In parts 1 through 4, you will learn how to develop your business proposition online, generate a keyword list, and optimize at the site level. He also met our legendary Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, door knockers, doorbells or pulls and hardware services) in Windsor in the UK.
Now is the time to focus on optimizing each individual page. My key message is to keep each page short! It should only cover one key product, service or information per page. If you find yourself covering more, split up the content and create more pages!
Keyword density is a key concept in page optimization and is defined as “The number of times a keyword is used on a web page divided by the total number of words on the page. Expressed as a percentage”. Another keyword term is keyword relevancy, which is defined as “how often related keywords appear on the page.”
(a) metadata optimization
Experts disagree on the importance of metadata. In the old days, search engines used metadata a lot to rank sites. Now, as a result of abuse by webmasters, metadata on ranking sites are largely ignored by major engines. However, search engines still use metadata to compile site descriptions in search engine results, and (for that reason alone) it’s a bit of work to spend a bit of time.
The META-Description tag is one of the few META tags that can be considered important, as some search engines use it as a description of their site. You need to keep it to less than 180 characters (so engines don’t truncate it) and make sure it (i) reads right, (ii) includes keys at a reasonable density, (iii) attracts browsers to click, and (iv ) describes the landing page accurately (using repeated words in the page title, the first heading, and the first paragraph of page content). Doug (for his home page) opts for the following:
Antique doors and door hardware from Doug Chalmers of Middlesex, UK. Antique brass and iron door knockers, doorbells and other hardware shipped worldwide. “
The META-Keyword tag is almost useless today, so I wouldn’t spend too much time on it. Simply put your A list of keywords for each page between the tags (remembering that four of the ten should be common to each page on your site and six specific to the page in question). Use spaces, not commas, to separate keywords. On his door knocker page, Doug chooses to:
“Antique brass door hardware knocker decorative iron engraved antique knobs”
Almost all other tags are pretty useless to be honest. You would completely avoid generator, copyright, and author tags (they just mess up your code) and would only use Content-Type, Content-Style-Type, and Content-Language tags where your site is not in English.
The only other tags I would consider are the ICRA ranking tag (which can attract traffic from several new search engines for families) and a geolocation tag (for example, ICBM tags). Both of these tags could become more widely used in the future, so they’re at least worth considering.
(b) Titles and headings optimization
The title tag is not a meta tag, but it is absolutely vital for search engine optimization. Title tags are (i) displayed at the top of the browser window, (ii) commonly used by search engines to generate the link that appears to your page in results lists, and (iii) used as bookmark titles for your page. For all these reasons, it is vital to get it right.
They should be descriptive and short (ideally less than 100 characters) and should make good use of your keywords. Keyword overuse can be considered abuse by search engines, but this won’t happen if you type the title as a breadcrumb (which is the approach I recommend). As an example, consider Doug’s door knocker page:
“antique-door-knockers.com> Door Hardware> Brass Door Knockers – Antique Decorative and Engraved Door Knockers and Knobs”
The title sums up the page well, while also placing it within the overall structure of the site. Hardly anyone uses this kind of approach, which is all the more reason why you should. It is by far the best way to differentiate yourself and climb the ranks.
Search engines pay attention to heading tags, so I’m often surprised to find webmasters who don’t use them. Some avoid heading tags because they haven’t learned to control their appearance, using style sheets or their web authoring software, but this is a lazy and costly mistake! Doug uses the following headings to structure his door knocker page:
Title 1
– Title 2
Decorative knockers
– Lion knockers or knobs
– Pineapple knockers or knobs
Simple knockers
– Round knocker
Generally, you would avoid going down to sub-headings (heading 3) as search engines will give less importance to each level in the nesting and will dilute the value of the higher levels. If you need title 3, I suggest that you divide the content into separate pages.
(c) Structure optimization page
We talked earlier in the guide about the importance of the top left of your page. On your home page, this area should be a sitemap of the rest of the site. On your money pages, this area should contain your first heading and your first paragraph.
Some search engines will only measure keyword density and relevance on the first few lines, rather than the entire page. As such, pay special attention to how each page begins. Here’s an example from Doug’s door knockers page:
Decorative knockers (title one)
Lion knockers or knobs
(title two)
TO antique-door-knockers.com, we have the best victorian and georgian lock. Our brass door knockers they are very popular; in particular our old decorative or engraved door knockers and handles. In addition to our rare classics and collectibles, we stock reproductions lion knockers, including the Regal Lion Head Door Knocker and the Georgian Lion Door Knocker, both available in polished brass or cast iron.
You will notice a few things here. First, the liberal use of internal links (to home page, category page and product page level). Second, the use of B-list keywords (such as Victorian and Edwardian) and, in particular, related keywords (such as antique, classic, and collectible). Third, the bold of the lion knockers keyword combination (not exaggerated and perfectly understandable in this paragraph).
The rest of the page should continue in a similar vein (although you may be a bit more relaxed and focus on the more tedious but important details that make a sale, such as dimensions, prices, etc.), the page should be where you put your navigation formal to the rest of the site.
(d) Text optimization page
You may have already collected some of the key points. Use bold or italics sparingly to cross out keywords (but only when justified in context). Use the two- and three-word keyword strings that we identified in Part 3 (Keyword Analysis). Above all, however, aim for no more than 450 to 600 words total on each page (and ideally near the lower end of that range).
Opinions differ on the ideal keyword density. Much depends on how competitive your keywords are and how many you are seriously targeting. For your top four keywords (and site-wide), I would aim for a 20% density for each word individually in slice one (where slice one is defined as title + headings + bold text + italic text + text alternative).
Overall density for normal page text content (slice two) should be 2% to 4% for page-specific (and most important) keywords, 0.8% to 1.5% for keywords. two or three keyword strings and 0.2% to 0.5% for related ones. keywords (but with many).
Like Doug, you should use Spannerworks Keyword Density Analyzer to measure the density of your copy and keep refining it until you are satisfied with the results.
(e) Image optimization page
I mentioned the alt text in sector one above. Generally, you would keep images to an absolute minimum on your site (and just to make the site visually appealing). However, when using images I would make sure I have descriptive alt text for each image that (i) helps the disabled user understand the image and (ii) is full of keywords. For example, Doug uses the following alternative text for an image of a door knocker:
Reproduction royal lion head door knocker (in polished brass, also available in cast iron)
Note that it is not necessary to say “image of” at the beginning of your description (in fact, this will only tend to annoy disabled users who use screen readers, as their software will tell them that it is an image before reading the alt text).
Next, we turn our attention to promoting your site …
Browse the guide
Previous:
SEO Expert Guide: Sitewide Optimization (Part 4/10)
Next:
SEO Expert Guide: Free Site Promotion (PR) (Part 6/10)
