Optimizing a web page for the search engines involves working on both visible and invisible factors. The visible elements of your web page include all of those things that a visitor visiting your web page can ordinarily see with their web browser. This includes your images, headings and text. The invisible elements include the metadata contained within the head tags of your page, and these are normally only seen by search engine robots and web masters.
A typical web page that is displayed in a web browser window is not just the HTML document. It also contains images, Flash, multimedia etc. content that is embedded in the HTML web page. So web page optimization requires not only optimizing the HTML document but also optimizing the images and other included content. We will also learn how to judiciously decide whether multimedia contents and Flash are indeed required for a web page / web site.
Web page optimization involves decreasing the file size of the HTML document and any images/multimedia content that are embedded in that web page.
The Internet is a network of computers and these connections transmit a web page from a server to the client computer. A web page (or any file on the web) is not transfered at one go but it is sent from the server in small pieces called packets.
Remember, web page optimization requires a good amount of effort, but it makes you a better web developer at the end so the time spent is worth it. I will now detail how you can optimize each component of a web page. Links to related articles are provided if you want to explore further and know more on web page optimization.
Title Tag
The TITLE Tag should contain your MOST important searchable keywords and be 60 characters or less in length.
Keywords found in the TITLE Tag have the highest ranking value with most all search engines. The 60 character limit is because not all search engines are created equal. Some search engines will only display a maximum of 60 characters of text for a TITLE in their search results. Having your page TITLE cut off by some search engines is not what we consider “search engine friendly”.
Description Tag
The META Description Tag should contain a brief description of what can be found on the current page and be 150 characters or less in length.
Keywords Tag
The META Keywords Tag should contain ONLY keywords which are also found in the viewable text on the page and be 874 characters or less in length (less is better).
The META Keywords Tag can increase your search engine rankings when constructed properly. The 874 character limit is a calculation based on the storage ability of most search engines. But this does NOT mean you should enter 874 characters here. In fact you will suffer from “keyword saturation” if you do. Your Web page’s Keyword Density calculation is probably the most important consideration when optimizing your Web pages. Having a lot of keywords here can destroy your keyword densities and your SE rankings so be careful.
<BODY>Text</BODY>
Optimizing your text is another important step towards ranking higher in the Search Engines. Your web page should contain plenty of text and should contain each of your keywords and keyword phrases used in different variations. If all of your keyword phrases you’ve listed within your META tags aren’t found within your text, the Search Engines will simply ignore them.
<IMG ALT>Tag
An image Alt tag follows your graphic address or URL in your HTML code. These words will be displayed in place of your graphics through an older browser or when your visitors have their graphics turned off.
To fully optimize your graphics, insert your keyword phrases within the Alt tags of your graphics. At a bare minimum, make sure you use enough images to display all of your keyword phrases. Remember…your primary keyword phrase should always come first.