Search Engine Optimization

Website Optimization

Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures

One of the biggest topics in the Internet currently is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a crucial element of a professional website. It has never been more critical to consider the selection of your description and title. Most website traffic is brought in by search engines. Keywords are a vital part of SEO. However, many webmasters overdo it. Keywords are an important tool in search engine ranking. So how can you use keywords to your advantage?

Website optimization is painstaking, but a critical step in securing market position.

In this age of instant results, the virtues of perseverance and patience are rarely nurtured. While developing your site, sit back and consider your mission, then communicate your passion to your target audience. Do it just for the love of it. Your efforts will be appreciated by your audience. This is the first step towards developing a site that communicates in a language your visitors can hear.

Place your keywords in relevant places

Many beginners have been told that they can add keywords in places such as anchors and ALT tags. While these can help enhance your keywords, they need to be relevant to the place or image where you are linking. Don't just stuff your keywords into every place because it does really help.

Select a keyword rich domain name

First, start ahead of your competition by selecting a keyword rich domain name. It's an advantage you can't afford to overlook. Ensure that your title is five words long at most, and that it includes the most important keywords. However, so not overload the title with keywords since these are the places search engines scan first. Preferably condense your site description to no more than 25 words. The description tag is what is usually displayed when relevant keywords are typed in search engines, so it is important that keywords appear there.

Don't stuff the keyword tag

One common mistake in website optimization is repeating keywords in the keyword tag. An example is: shirts, white shirts, green shirts, and red shirts. There are several things wrong here. First, the use of "and" is not necessary. This is a stop word which search engines ignore. Other common stop words are the, this, because, there and that. The second problem with the keywords is the word "shirt". It has been repeated four times. You don't have to repeat shirts. The correct keyword should read shirts, white, green, red. The search engine will automatically match the color with the word shirt. Repeating "shirts" will only penalize your site.

Check keyword density

Every webmaster needs to analyze their site's keyword density. The main keywords should be five percent to eight percent of the keyword count. If you have too many keywords, the search engines may see your site as 'spam'. If the keyword density is too low, your site may never appear in search engines' Top 100. Keyword optimization could easily move a site from obscurity to popularity with the search engines overnight. Doing it right the first time will take you straight to the top. There are some free tools online that can show you the percentage of every word in your site. Such tools also tell you under which words your site comes up on.

Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.

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