|
Most people still refer to this as 'Page Optimization', however since the early years Search Engines have become a lot more sophisticated about the way they rank their search results. ( remember our discussion about how Search Engines work and the 'Relevancy Score' ? If not, go back and read before going any further - click here ). Back then search Engines would generally rank a page on the following factors, - Page Title
- Meta Tag Description
- Meta Tag Keywords
- Page Heading
- Body Text
- The 'ALT' text of any Images
- Link Text
- Comments
However, today the Page Scoring goes much deeper and because of abuse items like Meta Tag Keywords carry very little weight at all, some engines don't even look at them anymore. As we have previously stated it is near on impossible to find out the exact details of how a page is scored by any particular engine, but we do know that the following aspects of a Page are highly important,
( Don't worry if at this point you don't understand all the terms on this list, we'll explain in a minute ). - Page Title
- Page Heading ( the H1 Tag )
- Visible Body Text
- Link Text
- The 'Relevancy Score' of any page which is linked to.
- The 'Relevancy Score' of any page which links to this page.
- The URL and Domain of a Page
- The Page File name
- The Site Theme
- How the Page is Found ( was it Submitted or Spidered )
- The Age of a Page and Site
To fully understand why some aspects of a page are more important than others you have to think like the people who build the Search Engines. The sole aim of the search engine is to, 'Deliver the Most Relevant Pages First in response to a Users Query'.
Now, look at the two lists above again and ask yourself can this aspect of a page be 'Faked' ? ( i.e.. can very popular keywords be introduced into the item without altering the look or content of a page ).
You should now see that the items on the second list are much harder to fake without significantly detracting from the subject of the page than those on the first list. This is why Search Engines place more importance on these items than many of the items in the first list. Think about it, you could place anything you like in the Comment, Meta Tags and Alt tag and it wouldn't make any difference to your visitors viewing the page. Ok, let's begin Crafting a Page for Your Product / Service or Subject. Firstly, this next step (if done properly) is going to take a minimum of a few hours but more likely a couple of days. Be prepared - it's worth putting in the time.
( This is one big reason why it's important to do Keyword Analysis Correctly First ). Open up your Search Engine Plan and look at your Keyword List. Pick out the Top Keyword or Phrase. You may introduce more later, but just stick to the top one for now. Create Your New Page
Create a brand new HTML Page and save as a filename which is that of your keyword or phrase. e.g. if the top keyword is 'gardening' your filename would be gardening.html, if your top keyword is actually a phrase, say "gardening books" then your filename should be gardening_books.html. ( Notice that with phrases you should separate the words with an underscore character "_" ). Add a Page Title
Invent a Title for your page which includes the keyword or phrase (only once). A title which contains between 4 and 8 words tends to work best. Also, it may be better Not to have the keyword or phrase as the first word, but instead have it as the second or third word(s). Add this title in the <HEAD> section of your page with the <TITLE> tags.
Try and create a page title where the first word begins with the letter "A", but don't just use the word "A". Something like "Advanced .....". This is important because Search Directories will list your page alphabetically within a category. Don't be tempted to use characters like "!", although technically they are before "A" in alphabetical sequence, Search Directories are now wise to this tactic and tend to ignore new pages trying it. Add in the Page Heading
Invent a Page Heading obeying the same rules as those of the main Title, i.e. 4 to 8 words with the keyword or phrase appearing once. Add this Heading using the <H1> tag at the very top of your <body> section. Create Your Body Text
Next create the main body text for your page. Here you have to say everything you want to say about your product and all the messages you want to give the customer about ordering etc. Some people will say that you should keep the number of words on a page to a set amount. To some extent that is true, but if you really need more to fully get across your message then use more. Try and aim for between 300 and 500 words in this section. You use your keyword / phrase once or twice ( no more ) in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph. You should also use your keyword / phrase a few more times in the paragraphs in between. Within the body text you should have used your keyword / phrase between 4 and 8 times. ( any more than 8 and some engines will start to penalize you ). Don't worry if you go over 500 words a little bit, but if you have say 1,000 words then try and do the following. Are there a couple of paragraphs on your page which really could be placed on a second page with just a link from this one ? If yes then do just that, create a second page with these paragraphs, building the Page Filename, Heading and Title as described. ( This is a good thing to do, because it means you now have a page that you link to which should also score well for your top keyword ). Link to High Ranking Pages.
Next, go to a popular search engine, Google, AltaVista etc ( not Yahoo, it's a directory remember ) and do a search on your Keyword / Phrase. Take a look at the top 5 results that come up ( ignore the Paid for Positions, if you're using Google these have a colored background ) . Pick 2 or 3 of these that you would feel comfortable linking to. Don't worry that these are your major competition, chances are your visitors are going to find these anyway. Now the fact that they appear top of the list is going to help you. Create a little part of your page called something like 'More Useful Information' and create a link to each of these pages.
Why ?
Look at the list of important factors again, 'The Relevancy Score of any page You Link To'. Basically by linking to 2 or 3 of the top 5 ranking pages you are improving your own relevancy score. Add in Images & Comments
Now add in any images you wish to use throughout your page, remembering to include your keyword or phrase in the ALT element of the Image tag. Also add a couple of comment lines which include your keyword or phrase. Although these two elements are becoming less important, they won't hurt your ranking and every little helps. Add in Meta Keywords and Description
In the <HEAD> section of your page add in the Meta data, <META Keywords> and <META description>. In the Meta Keywords build in the top 4 keywords / phrases from your list separated by comma's. Also include variations on your top phrase. So if your top phrase is 'Gardening Books' include the following variations, "gardening,books,gardening books,book,gardening book" In the META Description, simply make this the same as the first paragraph of your main body text. Again the META data is becoming less important for page ranking but every little helps. Create a Sub-Directory.
Unless you have been very lucky ( or you really planned ahead when choosing your domain name ) then chances are your keyword or phrase doesn't appear in your domain name. There are 2 ways to overcome this, first go and purchase a domain name. If you do this you will need to create a whole new site, the age of which will be very new. I only recommend this if you are already starting a brand new site. The second way is to create a sub-directory which includes your keyword or phrase. So if your phrase is 'gardening books' then your directory name will be 'gardening_books' and therefor your URL for your new page will be, http://www.yourdomain.com/gardening_books/gardening_books.html Place your new page in this directory on your Web Server. Add a Link from your Homepage to your New Page.
This link shouldn't be just a few words with a hyper-link saying click here. Remember you want pages linking to your new page which are relevant to your keyword. Create a little paragraph ( about 30 words or so ) describing your page and including your keyword at least once if not twice. The heading of this paragraph should be your new page's title ( which naturally includes your keyword ) and this text should link to your new page. If you must have a 'click here' then place this link (in addition to the title link) at the end of this paragraph.
This whole paragraph should be placed near the top of your home page ( doesn't have to be at the very top, but certainly shouldn't be the last on your page).
This has done several things, it means that your page is now linked to from a page which not only mentions the keyword in the link but also in the text of that page. Secondly it means that your new page can now be found by Spidering, Not Submitting. ( Spidered pages tend to rank higher than Submitted ones.) Incorporate Your Page in the rest of your Site.
Becoming of increasing importance is the 'Theme' of your site. No longer is your page judged on it's own merits, but the other pages within your site are scanned for the existence of your keyword. So take the paragraph (with links) that you just added to the homepage and add this same pages to several other pages within your web site. This way you will establish a theme for this keyword / phrase that runs throughout your site. Update your Plan.
In your plan add your Page Title and Page URL to the Pages and URL's section. Also add the following on the next line, Page Optimized for Keywords / Phrase : [ insert your keywords / phrases here ]
For an example plan containing our details for TrafficFile click here. Finally, let your Page be Spidered.
Pages which get added to a search engine's spider program tend to rank higher than those that are submitted. Why ? We are not sure, but they do. So if your homepage isn't in a search engine database then submit this, but Not your New Page.
( To see how to check whether your home page is in a search engine database and how to submit if not see the next section Submitting ). This is only the Beginning.
If you have got this far then well done. We don't mean to sound condescending, we know how difficult the above is and so we do really mean Well Done ! However search ranking is not an exact science and you don't see the results immediately. To see the full results of this process you may now have to wait anything from a few weeks to six months. Remember one factor is the age of your page in a Search Engine Database, so if at first it doesn't appear that high, don't necessarily rush to change ( unless you realize there is something you have obviously missed ) but rather let it age a few months and see if moves up the rankings. After some time has passed you should see the result, do a search for your keyword or phrase and find your page in the results. If your not right at the top don't worry. Take a look at the top five ( non paid for ) results and compare the various sections described above to your page. Try and establish any differences you see and possibly make small adjustments. Leave the page some more time ( a couple more months ) and re-evaluate the page. Repeat this exercise over and over and watch your ranking climb over time. Help is at Hand
As you can see this is a very long and complex process. This is good news for you, because if it was easy, everybody could do it and there would simply be too much competition. However most people give up leaving the way clear for you. There is help at hand, a piece of software which speeds up this process and takes out a lot of the guess work. Here are just a few of the benefits that we find invaluable, - Analyze your pages against your chosen keywords / phrases.
- Gives Search Specific Advice on how to exactly improve your page
for your keywords / phrases. - Discover the differences between your page and your competitors,
thus enabling you to match and then move ahead of them. - Reports your position on your pages for your chosen keywords /
phrases and details the change over time. - Gives you New information every month on how the search engines
appear to be ranking pages. This information is really powerful.
This piece of software is really a must have, performing many of the tasks above and providing you with information that otherwise would be unobtainable ( secrets of the Search Engines ).
But don't take our word for it, you can download a Free Trial without any Obligation. To obtain your Free Copy click here. Warning
Now that you have seen how much time and knowledge ( that you now posses ) required to craft your page correctly you may be tempted to go to an organization which offers to do all this work for you. You know the type of ad I'm talking about, " Let us Optimize your Page and submit to 300,000 search engines - Prices from $50" Well ask yourself this, how can anyone do all of the above for only $50 and still make a profit ? The answer is they can't, and there is no piece of software which can automate the full process. The Fact is, you get what you pay for, at most for $50 you will get your Meta Keywords and Meta description updated and have your page placed in 300,000 or so 'Classified Free Pages'. As you have seen, this at a best will have a minimal effect and probably will not result in any additional visitors. Worse still, some of these services will submit your pages on a weekly basis ( via automated software ). Some Search Engines view this as 'spamming' and will at best push your site down the rankings and at worst ban your site from their index ! If you want to pay someone else to do it for you then you should be prepared to spend at least $1,000 per page. But before parting with your cash, use the above information to thoroughly question them and make sure they perform every aspect we talk about here. If they don't walk away and find someone who will do the job properly. If you do wish to find an organization to do all of this for you, then a good place to start would be 1st Search Ranking. Although we haven't used their services we have thoroughly questioned them on their procedures and if we were looking to outsource this aspect of our business, these are the people we would trust. As you will see they perform all of the above correctly and they offer you a Cast Iron Guarantee ' Top 10 ranking on popular keywords or your Money Back'.
Basically you can't loose, you either get the search engine position you need or your Money Back !
For full details of this service click here.
Remember this isn't cheap but it is a Quality Service that will give you Results. | 
