Optimize Pages with Keyword Targeting

The perfect way to optimize your pages would be to use keywords. For the experienced SEO professional, some of the keyword targeting can come with experience and with some intuitive knowledge. They are also much more prepared for the extensive testing, correlation-based analysis and data points that can support keyword targeting.

Keyword targeting can further be improved with constant refinement and testing. The best optimization strategy for pages is to use targeted keywords in the form of single words and phrases. The keywords and phrases should have the same context. An example would be a car engine, car and engine. Included in the optimization should be an image with an alternative attribute such as: car engine.

Optimization with Tags for Keyword Targeting

Your page optimization should include several tags.

The HTML Head Tags

• This would include the title tag. The title tag is where you would introduce the keyword or phrase for the first time. In terms of correlation-based analysis, this keyword or phrase correlates with high page rankings.
• The use of the Meta description in which to place the keyword phrase or term will assist your click-through rate. This will increase your traffic rate as well. In the search results, your Meta description (that contains your keyword phrase or term) is seen in bold in the search display.
• The Meta keywords are also important although these are mainly for the discovery of your website and not necessarily for rankings. Hence, these keywords are not a necessity. Thus, SEO companies often exclude them from optimization.
• If your do employ Meta robots, you should be cautious not to include directions that could disallow search engines to have access to your site.
• If it is quite large you should avoid any duplication, it is best for your site to make use of the canonical URL tag (Rel=”Canonical”)

The Body Tags

What you should do with the body tags is the following:

• The body should contain a number of the keywords and phrases in such a way that it fits perfectly into the context of the content. You should place it in the content so that it is easy to read.
• You should consider keyword density, as this is a possible way of improving your ranking. However, keyword density is not part of the algorithmic component either.
• Keyword variation also does not have a real influence, but it is worth the effort to do this as it can contribute to the optimization of your pages. These keyword variations can come from the root phrase and be split as in the example already used (An example would be: car engine, car and engine).
• In tests, the headline tags as well as the subheading tags showed very little correlation with the ranking of pages. If the H1 headline has very little correlation, the H2, H3 and H4 headlines have even lower correlation to high rankings. Thus, it is not necessary to include it in your SEO targeting.
• As mentioned before, images are important and can be helpful in page ranking, especially with the alt attribute. If the alt attribute has the keyword or phrase attached to the img tag, it definitely carries weight in obtaining high ranking.
• What would further add to a higher ranking is to make the keyword or phrase the file name for the image.
• If you make the keyword bold/strong or italic/emphasized, it does not really add much to the ranking, but it could help if you use it at least once in the text. Italic/emphasized keywords do have a slightly better correlation to bold keywords.
• There is no evidence that html comments and internal link anchors contribute to ranking at all. Search engines, in particular, seem to ignore html comments.

You should also consider other elements in getting your pages ranked higher. These are the following:

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• The length of your URL is important. If it is shorter, people would find it easier to copy, paste, share and link it.
• The targeted keyword should be located closer to the domain name. It is not a huge ranking strategy, but it does have some benefit.
• Should you wish that web pages rank higher, it would be better to have your pages linked as opposed to having a subdomain. Pages will be a much better option for the algorithms.
• For any of your URLs, you should use the hyphen for your keyword separators. This does not apply to your root domain names.

Links and Location within the Site

• The internal links with reference to your keyword or phrase should not be too deep into your site. You should therefore get to the internal link with as few clicks as possible.
• To increase the ranking on your pages, you should link to the relevant page (with keyword) from as many pages as possible.
• If it is at all possible, it is best to place your linked keywords in the content and not in your permanent navigational structure.
• It is not Google friendly if you place your links in the footers or in the sidebars. If you are going to place your keyword as a permanent link, you should use the permanent navigation for it.

The Appearance of Your Page

• It is important that the keyword location is in the first few lines of your content. This will certainly assist the search engines to find your keywords early enough to make an impression in your rankings.
• Many do feel that it is important to have properly structured content. In terms of SEO, the way in which content is structured does not seem to have any effect on higher rankings. The style might not have an effect on the optimization, but it would give the content an easier reading style.

Finding the Best Way to Move Up in the Ranks

In light of the above discussion, it would seem that page optimization would not necessarily move your pages to the top ranking position. The most important aspects would be:

• The accessibility of your site: Is it easily seen by the search engines and indexed?
• You need to supply the reader with high quality content that would motivate them to read it as well as share it. The highest link conversion rate has to do with how popular your site or your pages are.
• If your keyword targeting is found in all the right places, your page or site will already have an advantage in ranking.
• The most important aspect is whether your site is easy to use and to navigate. Does it influence sharing, linking and citation. It is also a matter of whether it increases browsing and conversion rates.
• Once all of your links and keywords targeting are completed, the importance is to share. In the past years, social media has become an intricate part of sharing your content and, hence, your company web site and its pages.

The final word on this is that you need to do thorough planning and apply the above strategies with great care. The important fact about this is that you would be in a better position to make your SEO company work to your advantage, This is especially so if they apply the majority, if not all of the above suggestions or “rules.”