Search Engine Optimization part2

Tips - Part Two

by:
Niall Roche

Welcome to the
second part of our series of articles on search engine optimization.
In the previous article we discussed keywords, domain names, content
and keyword density issues. This article moves past that to the
nitty gritty of improving your web pages and website for better
search engine rankings.

Page Title

It's truly amazing how many people don't realize how critical
the TITLE tag can be to the success or failure of your website.
Your TITLE tag needs to have your most important keyword for that
page included in it. This is for the benefit of the search engines.

From a visitors point of view it also needs to entice them to
click on your title tag when they see it in the search engine
results. If your page is about PDA Accessories don't just use
that phrase in the TITLE tag.

Dress it up a bit. For example "PDA Accessories For The Busy Geek"
or "Need Accessories for Your PDA? Come right in!" Those examples
took me 10 seconds to come up with. You can do far better with
a little more time and effort.

META Keyword Tag

Anybody still using the Meta Keyword tag as their sole search
engine optimization method please leave the room. Go on get out
and don't come back.

The Meta Keyword tag is all but dead to the search engines. When
building your pages it's still worth including but simply put
in the top 3 or 4 keywords that are relevant to your business
and leave it at that. Do not spend hours coming up with hundreds
of keywords to stuff into the Meta Keyword tag. It's a total waste
of time and anybody who tells you different has no idea what they're
talking about.

META Description Tag

This still has some limited value for your SEO work. When Google
or other search engines display search results they display the
contents of the TITLE tag and your Meta Description tag (if present)
or a random selection of text from the page. Your Meta Description
tag will take priority if present.

The Meta Description tag is still worth using. Your most important
keyword should be in there and again you need to work this keyword
into an eye catching phrase or sentence. Don't just copy and paste
the main keyword in there.

If the Meta Description tag is used well, in conjunction with
the TITLE tag, then it can make your displayed search result more
inviting to the potential visitor. Again don't spend more than
a few minutes on your Meta Description tag but do make sure that
you include it on each page. One final note - make the Meta Description
for each page different; don't just recycle the same one over
and over.

RSS

Stands for Really Simple Syndication and is probably something
you've heard a lot about over the last few months. RSS allows
you to display the news items and/or content from other sites
on your website as part of a "news feed". This adds a huge amount
of value to your site from a vistors point of view - they don't
need to leave your site to get the latest news on a given topic.
The other benefit is that search engines love seeing fresh content
on websites.

At the moment there's a huge upsurge in the use of RSS for search
engine optimization. The question is does it work? Yes it does.
Using RSS can most definitely encourage the search engines to
come back to visit your site more often. How does it work? Well
again that goes beyond the scope of this article so please refer
to our site for more information.

Blogs

Also called Web Logs are basically online diaries. For a long
time these were used solely by... well.... geeks to record their
thoughts and as a way of sharing information on Star Trek. Seriously
though initially blogs were never seen as anything more than a
curiousity.

Recently with the increased visibility of RSS blogs have also
seen their profile rise. Why? Well because many RSS feeds feature
blog content. Which means what exactly? It means your blog could
be included on and linked to from thousands of websites all over
the world. Are you seeing the possiblities? There are some other
nuances to consider but to mention them here would give the game
away completely and certain ebook authors would put a price on
my head for giving away their secrets.

(c) Niall Roche - All Rights Reserved

- continued in Part 3

About the author:

This article was provided courtesy of Search Engine Fuel where
you'll find tons of information on getting higher search engine placement and reviews of SEO ebooks and software.


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