Web Page Optimization – 9 Surefire Strategies

With the flood of retail marketers and the thousands of 'make money online' hopefuls scattered about the internet, the competition for high search engine ranking is fierce.   Anyone who has put up a website within the last few years can certainly relate. 

Since the search engines rank web pages and not websites it's important to get each page optimized correctly from the very beginning, particularly the pages that you expect to generate the most sales.  Of course there are differing opinions on what works in today's internet environment, just check in with your favorite search engine forum, there are enough opinions and advice to confuse and frustrate anyone.   

However there are a few basic practices that have not changed, they are the ones that make the most sense for what web surfers and the search engines are looking for.

Let's take a look:

1. Keep your Pages Tightly Focused
A common mistake that most webmasters make is to combine unrelated products on a single page. We often see this practice on home pages in particular. 

Use your home page should be an introduction to the rest of your website. Don't load it with several different ideas, this confuses visitors.  Instead use your home page to accurately describe what your site is about and what visitors can expect to find.  Allow your visitors to use your navigation bar as a way for them to find exactly what they are looking for.  Hint:  Good organization within your navigation is important.

2. Keyword Research
Whether you use a paid or free keyword research tool, do your research!  Your goal is to find precisely the keywords that people use to find your web pages and a good keyword research tool will help you know exactly what keywords web surfers are using to find your information and products. 

Additionally don't settle on using a single keyword; strive to find descriptive keyword phrases or long tail keywords.  This will bring you more targeted visitors, the ones that are the most likely to buy.   
 
3. Optimize your Title and Description Tags Carefully
Your title tag should be an accurate title of your page's topic. It should also contain your best keyword phrase for that specific page.

Your page description should also contain your title's main keyword phrase; however expand the description to include a concise and comprehensive summary of what the page is actually about. This description is often what the search engines use when listing your page so it's what viewers will read before deciding if your site is what they are looking for, therefore, it needs to not only be accurate it must be compelling so as to encourage a click.

4. Be sure each web page has relevant, unique, useful content
Because Google is committed to bringing their viewers the most relevant and unique pages, it's in your best interest to create content that is original and useful.  Use your creative verbal skills to generate a voice that is uniquely you but also offers information that is interesting and worthwhile. 

Try telling stories, portraying experiences, interjecting personal commentary and offering your own individual suggestions. This all goes a long way to helping to create the kind of content that generates traffic.

5. Make good use of Headers, Sub Headers and Headline Tags
Place headers on your pages and then use sub-headers below that.  Your header should also contain your main keyword phrase and your sub-header should expand on that phrase.  

Also when using headers be sure to use header (H1, H2 or H3) Tags.  A headline tag is formatted in this way:

 <H1>Headline</H1> (with the number in the tags (h1, h2, h3, h4) corresponding with size of the font)

6. Use synonyms and Word Forms 
Because search engines such as Google have begun using 'Latent Semantic Indexing' (LSI), it is wise to use as many synonyms and word forms of your main keyword phrases as possible. Simply put LSI is a technique the search engines use in determining efficiency, accuracy and relevancy of a web page, therefore using synonyms and word forms help the search engines in determining how relevant your page is to its topic.

For example, synonyms for the word 'soft' might be 'downy', 'cottony' 'fluffy’ or ‘mushy’. 

Word forms for the word 'soft' would be softly, soften, softness, softer. 

7. Name Your Page with the Page's Keyword Phrase
It simply makes sense to name each page with its keyword phrase.  It also gives the viewer and the search engines a good idea of what the page is about.  A web page about 'educational toys' would most accurately be called:

www.yoursite.com/educational_toys.html

8. Use ALT tags for your graphics
Use your main keyword phrase in your graphics alt tag.  Search engines can't read graphics so using an alt tag gives them one more piece of information on how relevant your page is.

Don't abuse this strategy by using a lot of graphics and stuffing them with several keyword phrases, the search engines won’t tolerate that; however one or two graphics with your main keyword phrase in the alt text will be appropriate.

9. Get Quality Incoming Links to Your Site
Your links appearing on high quality web sites is what effectively weaves you into the World Wide Web. However this strategy is far more effective when your links are placed on high ranking, relevant web sites.

Start by accurately linking to your web pages within your own site. Your most important links should be on all your pages.

Next, encourage relevant sites to link to your site. The 'reciprocal link exchange' method has been popular in past years, however this method has lost its ability to provide much benefit.  Instead adopt more reliable methods such as:

- Posting or exchanging articles that contain a resource box with your best keyword phrases
– Submitting your site to relevant directories
– Publishing press release
– Participating in discussion forums
– Offer product testimonials

Using the above webpage optimization strategies will no doubt bring you an increase in traffic for your chosen keywords.  Best of luck with your optimization efforts – the results are very rewarding!

Tagged as: SEO & SEM