|
Search Engine Articles
10-Minute Homepage Tune-Up
By Dan Thies
Is your site's home page search engine friendly? Think so, eh? The vast majority
of websites, even those belonging to Fortune 500 companies, are far from
optimized. I use a simple four-step process to find the most common errors.
Using this to do a quick tune-up on your homepage takes about 10 minutes, and it
will pay off for years to come.
Step One: Identify Your Keywords The first step, and often an overlooked one, is
deciding which keywords and phrases you're targeting with your home page. What
you want to identify are the 4-7 top keywords or phrases that you will use on
your homepage.
Step Two: Keyword Placement Review Once you know which keywords you're
targeting, pick the most important 1 or 2 keywords or phrases, and make sure
they're loaded into the right places on the page.
TITLE tag: keyword phrase | more keywords if possible The optimal title tag
starts with a keyword or keyword phrase, followed by a vertical bar (should be
above the Enter key), then as many more keywords as you can work in. Limit your
page titles to 5-8 words if you can. Make sure your page title still makes sense
to someone who reads it, because search engines will display the title in your
site's listing.
META Description & Keywords Your top keyword or phrase should appear as early as
possible in these tags - "Welcome to..." is not the right way to do it! Your
Description still has to make sense, since many search engines will display it
in your site's listing.
H1 or H2 Heading The first text on your page should include your top 1 or 2
keywords or phrases wrapped inside of an H1 tag. In addition, I like to work my
other keywords into H2 headings (2-3 of them) farther down the page.
First Paragraph and Body Text The first paragraph of text should include your
top 1 or 2 keywords, as early as possible, preferable within the first few
words. Additional keywords can be worked into the rest of the text, under the H2
heading where they appear.
Hyperlinks For best results, all of your top keywords should appear in
hyperlinks on your home page, leading to internal pages on your site. If you use
images for your navigation links, use the ALT property of those images to
contain the appropriate keywords for that link.
Closing Text & Site Map If it makes sense to have your top 1-2 keywords appear
again at the bottom of the page, use them again here, but don't make nonsense
out of your homepage over it. If you have a site map, put a text link to it at
the bottom of your page.
Page Size: Your home page should be as small as possible. More than 5K, less
than 10K, if you can do it - this is important to dial-up users as well as
search engines. Move any Javascript or CSS you're using into external files, and
do what you can to move your important keyword content toward the top of the
file. Using layers instead of tables for layout makes the latter task a lot
easier.
Step Three: Check Your Links It should go without saying, but you should check
every link on your homepage to make sure it's working and active.
Step Four: Validate Your HTML Finally, run your homepage through an HTML
validator. Invalid HTML can make it impossible for the search engines to read
your page correctly. Here's a link to an online validator you can use for free:
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/
There you have it - ten minutes to a higher ranking homepage!
I wish you success...
Dan Thies is the author of "Search Engine Optimization Fast Start," a concise,
step-by-step guide to search engine positioning for the beginner to intermediate
level webmaster - available now at http://www.cannedbooks.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2002 by Dan Thies. All rights reserved under U.S. and international
law.
If you would like to reproduce this article in an email newsletter: Permission
is granted provided that the article is reproduced in its entirety as shown
above, with the resource box/bio included, linking to
http://www.cannedbooks.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
