How to Optimize your Content for Search Engines

Search engines reward “relevance” – how closely the content of a web page matches the search phrase typed in. Your aim is to ensure that the right page from your site appears as high on the ranks as possible. 

Therefore, sensible search engine optimization involves not only getting your content right, but structuring it in such a way that the mechanized process that the search engines use result in the best possible indexing.

Search engines serve up a link to an entire page, so the page is the fundamental unit you need to think about. Broadly speaking, each page should deal with a single major content area. If you have a range of products, each should be on its own page.

• Structure – you need to structure your content to reinforce the main message it contains. Google tends to give extra weight to the top 25% and bottom 25% of a copy on any page. When it comes to deciding if the page is relevant, keywords in those places outrank those in the middle. The lesson is to make sure your main keyword-sense; messages are near the top and the bottom.

• HTML Tags – are suppose to describe the meaning of the content. The heading 1 tag is intended to indicate that this text is the most important on the page. Accordingly, Google gives greater weight to a header 1 text. Your main heading needs to include your most important keywords. Google prioritizes keywords within paragraphs  and words that are contained within the bold and highlighted tags. Google may assume that the web designer thinks these items are more important. Keep in mind that Google is trying to second guess what a human reader will see as the most important words.

• Image Links – images also impact a SEO ranking. This goes together with making the page useful for humans. When Google’s “spider” visits a page, every text element is read. Adding your keywords to an alt element will increase the page’s keyword density.

• Sticking to Standards – your website will be indexed much more effectively by search engines if you strictly separate content from presentation. When HTML was first developed, it described the meaning of the page while including presentational tags such as bold, italic, font style to give more design control.

After doing these, you can check your headings and other tags by including your keywords and determine whether your most important copy is at the top or bottom of the page.