What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization is the process of achieving top rankings in the search engines for a Web site's most relevant search terms. The most relevant search terms are the phrases that people are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for what the Web site has to offer.

Most people think of search engine optimization (SEO) as too confusing and simply beyond their ability. Improving search engine rankings does necessitate some basic knowledge and a search engine optimization specialist may be needed, but, many Web sites can achieve top rankings by applying just the SEO basics which can be learned in less than a few hours. It is advised to try basic SEO before paying an expensive expert as, oftentimes; the basics are all that's needed.

Consider the information below to be advice, and advice only, which we have assembled based on both experience and research. Please note that all search engines are constantly changing. The only way to keep your Web site at a proper place of search results is to provide content that people are both interested in and are looking for.

Choosing your Domain Name

While cutesy domain names are fun, they will not help you get better rankings with search engines, therefore will not help bring viewers to your site. Make sure when choosing a domain name that you include what you are selling, or what your service is.

Validating your HTML/CSS

As browsers evolve, they come closer to supporting the standard HTML/XHTML/CSS as written by the W3C. If you are writing non-standard HTML, there is a chance that your Web pages will no longer view correctly, or view at all in newer browser versions. And unless you know for a fact that your entire audience is using a specific browser, you are setting your site up to not view properly in ALL browsers. By having a site that validates, you can be reasonably assured that your site is viewable by everyone, regardless of browser or operating system. You can validate your HTML at validator.w3.org/ and your CSS at jigsaw.w3.org.

For your HTML to validate, you must include the DOCTYPE at the beginning of your HTML. The example below is for the latest version of HTML.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

You must also include the HTTP-equiv meta tag to set the character set for the document. The example below is for a typical HTML document.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

Choosing your Keywords

• A research done by Entireweb states 31% of people enter 2 word phrases into search engines, 25% of all users look for 3 word combinations and only about 19% of them try their luck with only a single word.
• Do not choose a keyword that nobody looks for.
• Do not choose a keyword that does not relate strongly enough to your content.
• Only use generally popular keywords if you do not need targeted traffic.
• Do not use words that may get your site filtered or banned from search engines.
• Only use dynamic pages when the functionality demands it.
• Use lots of relevant content, well laid out into separate pages.
• Do not post half-finished sites.

The <title> Tag

• The title should not be any longer than 70-100 characters, including spaces. (Google - DMOZ)
• The title should not be any longer than 60 characters. (scrubtheweb.com)
• The title should not begin with the domain name. It is often considered as spam.
• The domain name shouldn't be repeated in the title. It is often considered as spam.
• Do not use the same filename as the title tag, or the same filename as the domain name. It is often considered as spam.

The Description Meta Tag

• Shouldn't be any longer than 25-30 words (DMOZ).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 100 characters (Google).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 150 characters (scrubtheweb.com).

The Keywords Meta Tag

• Shouldn't be any longer than 268 characters (AltaVista).
• You should not use words that are not present in the body of the page.
• Redundant characters will not hurt overall results, however words after the first 300 characters rarely do any good.
• Separate keywords with a space or comma. Most search engines use either character as the separator.
• You may use phrases as well.
• You should not use any word, not even within phrases more than 3 times. It is often considered as spam.

The Robots Meta Tag and robots.txt File

The Robots Meta Tag is used to control how search engines spider your site. Most sites contain directories and pages that should not be indexed by the search engines. Administrative pages or databases are just two examples. The robots.txt file will tell the search engine spider to ignore them. You will need to include the robots.txt file as well as adding the meta tag.

Other Meta Tags

There are dozens of Meta Tags that are in use on the Web today, however most have little or no real value. See The Top Meta Tags and the Title Tag for more information. Remember, the meta tags should ALWAYS be placed directly below the <title> tag on you Web page. Search engines will ignore them if placed elsewhere.

Content

• The text on the page should contain the keywords right at the beginning of the page.
• Do not overuse keywords. Neither keyword should take up more than 12-24% of the entire body text. It is often considered as spam.
• Do not use too much content right on the front page. Both loading time and redundancy of additional words used will reduce the chance of showing up in relevant searches.

Search Engine Basics

• Search engines that operate by funds generated by selling listings will not show your Web site within the results regardless of its relevance, unless you sign up for their service.
• You may be listed for free even on fee based search engines by getting your site listed on either of the directories the search engine company buys information from. However, such directories such as Yahoo.com and DMOZ.org are moderated based on relevance and content, thus getting listed on their Web sites may take some time and efforts.
• Most search engines rank your Web site by relevance, which is measured by the threshold of keywords.
• Some search engines, such as Google.com as well, will sort even relevant sites by their popularity, measuring the page rank by the actual links leading to the site. Also, the text or alt tag text accompanied with these links will influence the keywords the Web site is shown in the listings for.
• Some search engines will consider a Web site more and more popular when they are clicked on the results page. These include AltaVista.com.

Do everything you can

• Even though meta tags have been neglected by most major search engines, some of them still consider them when analyzing Web sites. Including them in the proper manner can only help, but will never hurt your position.
• When trying to trick search engines, you try to trick their creators, who are more than prepared to deal with this.
• Most search engines are updated at least annually to deal with the Web sites that found a way to deceive their systems. Most of the Web sites that have ever used such tactics get blacklisted.

Submitting to Search Engines

Once your site is ready, it is time to submit it to the major search engines. Although there are hundreds of search engines on the Internet, only a handful are truly important. The top three search engines are: Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Always submit your Web site manually instead of using any automated submission tool, because some search engines regard those as spam, and won't list your site. Keep in mind that it can take months before you get listed, so be patient. We also recommend submitting your site to DMOZ. Be warned though, it may take up to a year to get indexed!

Example of the basics

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>

<head>

<title>KD Web Page Design: web page design, eBay store design, HTML CSS tutorials</title>

<meta name="description" content="Web page design for family, business and nonprofit. Web page design for eBay sellers store design, template design, auction listing templates. PayPal Shopping Cart sites.">
<meta name="keywords" content="web page design web design tutorials HTML CSS auction listing creator paypal shopping cart sites ebay store listing auction templates design ebay business family ebay template">
<meta name="author" content="Ken and Diane Clark">
<meta name="copyright" content="2006 www.kdwebpagedesign.com">
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">
<meta name="language" content="en">
<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">

</head>

<body>

<h1>The Top Meta Tags and the Title Tag</h1>

<p>There are dozens of Meta Tags that are in use on the web today, however most have little or no real value. Below are what we consider the top Meta Tags and their proper use. We also included the Title Tag, even though it is not technically a Meta Tag it is one of the most important tags you will use on your Web page. Meta Tags should ALWAYS be placed directly below the &lt;title&gt; tag on you Web page. Search engines will ignore them if placed elsewhere.</p>

</body>

</html>

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