Secret #3 - Search Engine Optimization is Critical

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is important to understand and respect when you add content to your website. Just as every page should have a goal for action you want the user to take, it should also have a goal for key words you would like that page to rank highly for in search engines. Optimization will push your ranking up and help new people find you through organic search engine rankings.

What are the elements of a well search engine optimized webpage?

If you are using the Outstanda CMS, many of these search engine options are either automatically done for you or you have boxes to add your keyword targets into.

If you do not use Outstanda CMS, this page still provides great overview information on what elements in a page are important to achieve a higher search engine ranking.

The following elements are all important to getting a better ranking in search engines for any given webpage with content:

Search Engine Optimized Header Information

Title Tag – The Meta Title Tag should have your keywords in it once or some variation twice if possible. This tag does not show up in the content, but would be the name of the link that is displayed in most search engines.
Meta Description Tag – This is the description of the content of the webpage. In the past, it was what showed up in the search engines, but now the text around the keyword match is usually what shows up. However, having your keywords worked into a good description is important to help ranking.
Keyword Meta Tag – The keyword meta tag is a good place to put the exact keyword(s) you are hoping to rank highest for.
Note: When working with any of the meta data, a common mistake people make is to try to put lots of keywords in and information into each fields, or copying the same list of keywords and information to every page. Each page should have a real goal for SEO of one or two keyword combinations. Too much information on each page just waters down the weight of your targeted keywords.

Search Engine Optimized Web Content

On the website itself, there are many different elements that are important for search engine ranking. Each search engine has its own set of rules and algorithms to calculate ranking for each page. Instead of agonizing over getting the SEO of your page perfect, create more web pages with valuable content with some of these elements in mind.
H1, H2 Tags – The H tags are the header HTML tags and your target keywords should be in your various header tags.
Sometimes, more search engine ranking weight is given to words that are bold.
Images should all use the alt tag and keywords should be used in a high percentage of the images on the page for the alt tag.
General recommendations for keyword saturation in the text of your website is 3% to 5%. The higher up in the page, the more weight is generally given to the keyword.

How links help Search Engine Optimization

Linking is covered in another of these articles, but from the SEO perspective, cultivating links with your keyword text as anchors in the link, from other high quality, highly ranked web sites, will increase the ranking of your webpage.
Other articles in the 8 Secrets to your online success can help you find ways to get links.

Search Engine Optimization Ethics

The best advice you can get about search engine optimization is that you do not try to trick the search engines or hire the services of a firm that seem to be too good to be true. SEO is a lot of manual work and any automation of linking or optimization could get you banned from search engines or hurt you’re ranking. Once that happens, it is difficult to undo the damage.

Search Engine Optimization as an Art

All the major search engines treat pages differently. They also do frequent updates that will change the ranking of pages. New pages are also always added to the web, so search engine optimization is definitely something people can understand and do themselves, but it take vigilance, finesse and an ongoing effort. It is also very important to keep up with industry standards and monitor your ranking.

Outstanda SEO Services kick start your online success in Search Engine Ranking.

Outstanda CMS (Content Management System) makes it easier for you to manage the elements of your web pages and better optimize them for search engines and visitors alike.

Contact Outstanda because we will help you succeed on the web.