaces. Include the main keywords at the beginning of this tag. Meta Keywords Tag: Contains the keyword phrases that are also used in the copy of the page, Title tag, Meta description, and other tags. It is advisable to add plurals and common misspelling. Web page theme H1, H2, H3 header text: Defines the Size of fonts. For SEO the order of importance is descending starting from 1. Bold Text/ Emphasis/ Strong/ Capitalized: These tags are used highlight portions of text which are more important. Alt Tags: Keyword relevant Alt tags give name to the images. These tags are displayed if the browser cannot display images and also explain the image to the search engines. <img src=”Hello.jpg” alt=”Hello”> Title Tags for Tables: This serves similar purpose for the table as title tag does for the page. Internal Link Structure: Content relevant and evenly spread internal links help in optimization and ranking. External Link Structure: Be careful with the external links. Link only to relevant websites. You do not want to send the spider away from your website unless it has seen enough. Keyword density and spread First text on Page: Having keyword as the first word on the page helps. If the first word cannot be the keyword, have it in the first sentence or the first paragraph. Keyword Density: Maintain keyword density of 2-4% on a web page. Keyword density affects ranking on almost all major search engines. Keyword Spread: One should take care to have keywords throughout the web page. While some search engines give importance to the first and last paragraphs others read through the entire page.