Knowing where and how you can use your keywords will greatly improve the efficiency of your search engine optimization.

There are 5 places in a web page where you can use keywords:

The Title Tag
The Keyword Meta Tag
The Description Meta Tag
Alt Tags for images
Body copy on the page

Of these the page Body Copy, the readable text on the page, is the single most important place for your keywords. More about this later.

Let’s first take a look at the Title Tag. This is one of the tags in the head section of the html code of your web page and lists the title that is displayed in the web browser. For instance, Internet Explorer displays this tag in the top bar of the browser window. But there are other uses for the Title Tag as well. Most search engines will index this tag for information about your site and many search engines will use this tag as the title of your listing.

In general you can use from 60 to 115 characters in a Title Tag. The Tag can include the company name, especially if it is a well known company, and should include your most important keywords. Consider this a short description of your web page. One more thing, the Title Tag is also used as the link when the URL is saved into a web browser favorites list.

The Keyword Meta Tag used to be the main way search engines indexed your page. Now-a-days many search engines will simply ignore this tag, but that may not always stay the case. Some search engines still take s look at this tag to help categorize your site. There is no reason not to have this tag on your page, just in case. You are not penalized for including a Keyword Meta Tag.

The keywords should be separated by a comma. Put more specific keywords first then put the less important and general keywords later on. Search engines no longer pay attention to the case of a keyword, so the keywords can all be lower case. I have seen recommendations of 25 keywords or 1000 characters in the list. In general Keyword pairs or triplets are better than single keywords. I try to have one or two lines of keywords if I use this tag.

The Description Meta Tag is slowly joining the Keywords Meta Tag on the lack of support list. But right now it is still a valuable place to use your keywords. Many search engines will look at the description Meta tag for keywords to compare against your body copy. Yahoo goes one step further and will use your description tag as the description of your site in their listings.

Consider the description tag just like it is named, a concise description of your site. Keep it to a short paragraph, under 50 words.

Alt tags are text descriptions that are included with the code used to display images on a page. Basically an Alt tag is the Alternate Text version of the image in case the image is not displayed. Alt tags are important for creating a fully accessible site for people who use screen reader technology that reads the page out loud through their computer speakers. Obviously an image cannot be read aloud, but the Alt tag can.

Alt tags are also displayed as a quick popup when you “hover” your mouse pointer over an image. Many search engines, including Google, will index the Alt tags along with the rest of the body copy, making these ideal places to slip in a few more keywords. Just keep in mind that the text should accurately reflect the content of the image. Plus don’t use Alt tags on images that would not normally be read out loud, such as separator lines or bullets.

This brings us to the main place to use your keywords, the body copy on the page, the text that your visitors are reading when they visit your site. The major search engines will no longer give you a top placement just for having the most instances of a particular keyword on your page. They will give top listing to what they believe is the most relevant page on a topic.

Your job is to work your keyword into the text frequently, but appropriately. Select one or two keywords and make the page specifically about those keywords. Think of yourself giving a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of your best customers. Your PowerPoint slides will be your paragraphs. They should be concise and to the point, using your keywords to drive home your point. And, just like in a PowerPoint presentation, you can use bulleted lists to call out the several benefits of your site or product, each time relating it to your selected keyword.

Experienced search engine optimization (SEO) experts know the importance of local business directory listings for small and medium-sized business that have a regional focus.

Listing your business will often bring increased targeted traffic to your website and help in the overall search engine ranking of your site.  The top search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing often rank a website on link popularity (inbound links, called backlinks), along with other factors.

Types Of Directories Available

Twenty years ago business owners had only a few choices for listing their business in directories.  Three options previously available included:

• Yellow Books
• General Business/Regional Directories
• Specific Industry Directories

The first option, the yellow pages, was major source of advertising for most small businesses.  You had to have a business phone line to advertise. Since the internet took over, the yellow pages has been providing diminishing returns for most business owners. The advertising is expensive, fewer people search the yellow pages, and the advertising rates go up every year.

The second option, general business or regional directories, such as D&B, Hoovers, or the local Chamber of Commerce provided valuable services for individuals seeking new suppliers.

The third option, specific industry directories, was often published through an industry association.  You had to qualify for membership to be listed.

Today, all three types of directories are now available on the web.  In fact a Google search for “local business directory” returns over 181,000,000 results.  Even an exact match (in quotation marks) delivers an astounding 12,700,000 listings.  Talk about information overload!

Local business directories may charge a fee, be free with a reciprocal link, or totally free without restrictions.  Directories that charge a fee cost anywhere from $4.95 to $299 a year. The vast majority of paid listings are not worth paying for, because it’s easy to get free links without restrictions.

One way to identify local business directories is to type in  “directory” and “your city”, and submit links to those directories that come up on the first three or four pages of the search engine.  Do this with all three big search engines: Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Submission Guidelines

The best way to submit your website URL is manually.  There are many services that offer to submit your website to thousands of directories for only $19.  They’re typically using an automated process that may lead to your website being blacklisted or de-indexed from the search engines.

Here are some tips:

• Your website should be complete, not currently under construction.
• There should be no broken links, or links or adult or porn sites.
• Your website content should be in English.

Your local business listing should appear a few weeks after your submission.  Some free directories take up to six months to list your site, because they’re manually reviewed by a live person.

Yes, it’s time-consuming to manually submit your information to the directories.  Consider paying a teenager to do it for you.  But remember, the more listings you get, the more you’ll be found on the web.

Let’s take a look at how site map comes about. When the Internet first started, there are only static HTML web pages out there. These are simple text and images content pages. Most sites are so simple that they contain less than 10 pages. The search engines have got no problem indexing all the pages within these small sites.

However, some websites started to grow. Some grow up to having thousands of web pages on the site. That becomes a problem to the search engines. If the linking structure isn’t clear enough, the search engines may not be able to find and index all the links. So the search engines started proposing site maps.

Site maps make it easy for the search engines to index the content. A site map contains links to all the web pages on the website. This enables the crawler to find the links without any problems.

But the modern search engine is very different from traditional search bots. They have become more sophisticated and efficient. Although site maps are still encouraged, they are no longer necessary. If you optimize your site properly for the search engines, there is no need for a site map.

Optimization your site for the search bots means that you must, at all times, maintain a clear linking structure. Use simple text links with proper anchor texts and avoid using Javascript links. As long as you follow the above advice, search engines will be able to find and index the web pages. In addition, include your keywords in your title tag and use search friendly URLs.

If you can’t remember all the above, just use WordPress to power your website. This website has a custom WordPress theme.

WordPress is a blogging platform that most bloggers use. But with a few simple tweaks, you can also use it to power a website. In this case, WordPress becomes a CMS for your website. WordPress will optimize your web pages automatically so that you don’t have to lift a finger to perform any on-site SEO.

If you wish to configure the SEO options, you can always install a third party WordPress plugin for SEO. There are several of them. You can download and install the plugin from your WordPress admin area. Search for the plugin, and then choose “Install Automatically”.

With WordPress, you don’t have to worry about site maps. The search engines will find and index all your web pages. If your site is new, be patient. Don’t expect all the pages to be indexed overnight. If your site contains hundreds of web pages, it may take a few weeks before all the content can be indexed. When that happens, you will start receiving traffic from the search engines.

This new system wouldn’t likely replace crawling, but will index the web instead.

Currently, most small sites get visited by Google about once a week. With a PuSH system in place, they would be able to get their content to Google automatically right away.

Here are some things to consider when choosing a consultant:

Qualifications
There are many consultants who started out with a technical background, and migrated into search engine optimization. Degrees are usually not required, but a marketing background is preferred, because ranking in the search engines comes as a result of good marketing. Skills such as market research, copywriting and competitive analysis are critical in achieving traffic to your website. You’d also like your SEO consultant to be competitive, and not give up easily.

Specialization
The internet marketing needs of a local pizza shop differ from those of a company who markets internationally. It’s important to find a consultant who is knowledgeable about the type of search engine marketing you need.

Here are some different areas of specialization:

Organic Search – Organic search brings in free traffic from the search engines. There’s nothing better than free traffic.

Pay-Per-Click – Pay-Per-Click, or PPC traffic is generated from advertising. Ads are placed on search engine results (usually the right hand side) and websites. You pay for every click, regardless of whether they’re prospects or not. The amount you pay is determined through a bidding process, with more competitive keyword terms costing as much as $50 per click. Many terms only cost $1 to $4 per click. Some consultants guide you through this process, and it can get expensive.

Specific Industry – Some SEO consultants specialize in one, or just a few industries, such as real estate or chiropractic.

Local Business – Local business SEO specialists help small and medium-sized businesses optimize their website for their local market at an affordable price.

Experience
How much experience does your prospective consultant bring to the table. Abe Lincoln said it best: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” In other words, you want someone with at least five to ten years experience in internet marketing, not just designing websites. Ask to see case studies. While some clients may be confidential, they’re sure to have some examples for you to look at.

Techniques
Techniques are generally divided into two areas, on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO consists of checking titles, descriptions, keywords, and keyword densities. This is usually about 5% of the work needed.

The other 95% is off-page techniques, including articles, link building, directory submissions, press releases, social media, blogs, video, social bookmarking, and more. Old-school SEO consultants aim to get your site listed high in the search rankings. The best SEO consultants will help you achieve multiple listings on the first page of the search engines.

Communication
While the internet is considered a global marketplace, it’s difficult to communicate with your consultant if they’re located in southeast Asia and English is not their native language. A good consultant should be available when you need them, and you shouldn’t have to wait until the middle of the night to speak to them. Also, weekly or monthly reports should be provided to show progress on your marketing program.

Results
If a search engine optimization company promises you the #1 spot on Google, look for another consultant. No one can guarantee those kinds of results. All markets are different, with some more competitive than others. A SEO consultant must do 5% more than your competitors to land you on the first page of Google. While I’ve achieved those kind of results for clients in less than 4 hours, I often state that it’s an ongoing process, usually taking a few weeks or months to see significant results.

Comfort Level
You must be comfortable working with your consultant. Choose an individual, not a faceless corporation to do your search engine optimization. You’ll get much better customer service, and someone who will take responsibility for you getting the results you want.

So, good luck in your quest for a qualified SEO consultant.

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