Keyword Placement : not All Search Engines are the Same

A recent client asked me: "Please can you tell me what search keywords/phrases I need to write for my web sites? I need to make sure I'm maximising the search engine aspect of my website as much as possible. It's an area that's really growing for me and so important now."

What a difficult question! - Every search engine is different in that their indexing systems place varying amounts of emphasis on different sections of a web site. Google, the main one (some say the only one worth bothering with) puts great emphasis on page content... others don't bother with content but use the hidden META TAGS (descriptions/keywords) of what the page is about. Meta Tags have been abused by 'keyword stuffing' - deliberately placing keywords in them even though the page has nothing to do with those keywords!

I think Google is right! In that by analysing the actual page content (titles, paragraphs and image descriptions) the engine will have a more realistic idea of what the page subject is about. Google is good at picking out your keywords from content.

So a web site owner must really ensure he/she is writing QUALITY CONTENT that keeps to the page topic and is keyword rich in the titles, sub titles and general text. Adding META TAG data still needs to be done because other search engines need them. Other search engines use a combination of both META and content.

Please bare in mind that Search Engines (SE) don't tell you exactly how they filter your web pages. That's a closely guarded and complicated secret. So it's a bit of a guessing game. Plus they periodically change/improve their filters without telling anyone. In fact Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a skill in its own right now and keeping up to date / the learning curve is a difficult one. That's why many site owners employ Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation Experts.

The good news is... there are general rules that web pages should follow when it comes to 'on-page' optimisation (off-page is another story !!!). Remember all SE's are different.

Search Engine Text Optimisation in a Nutshell...

1) Main Page Title: This is used by most SE and important for keywords. This is used in the search results usually in blue bold type. When viewing a page it is displayed at the top-left corner of the browser (above the browser tool bars)... usually followed by name of the browser: E.G. "BBC - homepage - Home of the BBC on the Internet - Windows Internet Explorer"

2) META TAGS: These are hidden at the top of the page coding and are there for search engines really. There are 3 main META tags worth bothering with: Page Description; Keywords and Classification (subject categories). See attached for your sites.
- Description is used to describe the page content, a keyword rich summary of the page subject
- Keywords, a comma separated list of keywords for that page/site
- Classification is a list of potential subjects the page could be filed under, used mainly for directories like www.dmoz.com

3) Content Headings (sometimes called Titles and Sub-Titles): These serve to help the reader scan-read sections, looking for textual clues about the site content so important for the reader to see keywords - same for the SE so it places more emphasis on these content headings. Again keyword rich headings to gain max' search potential. In the coding these titles have a special mark-up tag so SEs know they are titles and not just bold text. There are 6 levels of title. I only bother with usually.

4) Paragraph Content: Some SE ignore these completely. Better ones like Google love them !!! The general rule is keep content rich and relevant, don't waffle, don't keyword stuff deliberately. Use bullet lists if poss', put headings where possible / needed. The reader also appreciates short, sharp summaries. If detail is needed then give a keyword rich summary at the top of the page.

5) Image Description: SE cannot read images as these are not text (that's why sometimes heavy imaged web pages are low in SE listings, there is no quality textual content to grab hold of). BUT each image tag can have an alternative description (technically known as 'ALT' text). Using a few keyword rich words you can describe the image for the sake of readers with visual impairments, or who choose not to have images on OR in your case for SE to use. These descriptions usually appear when you hover your mouse cursor over an image - a little pale yellow box with text appears !!!

6) Link Text: Important to Google. Link text should be short and keyword descriptive. 'CLICK HERE' is useless !!! Better to say
"Learn more about our Marketing Services" with the keywords in the link. SE will read the link text and it's obvious to the reader as well.... Same with menu bar links (buttons) - keep short (3 words max) but instantly readable and obvious to what might be on the next page.

7) Footer: Some SE will use snippets of the page (too lazy to index all !!!) so a summary sentence in the footer seems to get picked up by SEs. Something in the footer like:
ABC Marketing Services : Marketing for Leeds, Harrogate, Bradford, York, Wakefield in Yorkshire, UK

So.... That's about it for 'on-page' Optimisation. But you should read around the subject (a lot) - It takes a while to harvest knowledge and I stress things change so you have to keep up-to-date.

And there is loads more online about SEO, Books/websites galore !!!!

READ the GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRE
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http://www.google.com/technology/index.html
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

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Hope this helps!