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Titles, Tags and Links
Identifying your webpages for the search engines
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Webpage titles should be descriptiveIn your HTML coding, you should always provide a descriptive title for your web pages. They should reflect what's on that particular page. Don't use the same title on all the site's web pages. Some search engines read just the title tag and if all of them say the same thing then those pages will not show up in a normal search.Most people type in what they are looking for such as graphics, cars, design, quilts, etc. Very few will type in your exact website name and even fewer would type in the entire title. You must be specific with your titles, tags and links to attract more visitors. For example, if one of the pages in this website was titled ''Graphic Designs'', that page would be called up if someone typed in either graphics or designs.
Webpage titles and search engine optimizationMake no mistake placing the appropriate titles on each and every one of your webpages is one of the most important steps in optimizing a website. When the search engine spiders crawl your website they index the titles of your webpages routinely. If the titles of your webpages are not descriptive of their content you lose credibility and your rankings will suffer. |
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Meta keywords and description tagsThe META tags are very important, too. The keywords and description tags provide another way for search engines to find your website. There are those who subscribe to ''the more keywords, the better'' and there is some validity to that. If you have a large site with a huge amount of content, you would want to list all the keywords that described that content.Don't overdo your meta keywordsHowever, search engines also rank and list web sites in order of relevancy to the search parameters. If two sites have ''web design '' listed as one of their key words and someone types in ''web design'', both sites will show up in the search listing. But, the site with 15 key words will be listed higher than the site with 150 key words because it will be seen as more relevant. One in 15 is a much better ratio than one in 150! But, be sure that your keywords are relevant or the search engine may see them as spam.Don't neglect your meta tagsMany webmasters downplay the importance of meta tags since, due to spamming, many search engines have reduced their importance. However, meta tags are never completely ignored and there are some search sites that still consider them very important. Don't neglect your meta tags!Linking to other web sitesThere are very few web sites that do not link to another site. It is the very nature of the Internet. The links you provide on your pages should be more than just a list of names. Do research and then tell visitors something about the linked site - why you like it and what they will find there. Providing supporting text to your links will help the search engines index them and that means better rankings.Types of linksThe best type of link is one from a website that ranks higher, (i.e. page rank) than your own. If they have a link to your site this will increase your credibility with the search engines. An even better scenario is one where a website that ranks higher than yours links to you but you don't link back. This one way linking is the most potent methods of website optimization but, it is also the most difficult to achieve.Establish reciprocal links to other websitesReciprocal linking is the most common type of link strategy. This is where you link to a website and, in turn, they link back to you. Link farms and other spammers have caused this type of link to lose importance with the search engines but, they still carry some weight.
 Reciprocal linking diagram |
Link to related contentBe sure that the websites you link to share a common subject matter with your own. If you link to a website that is not related, in content, to your website it can hurt your ranking with the search engines. Look for quality websites that correspond to your website's subject matter and link to these.You should let the site owner/webmaster know you are providing a link to their site. This is considered good netiquette and often results in them providing a link back to your web pages.
The more people you have linking to your site, the better. It helps increase your website traffic and your position in the search engines.
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