Protected: SEO 101

We’ve discussed some basic tags and information about search engine optimization in SEO in General. Here, in SEO 101, we want to discuss some of the information in more detail.

Let’s begin with tags and what they mean to you and to the search engines. We’ll start with the “meta” (pronounced ‘meh-tah’) tag because those are crucial to include in your Web site pages – all of them.

Whether you are familiar with XHTML or not, we are dealing with SEO and are going to presume you are familiar with at least the basic <html>, <head>, <title> and <body> tags so that we don’t have to discuss where <meta ??=”" /> tags are to appear. That said, let’s begin with the <title>Joe’s Pizza Joint</title> of your page.

The title of your page is mandatory. It tells the search engines what to expect in the page. It’s not where you want a long dissertation about the subject matter of the page, only a very basic synopsis. We’re using “Joe’s Pizza Joint” as our title in this 101 scenario. The title tells the search engine to expect to see information about Pizza, Joe, and Joint, since all of those words appear in the title. If the copy in the pages, the meta description or the meta keywords tags do not contain the ‘same’ keywords then the search engine is already going to dock us points because it assumes that our page is NOT as relevant to Pizza and Joe as the title lead them to believe. But, you may have more keywords in the <meta description=”keywords” content=”Pizza, Joe, Joint, Bellingham, Party, Parties, Soda.” /> than in the title or description tags. Why? Because there are more keywords in the copy of your page than just in the title and description. Keywords that describe more services or products that you sell, where your business is located, and things you are certain people search in the search engines to find your type of business. That said, you do not want to include every single word in your copy – the text that visitors see in your pages.

You should already see how the search engines are programmed. If the key ingredients of a Web site page (only one) do not meet specific criteria, then the page is found ‘not-relevant’ or ‘not as relevant’ as your competition. Therefore, you don’t deserve a top 10 position. The ‘less’ relevant your page is to a specific search, the further from the first page of the search results you will be found.

Let’s say Joe is pretty savvy and was smart enough to include Joe’s Pizza Join in the title, <meta name=”description” content=”Joe’s Pizza Joint” />, and <meta name=”keywords” content=”Joe, Pizza, Joint, Soda, Bellingham, Washington, Party, Parties, Birthday Party, Birthday Parties.” />.  Joe included a lot more keywords and keyword phrases than what is found in the title tag or description tag. Why? Because Joe knows that people search for more than just “pizza joint”, and Joe knows that his “copy” is loaded with more keywords and keyword phrases. So when someone searches “pizza birthday party”, or “bellingham pizza”, or “pizza in washington”, Joe is relevant to all of those searches.  Joe is located in Bellingham, Wa., but makes sure to include the entire state…just in case someone searches “washington” with some other keyword related to Joe’s page. Any combination of searches that match Joe’s keywords, description ‘and’ copy will pull Joe into the top, as long as ‘his’ page he optimized is more relevant than any of his competition.

Note a couple of things. First, we are not going to show you anything other than current, validating code anywhere in our site. If you have questions about why we have shown you code as we have you’ll need to address the XHTML 1.0 in another discussion. Also note that apostrophe’s and quotation marks must be eliminated in the text between opening and closing quotation marks. The only way you can include anything other than simple text (and maintain valid markup) is to use the HTML Character Entities. Again, if you have question about what those are you’ll need to address that in another discussion.

There has been some question among professionals as to whether the search engines prefer the first letter in each keyword capitalized or not. It’s our experience that you should capitalize the first letter, but it’s not mandatory. The issue is, “IF” the search engines prefer the first letter capitalized, give it to them. If they don’t, they are not going to find your site any less relevant or dock you points for the capitalization. So, when in doubt, as long as we know it won’t hurt, provide the variable that “might” work better for you. It is mandatory to place a comma after each keyword or keyword phrase.

Ok. After all of this, what “is” a keyword or keyword phrase? Think of your business or service or product. How would you describe what you do or what you sell? Write that description down and then cross out anything that does not describe your product or service. What is left will be your keywords or keyword phrases. Let’s use our example and write a some copy:

“Joe’s Pizza Joint is located in Bellingham, Washington in the Bellis Fair Mall. We cater to you with our homemade, fresh pizza crust, natural toppings, and sauces. If you have a birthday party or any gathering where pizza will be served, call Joe’s Pizza Joint or come by and we can help you plan your party.”

Unless Joe’s also caters we can consider that just a ‘stop word’. Stop words are things like “to; and; it; with; our”…you get the picture. Keywords and keyword phrases for Joe are: “Pizza, Birthday Party, Party, Homemade Pizza, Homemade Crust, Fresh, Natural Toppings, Bellingham, Washington”. A keyword phrase is simply more than one keyword together with another. If you look at the keyword/phrase list you will see how a search engine then matches searches in Joe’s meta tags and copy.

Let’s suppose you are searching for “fresh pizza in bellingham”. Do you see how Joe’s page is relevant? Each of those words is found in the copy, and/or title, meta tags, and/or the copy of the page. But, there is still the question of how relevant is Joe’s to the competition. That’s a question for another class. Graduate from here and you’ll find out.

Like any classroom setting there are tests. For SEO 101 we have only one question for you: “How many search phrases could you search that would be very relevant to Joe’s page?” If you leave a comment to SEO 101 with your example(s) we will grade you on your answers. If you pass you will be ready to move on to SEO 201.

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