OPTIMISING YOUR OWN WEBSITE

So you've got your well designed web site full of valuable text content ready to submit to the search engines. Before you do, some final optimisation is a good idea. Spending a short time on each page ensuring that appropriate titles and meta-tags have been used will help pay dividends in the long run.

As with any other stage in the promotional process, optimised titles and meta-tags are not a secret way to get top listings. Titles and meta-tags must be an honest representation of the page content and only by understanding this will you boost your rankings. Titles and meta-tags act as a summary of the page for search engines and their users. They must be honestly written and include key search terms actually used in the body of the page.

Creating a Title
The title is used by all search engines for both rank and the listing that they present to searchers.

We recommend that you keep the title of each page to around 10 words or less. Into this fit the company name, and the two best search terms for the page. For help finding out which keywords on your page are the best ones to use, try putting them through www.wordtracker.com.

Start your title with a capital letter, but do not input the entire title in uppercase. Do not use a period or full stop at the end of the title.

Lastly, keep the title understandable. This is the line that must entice users from the search engine to your site, so simply having a list of keywords for a title tends not to help.

e.g. <title>AJC web site optimisation and search engine submission specialists</title>

Adding a Meta-Description
The meta-description is used by many search engines and can be thought of as a more in-depth title.

When composing your meta-description, keep it to 25 words or less and try to stick to just one sentence. Expand on the title you have chosen, adding more keywords and key search terms that have been identified and extracted from teh body of the page.

e.g. <meta name="description" content="Optimising a web site by adding title, meta-description and meta-keywords with AJC web site optimisation and search engine submission specialists.">

Adding Meta-Keywords
The meta-keywords tag which was once used widely is now used only by Inktomi. If you plan to make submission to Inktomi then include the keywords tag.

Your keywords tag should include any key search terms that you have identified from the body of the page. They should be separated by a comma and a space. Keep all keywords used in this tag in lowercase. Most searches are made in lowercase.

e.g. <meta name="keywords" content="web site optimisation, search engine submission, submit to search engines, optimised titles, meta-tags, key search terms, keywords, ranking, description, meta-keywords, meta-description">

There's loads more to optimise on your average web page - see Optimise your site 2 to find out more.