Page optimizing tips
by Dave Riches
Search engine optimization
increases the ranking of a web site and its pages in the various search
engines. There are several basic optimizing techniques that can improve
the ranking of a page. The factors below have been assigned an arbitrary
rating from 1 star (minor) to 4 stars (essential).
Page titles
Filenames and domains
Meta tags
Headings
Page content
Inbound links
Outbound links
Page titles 
A good page title containing your chosen keywords is
a great start to a well optimized page. Most search engines rate page
title text highly as a ranking factor. 'Services' is not enough text for
a page title. A page title needs to be dynamic and stand out from the
mass of others in the search results. Which one looks better:
Companyname
- services
OR
Keyword1
and keyword2
services in yourtown:
companyname
The second title works in some keywords and also mentions the location,
which is important information for many potential customers. Unless you
consider your company name to be extremely recognisable, put it towards
the end of the title and your keywords at the front.
Filenames and domains 
Filename text is not to be overlooked. This page has as its filename
'page-optimizing-tips.htm'. The title is 'Page optimizing
tips...' and the main heading uses those keywords as well. Can you see
a theme developing here? In addition, any inbound links will probably
contain this keyword text as well. Use hyphens or underscores to separate
the keywords in your filename.
Keyword-filled domain names are an interesting subject. They are popular
at the moment but it is difficult to 'brand' a domain. Unless your actual
business name is keyword.com you are better off to stick
with your chosen domain name and get it recognised as a leader in its
field. Look around - amazon.com, adobe.com, google.com, microsoft.com
- not a keyword domain amongst them and some of the biggest sites on the
internet!
Meta tags 
There are two main meta tags that can be relevant in
search engine optimisation.
They are placed at the top of your source code between the <head>
tags:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1,
etc."
<meta name="description" content="Description
text etc."
The keywords tag has been used in the past to 'stuff'
an excessive number of keywords into a page. For this reason most search
engines give a minimal (or zero) weighting to the keywords
tag. If you plan to use this tag it is probably best to choose a few keywords
from each page and leave it at that.
The description tag can be useful as it is the extended
text that will often appear under the page title in the search results.
You should write a short description that draws people in to your page
and expands on your title. For example the description on this page reads:
"Tips on page optimizing for search
engine ranking success. Learn how to use HTML to your advantage."
Heading tags 
These are the <h1>, <h2>
etc. tags that define what level heading is in use. Starting from <h1>,
each level down generally receives less weighting from the search engines.
The main problem with these tags is that the default heading fonts are
not very aesthetic, particularly <h1> which is huge! Using stylesheets,
you can redefine a heading style so that it fits the 'look' of your site.
The stylesheet text to redefine <h1> on this site is as follows:
h1 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 24px;
color: #006699;
text-align: center;
}
On this page our main heading 'page optimizing tips'
is set with <h1> and the sub-headings are <h2>. Use <h1>
once only at the top of the page and the sub-headings
in the relevant places.
Content
Content is the under-rated part of page optimizing. A page about 'nothing'
will rank poorly. Solid information content with a few inbound and outbound
links is what the search engine spiders really want to find on your site.
Good content can't be faked. You should write an informative
page of content, logically structured with sub-headings and links. Writing
web content is different to traditional forms of media and there is
a definite web writing style. And
don't steal web content - write your own!
Inbound links
The number and quality of inbound links from other web sites can have
a significant effect on your rankings in some search engines, particularly
Google with its PageRank
calculation. The text of the inbound link is also important
and it should preferably contain the keywords of the page being linked
to for maximum impact.
In the longer term other sites will eventually link to you if your content
is interesting and unique. However, actively pursuing links from
other sites is an important part of the process to begin with.
Most quality sites will benefit with a link from the Open
Directory Project, also called DMOZ or the 'ODP'. There are probably
lots of sites in your particular market that will link to you - seek out
the important and authoritative sites and suggest a link exchange.
Outbound links
There is some recent evidence that outbound links may also be important.
Try linking to a few important sites on the same subject
as the page you are optimizing. This may help to establish your site as
an 'authority' on the subject especially if other optimizing techniques
help to lift its ranking in the search engines.
Footnote: Astute readers will notice the use of 'optimizing'
and 'optimisation' on this page. This is done on purpose in an attempt
to cover the alternate spellings of these keywords in US and UK English.
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