Saturday, February 12, 2011

Search Engine Optimization = SEO "The SEO Waltz"


Search Engine Optimization = SEO
SEO FUNDAMENTALS - EASY TO UNDERSTAND SEO GUIDELINES
CHAPTER 1 - THE SEO WALTZ
by CountryGraphics.BIZ


There is a considerable amount of support available on SEO. It can consume your time and you can spend somewhere between hundreds to thousands of dollars on SEO consultants. I have put together a few easy to understand SEO fundamental guidelines.

The good thing is that you can do fundamental SEO work that will increase the traffic flow to your website pages. Search engines fetch free traffic to all sites, but most sites are not optimized to take advantage of this free service. Stick to the fundamental SEO steps provided in this article, and you'll be on your way to increased traffic to your website's pages.

PAGE ACCESSIBILITY
It is crucial that every page have a unique URL.
Do not use drop down flash menus for your navigation, the search engines can't read them.
Do not use the new CSS drop down menus at this time, you could be scrutinized as a spammer.
JavaScript should only be used for enhancement and not a requirement for the page to display important subject matter information.

THE TITLE META TAG & HEADING 1 TAG
MUST WORK WITH ONE ANOTHER

The page title is the headline in search results, the title words must reflect the page's content. It is useless to have redundant titles and non descriptive wording in the title tag. The page title meta tag is the most essential element on your pages. This wording appears in the browser's tile bar.

There are different beliefs on the amount of characters one should use in a title tag. Major search engines generate from 65 - 70 characters in the headline search results, but the major search engine are always updating their title tag character guidelines.
The title should begin with the key phrase subject matter, and can be followed by the name of the site.

Always keep the subject matter as the main focus. Include as many keywords and keyword phrases as needed to describe the page's subject matter, but try to keep the characters down to 70.

The title tag should be unique for each page on your site, it is essential to reflect the wording that is in the h1 Header Tag /h1 of each page.
The requisite here is to insure the title tag and the headerh1tag, must use the same keyword phrases that describes the page's subject matter.
Making sure this step is taken, will reinforce better search engine results and more traffic to your site.

The h1 to h6 tags are used to define HTML headings. h1 defines the most important heading. h6 defines the least important heading. Your h1 tag  should contain keywords and keyword phrases that represent the pages main subject matter. The h1 tag should be the first words that describe your subject matter on each page. Common h1 tag mistakes are: the page has no h1 tag, the h1 tag is in 
p tags or other tags, h1 tags aren't explicit enough to describe the subject matter on the page. Make sure that your page begins with an h1 tag. The h1 tag does not need to be visually huge in the largest font. (See more about Tag descriptions at the bottom of page)

THE META DESCRIPTION TAG
The meta description tag meta name="DESCRIPTION" content=" YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE"  is also important. The description tag should be 150 characters long, because this is what fits into most major search engine listings. Characters over 150 are discarded or concealed. The description tag is an introduction that promotes your pages subject matter. The description tag should be written for your audience and not for the search engines. However, it is beneficial to include your targeted keywords, since the search engine will highlight them and this draws your audience to your search engine listing.

THE KEYWORDS META TAG
There are strong attitudes about the keywords meta tag. BE HAPPY DON'T WORRY is the main theme. Because of the immense abuse of meta keyword tags, the dominant search engine " Google" ignores them. Other search engines use them, but most SEO consultants theorize that you sacrifice little by ignoring them. I still use the keyword meta tags in my web design practices. I do not spam and I follow the old guidelines. We all agree at this point in time that the most important places to use your targeted keywords are in your page's title, h1, and body.


SEO WALTZ CONCLUSION
I call the above steps the SEO Waltz. If you follow the steps above with grace and balance it will bring you satisfaction and rewards.
Do not word spam, be honest and use good judgment when creating the title and h1 tags.

If you create first-class tags you will not be punished by the major search engines, but instead you will be rewarded with increased traffic to your site's pages.

HTML TAG DESCRIPTIONS EXPLAINED
The above tag descriptions p and body used in above statements are further explained here. Differences Between HTML and XHTML are none!

p html tag: The p tag defines a paragraph.  The p  tag automatically creates space before and after itself. The space is automatically applied by the browser, or you can specify the amount of space in a style sheet.

body html tag: The 
body tag defines the document's body. The body tag contains all the contents of an HTML document, such as text, hyperlinks, images, tables, lists, etc.

HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language, is the language used to build web pages

PARSABLE means able to be parsed. The word "parse" means to analyze an object specifically. It simple terms it's a method of reading code and delivering it to the web server in a readable format.

META TAGS OR METADATA IS INFORMATION ABOUT DATA
The < meta > tag provides metadata about the HTML document. Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but will be machine parsable.
Meta elements are typically used to specify page description, keywords, author of the document, last modified, and other metadata.
The < meta > tag always goes inside the head element.
The metadata can be used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), or other web services.



To learn more about html visit http://www.w3schools.com


Don't have the time to do your own SEO
PCC Website Design and we will quote you a price
Phone: 618-585-3634
 
Kiss website design icon Kiss Web Design
"The only way to grow competently is to share knowledge."  Kind regards, JP





COUNTRY GRAPHICS COMMENTS
COUNTRY GRAPHICS
www.CountryGraphics.BIZ

3 comments:

Unknown said...

This is good information. I am glad to read such a nice content. Keep sharing more. Good luck! :)

affordable seo services

Unknown said...

Thanks for such a simple yet SWEET idea! I’m enjoying playing with my punches right now…thanks for

Website Designers Virginia

blogcenter said...

Great post and thanx for sharing web design Ottawa