Search Engine Tips

Tips for a Higher Ranking

Search Engines are the number one way to generate traffic to your site. Effective site promotion can greatly increase the amount of traffic to your web site. The <TITLE> and META Tags are the most important components in every web site listing in respect to getting a high web site ranking.

The META Tag

The meta tag is a line of HTML code that you insert into your finished web page. It is "hidden" in that it has no effect whatsoever when the page is viewed in a browser. However, when the search engines see this tag, they will read the contents and index these words. Then, depending on it's algorithm, either indexing will then stop, or it will continue to index the remainder of the page.

The HTML code for meta tags look like this:

<Head>
<Title> Your Title Here </Title>
<Meta Name="description" Content="write a compelling description here">
<Meta Name="Keywords" Content="keyword1,keyword2">
</Head>

Important: Do not list keywords multiple times in the meta tag. If you do, you stand a chance having your submission rejected. Several search engines will reject pages that have any keyword used repeatedly in the meta tags. Include meta tags in all your pages. They increase the chances that your web site will have multiple pages in the engines. Web design programs do not automatically include the meta tag, so you'll have to add them manually, or purchase a program that will create your META Tags for you.

The three elements of META Tags are as follows:

Title
Description
Keywords

Title Tag

The <TITLE> tag has a special purpose - many search engines use it as their description exactly as it appears on your page. The site description you offer in the META description tag will be used by some, but not by others. For this reason, the <TITLE> of the site is simply more important than the site META descriptions.

The title is the line of text that shows up at the top of your browser's title bar when you load a page. The TITLE tag looks like this:

<Title> Create a compelling title for your page using important keywords</Title>

Almost all of the search engines consider the keywords in this tag and generally give keywords appearing in the title a higher importance in their algorithm. In other words, if you were to create one page with a keyword in the title tag, and another page with the same keyword in the body tag, the one with the keyword in the title will rank higher in most engines than one with the keyword only in the body.

In addition, many search engines use the HTML <TITLE> tag as the title of your site in the search results that appear to the user. What this means to you is that this HTML tag must not only work to your advantage for keyword scoring, but also must be compelling to the reader.

List Keywords in the Title

Important keywords in the title tag is by far the most effective change that you should make immediately. Remember, the goal is to for your web page to get listed near the top of the search engines.

It is important to remember that most search engines index the title words first and give them a higher score, or relevance. Whatever keywords you want targeted for your page, make certain that you place them in the title.

Body Description

The text found in the META Description tag will be displayed to the user in the search results for many engines. Therefore, it pays to create a good description - one that ranks well, and so compelling that people will actually click on your link once they see it.

Keywords

Keywords are a vital element in promoting your site effectively. Below, you will find a list of suggestions that will help aid in your keyword selection.

Proper Selection of Keywords

The best way to pick your key words is to imagine that you are someone who is looking for your product or service. On what keywords will you search? Spend some time thinking about this and you'll come up with some good choices. You might even want to ask your friends or associates about this to see what words they would use.

The selection of keywords is crucial, so spend some time on it. Make a list of as many as 50 or more words and then narrow it down to about 10 to 20. Keep this list handy for when you actually create your page. Do not rely on your memory alone, as you need to be consistent.

Once you have your final list of keywords selected, put them in order of importance. Remember, keywords do not have to be single words...they can be phrases. Using phrases as keywords can have exceptional results!