By: Arnie Kuenn | Source: site-reference.com

In today’s world of Internet lingo, you may frequently hear the terms “keywords,” “search engine rankings,” and “keyword search results” bandied about. However, not everyone knows what keywords are, and how important they are to the success of a website.

Keywords are essentially words or phrases that summarize the topic of a site. When a Web surfer types a word or phrase into the blank field of a search engine such as MSN or Google, the search engine returns a list of related sites. Each site on this list is determined by the presence of the search terms, or keywords, in the site’s meta tags, image tags, and content.

Placing keywords strategically throughout your web pages will greatly improve your rankings in the search engines. Many sites, however, leave them out altogether so their site won’t get ranked at all. Inserting too many keywords in your web pages or repeating them too often, will result in your site getting banned from the search engines. This is called keyword spamming.

Keywords and Meta Tags
Meta tags are like a site’s “dog tags.” They identify the site’s title, description, and keywords. Meta tags are invisible to Web surfers, but they are instrumental in a search engine’s recognition of the site’s content.

Title Tags
A title tag gives the title of the Web page. A title should only be around six words long, and the primary keyword – the word or phrase that the site is primarily identified with – should be in this title tag. The closer to the beginning of the title the primary keyword is, the stronger the association with that keyword will be.

Description Tags
A Web page’s description tag provides the search engines with a summary of the content contained on the page. Once again, the primary keywords for this page should be contained in the description, as close to the beginning as possible. Description tags only allow 200 characters of text.

Keyword Tags
The keyword tag lists all of the keywords that can be associated with the Web page. The primary keyword used in the title and description tags should be first, followed by other keywords in order of importance and relevance. Although keywords can be separated by commas, they don’t have to be; however, keywords should not be repeated more than three times, lest the Web page be rejected by the search engines as spam. Between 800 and 1,000 characters are allowed for keyword text. Note: if you add a keyword phrase to your Keyword Tags, it must be found in the content on that page.

Here are some things to remember:
• Don’t use the same keyword more than 3 times.
• Use keywords that occur in your Title Tag and Description Tag.
• Use only 200 characters for all your keywords.
• Use different keywords for all your pages.
• Only use keywords that appear in the content on that page.
• Use lower case letters.
• Use the single and plural forms of your keywords.
• Use commas or spaces between your keywords or keyword phrases.

Keywords and Image Tags
Image tags are the text that shows up in place of an image, if the image fails to load for any reason. However, image tags serve a more important function: they allow the search engines to “read” your images. Without image tags, search engines have no way of interpreting your images. Therefore, image tags can also help boost the visibility and relevancy of your site to search engines.

Heading Tags
These tags hold separate topics between paragraphs and range from <H1>, which is very large and bold to <H6>, which is very small and bold. Your page heading <H1> should contain your most important keywords or keyword phrase.

Alt Tag
This tag is used to add text in place of the image. The user may have turned off reading the graphics to make the page load faster. Therefore he will read the ALT Tag text instead. Add short keyword rich text to your graphic links. Make sure the ALT text describes the link destination.

Hypertext Links
Include your keywords or keyword phrase in your link text.

Keywords and Web Page Content
The tags that you use on a Web page are important identifiers for search engines. However, in order to maintain a respectable search engine ranking, your Web page must establish relevancy. In other words, the keywords in your tags must pertain to the actual content on the page. Therefore, the same keywords you list in your tags must be used within the text your page displays.

The most important part of the content is the opening paragraph. The primary keyword – the keyword that was used in the title and description, and listed first in the keyword text – should be used several times in the first paragraph, and then occasionally throughout the rest of the page. Other, less important keywords can be used occasionally throughout the content, as well. This will indicate to the search engines that your page really is relevant to the keywords listed in your tags.

Another way to judge keywords is via a concept called “keyword density.” Keyword density shows the frequency at which a keyword is used. The density is calculated by taking the total number of words and dividing it into the number of times keywords appear in the text. The resulting number is multiplied by 100 to create a percentage. Keyword density can be a tricky business, however. Too low a density will fail to be noticed by the search engines, whereas too high a density can cause a Web page to be rejected as spam. Typically, a keyword density of around 3-5% is sufficient.

Content
Search Engine spiders put more weight on keyword rich content that is higher up on the page rather than in the middle or lower sections. Insert your keywords and keyword phrases in your text at least three times. Remember, search engines spiders will not index any area that is protected by a password.

The Importance of Keywords
Consumers are five times more likely to purchase your products after seeing search engine listings versus banners. Implementing these strategies mentioned, may not get you a number one ranking in the Search Engines, but you definitely have a distinct advantage over those Web Sites that have not done any optimizing.

Keywords are a vital part of the creation of Web pages because they directly affect how visible the page will be to search engine traffic. The presence of keywords needs to be a consideration in every aspect of designing a Web page: designing the tags as well as writing the content. Because of the impact keywords can have on the success of your site, it’s important to know how to use them properly.

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