Get High Search Engine Placement
By Making Web Pages
Search Engine FRIENDLY!

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Search Engine Placement

High search engine placement
is one part of your marketing strategy
that probably needs little introduction.

However, many marketers attempt to develop a strategy to "beat" the search engines. Well, there is a better alternative.

Why not develop a Web site that makes your pages search engine friendly?

If your Web pages are rich in content, search engines "want" to find you on searches for relevant keywords or phrases. (When we use the term keyword(s), it includes keyword phrases as well.)

A little tweak in the right places will greatly improve search engine placement, once you understand how the different engines conduct their searches.

And, that brings us to...

Why Use Meta Tags?

What's covered here will help you make some sense out of the different results you might get on searches, and how to select the right keywords to OPTIMIZE search engine placement.

You'll be able to adjust your search engine strategy when positioning your site for the different search engines.

When you VIEW the page source code of the top returns for searches for many keywords, you will discover something interesting. (Note: This function is disabled at some sites.)

Although many search engines use meta tags to rank sites submitted to them (or spidered), pages without meta tags can also score well in the results.

In the table below, we did a search on the keyword "home business" (without quotes) and viewed the page source code of the top 5 Web sites in the results on the search engines listed.

Here is what we discovered from the results at that time.

Keyword - home business

SEARCH ENGINE	META TAGS	NO META TAGS	FRAMES OR JAVASCRIPT
GOOGLE	3	1	1
YAHOO	3		2
MSN	4		1
AOL	3		2

One important thing to note about major search engine placement is that most of the algorithms used also take into account things like site popularity, and relevant links to your site from other sites.

Note the word "relevant", because more and more, search engines are finding ways to eliminate links to or through Free For All (FFA) sites or pages.

Although many search engines do not use meta tags, it is also important to note that there is little evidence pointing to meta tags hurting your chances to rank high.

However, with the engines that do use them, it will definitely help!

Special Note

With a lot of search engines, using too many terms in the KEYWORDS meta tag can actually hurt your chances for a good placement. In fact, you could be penalized for excessive use of KEYWORDS.

While writing the content for your Web pages, pay particular attention to the quality, quantity, and position of your keywords.

Optimize to make your Web pages
Search Engines FRIENDLY!

The following is a breakdown of the key elements needed to rank high with the major search engines. It includes the most important meta tags and more.

Page Title -- The title must include your most important keyword. This is the most vital ingredient for high search engine placement. Your page title should be 6-10 words (40-60 characters max) that will entice searchers to click-through to your Web page. Use your keyword (or some variation of it) no more than twice in the Title, and never back-to-back.

The Title IS NOT a meta tag!
Page Description (Meta Tag) -- This meta tag is used by many search engines to index your Web site. Include your keywords no more than 2-3 times in a 20-30 word description of your Web page (around 120-160 characters max). This description is what will show up in most search engine results for your page, so make sure it's written well enough to get the click.
Keywords (Meta Tag) -- This meta tag is probably the most MISUNDERSTOOD meta tag used today. Every Web page should focus on no more than 2 or 3 keywords. These are the words and phrases that should show-up in the Keyword Meta Tag. The words and phrases in this section must also be on the page itself, not just in the Title and Description.
Headline Tags -- Search engines assume that headlines (coded <H1>, <H2>, etc. in HTML) have greater importance over normal text. Use your keywords in these areas whenever practical.
Page Content -- The first 250 words on the page are probably the most important to the search engines. In this area, starting with the lead paragraph, the concentration of keywords is most important. Then, sprinkle your main keywords throughout the rest of the page to add balance.

Be cautious in your attempts score high, because you must also maintain readability and good flow to create a strong message to the reader.

There is no magic number of words or phrases. The key to high placement is a solid message, loaded with great content and keyword concentration.

SPECIAL NOTE: For the search engines that DO NOT use meta tags, the first words on your page will usually be displayed as the description under the Title. Make them count!
Other Key Areas -- There are several other areas that will influence high search engine placement.
- Links To Your Site -- Your Web page can gain higher relevance with search engines if you have other sites that link back to your Web site. This is becoming more and more important to search engines. If possible, trade links with other content-related sites.
- Links From Your Site -- By having links to other Web sites with information related to your site content, search engines will oftentimes give higher relevance to your site.
- Text Links vs. Graphic Links -- Even when you use graphics to link to other sites or pages, add a text link as well. Work-in your keywords whenever practical. If it makes sense for your site, opt for text links over graphics.
- Alt-Tags -- Because some graphic files load slowly, the Alt-Tag will allow your viewer to see a description of the graphic while it loads. Include your keywords in the Alt-Tag graphic description whenever it makes sense.

Ranking high in search engine placement is not an impossible task. However, you should realize that for the most popular keywords, there is a tremendous amount of competition.

My suggestion is to work the fringes, and find those keywords that are perhaps a little less popular, but still have good traffic potential. You will be amazed at how easy it is to score high with the right keywords.

A Final Note About
Search Engine Placement

Another great tool that will help with high ranking is Doorway Pages. Use our mini-course on Doorway Pages to launch your campaign, if this interests you.

Our mini-course on Pay-Per-Click Advertising also covers (in detail) how to find good high quality in-demand keywords.

But there's one more thing that will really help you with the search engines... VALID HTML CODE!

Few Webmasters actually validate their code,
if it looks good... they assume it's OKAY!

To take HTML/CSS code validation to the next level, go to W3C Markup Validation Service (will open new window) and use their free online validation software. Search engines will love you for it.

This concludes our course on
Web Marketing Strategy
and Web Site Development.

Hope you had as much FUN reading this material as I had writing it for YOU!

I'm Here to Help

I provide you with lots of information about Web marketing at this Web site. If you have any questions that have been unanswered, feel free to fill out the "Contact Skip" form and I'll personally reply with the answer and make suggestions about how to use the Internet to benefit your business.

I LOVE spreading the word about Web Marketing! ;-)

Contact Skip here...

Best regards,

Wishing you my very best! -- SKIP