3. Polish & Optimize Text
The text on your home page is crucial to maintaining the
attention of fresh viewers. In fact, copy is so important
that many companies prefer to have a professional copy
writer create the content. Since this is not an option,
you have to keep your text engaging as well as smartly
optimized to present an obvious topic to the visiting
search engine spiders or visitors. To do this, keep your
mind focused on the keyword(s) that you have chosen to
target on the search engines while you write the content
for the page. Implement the keywords within the text
without sacrificing the true intent of the information –
to engage and retain your viewers.
Important Note: Often the first 25-30 words of your home page
are what the each search engine will use for the description of
your web site. Try to utilize your target keyword/s within this
area but be certain the resulting sentence is legible and
descriptive.
4. Optimize the Title
The title of the home page can be optimized quite simply by
placing the keyword or keyword phrase that you have chosen to
target first and then finish with the name of your company or
web site. For example:
”BMW Car Sales – MyBMW.com”
The search engines place a great deal of weight in the title of
your home page and the keywords within your title will likely be
chosen as the title of your listing on the search engines. The
title also plays a huge role in the relevance of your site. The
topic denoted within your title will be compared to the content
within the body of the page, if the topic and content match, you
will have a much better chance of obtaining higher targeted
placements.
5. META Tags
The META tags located within the invisible source of your web
page. They were originally designed to provide the details of
your web site to visiting search engine spiders and they still
do, to a degree. Since this part of your web page is invisible,
META tags were increasingly used to misinform the search engines
of the content of a web site – spamming. As a result, META tags
play a lesser role but they should still be properly optimized
so that they contribute to the topical relevance of your web
site.
META tags are basically composed of the Description and Keyword
tags. The description tag should provide the same or similar
25-30 word description of your web site that you created earlier
for the first text within your visible page. The description is
occasionally used as your description within the search engines
but it is unpredictable. The Keyword tag should include the
keywords/phrases that you are targeting in order of importance.
Start with the most important and then proceed to less important
but still relevant keywords. It is extremely important that you
do not repeat any word more than 3 times within the Keyword tag.
This includes words within target sentences. Also do not place
repeated keywords close together.
6. Navigation… Provide Clear Paths
Is the navigation within your site entirely graphical or
programming oriented? In this case I recommend that you create a
textual link menu at the bottom of your page. For added punch
(and this is a big hit) you should make each link count by using
the keyword/phrase that best describes the target page. For
example:
BMW Accessories | Used BMW for Sale | More About MyBMW.com
versus these less powerful links:
Accessories | Used Cars | About Us
7. Test and Spell-Check
Preview the page and spell check it then once you are certain
everything is properly balanced, upload it to your server.
Hurry Up and Wait
What happens now is entirely up to the history of your web site
and your marketing budget. There are many search engines that
offer paid submission for the regular or prompt indexing of your
new page/web site. If you have paid for prompt indexing then you
may see the fruits of your labor within a couple of days
depending on the search engine.
In this case I am going to assume that you have a non-existent
search engine budget. If your site has already been submitted to
the search engines then you can simply wait until a spider
returns to check for new content, at which time your new it will
be found and processed accordingly. If you wish this process to
proceed post-haste or your site has not yet been submitted, then
you may submit your newly revised page to the search engines for
what may be a faster response time. Be sure to read the rules
that each search engine carefully defines before submitting or
resubmitting your web page.
By Ross Dunn, CEO (ross@stepforth.com)
StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc
