is your Site SHOUTING the Right words?

I penned an article way back in Nov 2007 on this subject, which is really all about 'putting the keywords into pages in the RIGHT way'. What I said then still holds true today (a fact that goes to show that the rate of change in how site's are ranked does not change as much as some would have you think.

So the question is Does your site:

1. Use the right words?
2. In the right way?
3. In the right place?

To answer the first question you need to have carried out some Keyword Research in order that you can identify the phrases that people are using, and can therefore, (bearing in mind the competition) chose which ones to target.

Once you have that list, you need to use them in the copy on the page, aiming for a density of between a 2% and 4% (percentage of time the words are used on the page), whilst, and this is important, still making the page readable.

Using them in the right way is a bit more difficult as for best effect you need to include the phrases in the order that they are used, in other words don't split up a phrase if you can avoid it. More importantly, you need to put these words on the page in the right way. To explain, imagine that you are reading a newspaper that instead of using HEADLINES to show what is important on the page, used the same size text (with no bold etc) on its pages. You can imagine how difficult it would be to see at a quick glance what the main topics were. This is exactly the problem the Search Engines will have with your site UNLESS you use the (old fashioned) HTML Header tags, H1 to H6.

HTML is a form of 'mark up language' and has it roots (interestingly enough) in the world of print, the 'mark up language' being the way of telling the print setters how to layout the page and what fonts etc to use. Thus the Header 1 tag (H1) is the MAIN header, whilst the H2 is the next most important, all the way down to H6.

So, think of the Search Engines as someone looking at your pages in the same way as those print setters, they NEED to be told what is important and THE ONLY WAY of doing this (in the page copy at least - see later) is to use the HEADER tags (and to a lesser degree the Bold, Italic and List tags). Oh and by the way, if you are worried about using the Header tags because it will compromise the look and feel of your site, don't worry, you can over ride their appearance using style sheets, ask your web designer about that one.

So, you have dealt with the copy on the page, but you have still missed the Biggest Trick and that is the TITLE of the page, not the one on the page, but the one in the Browser Header Bar (the bit in blue). This is the most important bit of real estate on a page as far as Search Engine Optimisation is concerned, as it 'tells' the Engines what the page is all about, so choose it carefully, bearing in mind:-

1. It MUST match the copy on the page
2. The first words are the most important
3. Only the first nine will be used by the Engines

That about wraps it up at the initial level. There is more of course, such as the rule on prominence, but more on all that later.