The SEO hints and tips you find here will not only show you how to optimize a web page properly, but also get you high Google listings and masses of free traffic. That is worth every penny you might spend on the right information.
You no doubt understand all the basic stuff, but in case you are new to this, let's first have look at these basic SEO hints and tips, since many seem to omit them from their web pages. The most important are the HTML tags that are used by search engines to determine the relevance of your page to the search term used by the search engine's customer.
Note the term 'web page', because many people don't realize that Google, along with most other search engines, doesn't list websites, but individual web pages. You have to understand how search engines calculate your listings if you are to understand how to optimize a web page.
I am going to refer to Google, not only because it is the biggest of the search engines, but also to save the bother of referring to search engines all the time. I will refer to Google, but what applies to them also applies to the rest. Here are the main SEO basics:
a) The TITLE tag. This appears in the HEAD portion of your html, and is not actually seen by your visitors but is the most important tag on your web page because the spiders place very high weight to it. Use your main keywords here, and also any other text that will inform Google of the theme of your web page.
b) Heading (H) tags. Your page title should be placed within H1 tags, and should contain the same major keyword as you used in the TITLE tag. Any subheadings should be contained within H2 tags. I don't use any of the lower tags, from H3 down, except perhaps H3 very occasionally. Google will regard any text with H tags as being important, with most weight given to the lower numbers. However, if you place everything in H1 tags, that will dilute its importance on your page and defeat the object.
c) Text enhancements: Use bold, italic and underline enhancements sparingly, and where you one again want to stress the importance of certain keywords.
d) Your keyword density should be concentrated in the first third of your web page. Don't use too many: I get good results with under 1% overall keyword density, but using the main keyword in the first 100 characters, once in the last paragraph and once more each 300 words but concentrated in the first third of the page. Thus, an 800 word page will have the keyword three times in the first 250 words and once in the last paragraph.
e) Meta tags: the only meta tag worth using is the description tag, which is used by most search engines in the description of your web page in their listings. Google mainly uses it exactly as you write it. The keyword tag can also be used, but few search engines are thought to use it: Google does not. Any other meta tags are a waste of your space. Anybody that claims differently is wanting to sell you something.
These are the basic hints on SEO, now here are some of the more advanced SEO hints and tips that will teach you not only how to optimize a web page, but to understand the way that search engines work. These are less obvious, and generally not used by beginners to search engine marketing.
f) Use text links to other pages on your website. Search engine spiders love text, and fancy graphics or java links might look great, but don't get you kudos from the spiders. Stick to text if you want a good listing: there's no point in fancy graphical links if you have no visitors to use them.
g) Try to use as much text as possible, and as little code as possible. Your code to text ratio should be minimized as far as possible because . . . yes, you've got it! Spiders love text!
h) Another useful SEO tip is to maximise your off page linking strategy. It is possible to get a #1 spot on Google with no content: just loads of links coming into your web page from other websites. Not just any websites, but authority sites, so reciprocal links to and from web pages not directly related to your niche are a waste of time, and can even harm you. Link farms can positively damage you.
i) Use anchor text for your links where at all possible. Google shouldn't have to work out what your web page is about: tell them. Hyperlink your keyword to your website, but don't use the same form of keyword from every webpage linking to yours. Mix them about so as to keep the links fresh.
j) And lastly: keep adding pages to your website. A single website containing 80 pages will likly provide you with more visitors that two of 40 pages due to a higher overall Google listing from the former as compared to both of the 40 page sites. Refresh your content frequently by adding new pages, but don't ignore your older pages: rdevise these now and again with new vocabulary. Google detests stagnation.
These are just a few SEO hints and tips that can teach you how to optimize a web page. There are many, many more. Some quite basic, others very much more advanced than the above. However, you can't get everything free!
