Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | PageRank

Checking the List: SEO Details - Meta Tags and On-Page Optimization



A good place to start putting key words is in the title of your pages. Gary recommends using a one-word buffer; for example, if your key word is “dog collars,” you might use “cheap dog collars” or “compare collars for dogs.” The buffer is there to avoid setting off over optimization penalties. Remember that you should use only one key word per page; in the eyes of the search engines, if you use two or more key words per page, you’re diluting their relevance.

Okay, so you have the right key words in the titles. Did you put them in the META key words? That’s a section in the page’s HTML. While Google has de-emphasized META key words, it’s still a good habit to use them. Keep them down to 128 characters or about 10 key words that cover the themes of your site, separated by commas, with the most important ones first.

You should also put key words in your site’s META description. Keep the key word close to the left in the description. Gary recommends using a full sentence. Some search engines actually show the contents of this tag in the results under the link for your page, so you want this to look attractive to potential visitors. For example, “Dog collars, leashes, pet beds, pet food and more for the discerning dog lover can be found here.” You can certainly get away with something shorter and with fewer key words (remember, ideally, that you should use only one key phrase per page). You might want to use the “View Source” command on a variety of web sites, especially those that score high in the SERPs, if you need to get a better idea of how the META key words and META description tags are used.

Let’s move on to the stuff that we know visitors are going to see. Did you remember to put key words in the first sentence of the first full bodied paragraph? Fight the temptation when you do so to make them “pretty;” do not use bold, italic, or any styling on them at all. They should be plain text. Since this is the first usage, if you try to make them stand out at all you could set off over-optimization flags with the search engines.