Often Overlooked Keyword Options

Fri, Nov 6, 2009

Conversion Rates, Traffic

   Written by: Eric Gerds

Often Overlooked Keyword Options
Fifth in a series of articles on SEO and website marketing appearing every Thursday.
The next time that you are looking at a web page, go up to the menu at the top of your browser and find the View pull down menu and from that select Source or Page Source.  What will pop up is another window with the real code which makes up the web page.   This is the page which all search engines look at when they are appraising and ranking a webpage; not the pretty page that you normally view.
Because search engines look at the code rather than the finished page there are more options for keywords that can help increase a website’s ranking.  Beyond the body of the website which makes up the majority of the webpage — the focus of most people when it comes to keywords, there are a few other locations that can be used for keywords that won’t make your page look any different to human visitors.
Page title
One of the most overlooked spots for keyword placement is the title of the webpage. This is the text that appears at the top of the web browser frame.  Many companies leave this blank or just have their company’s name at the top.   A short sentence with one or two main keywords for a title can really increase a website ranking.   Be careful not go to long with the title because titles over 60 characters will become truncated and not seen by humans.
It is recommended that a different title is used for each page of the site. Not only will this add variety to the site, and allow for easier navigation, it will also increase the number of different keywords that can be found throughout the site.  This will increase the likelihood of the site being found by a larger pool of people looking for your product.
Alt tags
One of the most under utilized tags is the ALT.   The alt tag is the text given to images.  On many web browsers if you place your mouse over an image and you see a box with text in it, then you are looking at an alt tag.  This is also the text that will show up if the image can not be found, or doesn’t load completely.
Since the alt tag can be read by search engines (while images can’t), a short description with strategically placed keywords can help increase site rankings.  Not only will this help with the general web page search but it will also increase the ranking on the Google Images sub-search.  Without an alt tag the images will not show up at all on a Google Image search.
Meta tags – yes or no?
Also placed in the code are the Meta Tags.  Now Meta tags are currently going though a great deal of controversy and if computer geeks got into bar room brawls this topic would certainly start one.  It is generally agreed that Google no longer uses Meta Tags for ranking and a badly designed Meta Tag will count against a webpage on Google.  However, other search engines still use them.
Like all contents of a webpage, Meta Tags should be just as carefully designed as the rest of the site.  While they don’t help specifically with Google they are still a very viable tool because they are helpful with other search engines.  Also remember that a blanket Meta Tag – a tag which is the same on every single page should be avoided.   Just like page titles Meta Tags should be customized for each page.
What about other things placed on a website such as flash, sound and links? These do not have a real impact on search engines at this time.  The new version of flash does create some Meta tags to be search, but at this point that is too early to know what impact this will have on Google Ranking.
Next week: Using the right tool for the job.
Technorati Tags: SEO, keywords, meta, alt, webpage, website

This article was first published  October 31, 2008 on the Tatum Marketing blog

Fifth in a series of articles on SEO and website marketing appearing every Thursday.

The next time that you are looking at a web page, go up to the menu at the top of your browser and find the View pull down menu and from that select Source or Page Source.  What will pop up is another window with the real code which makes up the web page.   This is the page which all search engines look at when they are appraising and ranking a webpage; not the pretty page that you normally view.

Because search engines look at the code rather than the finished page there are more options for keywords that can help increase a website’s ranking.  Beyond the body of the website which makes up the majority of the webpage — the focus of most people when it comes to keywords, there are a few other locations that can be used for keywords that won’t make your page look any different to human visitors.

Page title

One of the most overlooked spots for keyword placement is the title of the webpage. This is the text that appears at the top of the web browser frame.  Many companies leave this blank or just have their company’s name at the top.   A short sentence with one or two main keywords for a title can really increase a website ranking.   Be careful not go to long with the title because titles over 60 characters will become truncated and not seen by humans.

It is recommended that a different title is used for each page of the site. Not only will this add variety to the site, and allow for easier navigation, it will also increase the number of different keywords that can be found throughout the site.  This will increase the likelihood of the site being found by a larger pool of people looking for your product.

Alt tags

One of the most under utilized tags is the ALT.   The alt tag is the text given to images.  On many web browsers if you place your mouse over an image and you see a box with text in it, then you are looking at an alt tag.  This is also the text that will show up if the image can not be found, or doesn’t load completely.

Since the alt tag can be read by search engines (while images can’t), a short description with strategically placed keywords can help increase site rankings.  Not only will this help with the general web page search but it will also increase the ranking on the Google Images sub-search.  Without an alt tag the images will not show up at all on a Google Image search.

Meta tags – yes or no?

Also placed in the code are the Meta Tags.  Now Meta tags are currently going though a great deal of controversy and if computer geeks got into bar room brawls this topic would certainly start one.  It is generally agreed that Google no longer uses Meta Tags for ranking and a badly designed Meta Tag will count against a webpage on Google.  However, other search engines still use them.

Like all contents of a webpage, Meta Tags should be just as carefully designed as the rest of the site.  While they don’t help specifically with Google they are still a very viable tool because they are helpful with other search engines.  Also remember that a blanket Meta Tag – a tag which is the same on every single page should be avoided.   Just like page titles Meta Tags should be customized for each page.

What about other things placed on a website such as flash, sound and links? These do not have a real impact on search engines at this time.  The new version of flash does create some Meta tags to be search, but at this point that is too early to know what impact this will have on Google Ranking.

Next week: Using the right tool for the job.

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