Web page optimization - keyword placement explained

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Now that you have developed your keyword list you need to know what to do with those keywords.  How do you transfer that list into a website which can rank well in the search engines for the terms contained within?  There are, in general, two steps that need to be taken.  The first is that you need to appropriately place those keywords within your website as a whole and you webpages in particular.  The second is that you need to place those terms and phrases within the linking text of inbound links (i.e., links from other sites).  This tutorial is going to focus on the first step, which is popularly known as onpage or Webpage optimization.

Creating optimized keyword pages
The first thing that is important to know about On page optimization is that you need to create unique, individual pages specifically for your keyword list. In general, it is recommended to focus on 1 - 2 main keywords and a few related keywords per page.  The goal is for each page on your site should be tightly focused to rank very highly for a specific set of terms.  If you optimize a page for too many keywords, you end up diluting the focus of that page in respects to those keywords.  Note, also, that oftentimes keywords overlap.  As a result ranking highly for one keyword can also help your page rank highly for a whole host of related keywords. For instance, if your page ranks highly for the keyword direct marketing, then it’s likely to also rank highly for professional direct marketing or direct marketing services, if you use those phrases somewhere in your body text.  It is therefore a good practice to attach related terms onto your primary keywords so that you can rank highly for a broader range of searches without diluting the focus of your pages.

The second thing that is important to know is that there are particular "places" within your webpage where it is advantageous to place your keywords.  The Onpage Tutorials are designed to teach you where those places are, the relative importance of each of those places as well as how to best place your keywords there.  Basically, there are 6 places where you want to place your keywords. They are the following (don’t worry if you don’t recognize any of these "places", we will describe them in greater detail in the appropriate place):

1. Title Tags
2. Header Tags
3. Link Anchor Text
4. Body Text
5. Meta Tags
   1. meta-description
   2. meta-keywords
6. The <Images Alt=" "> Tag
    

Next tutorial: Title tags tutorial
Previous tutorial: Keyword Research Tools

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This tutorial written by:
Moshe Morris
President of SEMBasics
Chief Research Analyst at Internet Marketing Initiative (www.internetmi.com)

The content on this page is based on SearchEngineNews.com’s e-book Winning The Search Engine Wars.
To learn more about Search Engine News, click here.