The completion of your website design is just the beginning of your online journey. Before you rush to submit your website to search engines, there are several crucial elements you need to consider to ensure your site is indexed correctly. While these guidelines are not a guaranteed recipe for top rankings, they can significantly improve the accuracy and quality of your site's ranking.
Title tags are often overlooked, yet they play a crucial role in search engine optimization. A title tag should be descriptive and relevant to each page of your site. It's advisable to repeat your most important keyword two or three times for maximum relevancy, but ensure the title remains coherent and not just a jumble of keywords. For instance, if your site is a bike shop, a good title might be "Bicycles for kids and adults - browse our online catalog of bikes or choose one of our bike repair services."
Keywords are placed inside meta tags and are essential in helping search engines understand your site's content. Aim for three to ten keywords that you believe users would type into search engines when looking for a site like yours. Avoid keyword stuffing as it can lead to penalties from search engines. Instead, focus on your most important keywords. Do not repeat the same keyword more than three or four times. Separate your keywords with commas or spaces, but not both. Use both upper and lower case and plural versions of your words.
The description, also placed inside meta tags, is another crucial element for SEO. It should include your most important keywords, repeated three or four times at most, and be limited to 20-25 words. Ensure it is compelling as it often appears in the search engine results page (SERP), enticing users to click through to your site.
Many search engines focus on the first 250 words of your text when determining keyword relevancy. Try to incorporate your most important keywords into the text as much as possible. For search engines that don't use meta tags, they will select part of your text as the description that appears in their results page, so ensure it is engaging.
Remember, these tips are designed to aid your site when being indexed by search engines. They are not a guaranteed shortcut to the top 10 rankings - that's a topic for another article. However, by adhering to these guidelines, your site stands a better chance with search engines. To learn more about search engines and how they work, visit Search Engine Watch.
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