How to Optimize Your Website-For Beginners

Learn how to write your web pages to make them more attractive for the search engines.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A website that you control.
• Keywords.
• About two hours.

1. Optimize your page title. Use your most important keyword. Look at the URL for this web page. See the keyword? It's the first indicator about this page's subject matter. EXAMPLE: Your site is about pets. Your new page is all about dogs. "Dogs" is your most important keyword. Name your page “your-site-name.com/dogs.html”
2. Use your keyword in your title tag. Avoid filler words like of, or, the, and. They won't help your search engine rankings. Keep it simple and relevant. Don't use your URL in the title. It won't do you any good either. EXAMPLE: Dogs" is your most important keyword. Title your page- Dogs.
3. Optimize your keyword meta tag. Use your most important keyword first. Include five or six other relevant keywords. Separate them with commas. EXAMPLE: dogs, dog names, dog care, canine health, puppies
4. Now write your description meta tag. Keep it short, simple, and relevant with your page content. EXAMPLE: A to Z guide to dogs. Info on dog names, dog care, canine health, and puppies.
5. Optimizing your page content...
   (Use this checklist to SEO your page after it's written.)
   
   Use your most important keyword in the page heading.
   
   Use your keyword in bold once on your page, preferably near the top.
   
   Use your keyword as the first word in an active link once on your page.
   
   Use your keyword in the first and last paragraphs of your page.
   
   Use your other keywords at least one time.
   
   Limit the content of your page to no more than 1,400 words. If it needs to be bigger than that, split it in two. EXAMPLE: Page1,Page2

Tips & Warnings

• Make it a habit to perform an SEO check every time you complete a page.
• Don't stuff your page with your keyword. This will only get you penalized by the search engines for spamming. Use it 2 to 6 times, depending on the size of your page. Don't worry if you can't stick to all the SEO rules on every page. Concentrate your search engine optimization efforts on your most important pages. The spiders will find the rest when they visit your site!