Become a Home Based Travel Agent
10 Things Search Engines Love
By Tom Ogg

Agents often ask me how they can gain high rankings in search engines for their websites. There is no mystery to understanding the process, but many sites are simply not friendly to search engines. So I thought I would share 10 things search engines really like.

Gaining high ranking in the search engines is beneficial because if you gain a high ranking for popular keywords, you will benefit with a substantial amount of free traffic to your website. Here are 10 things that you can do to improve your rankings.

1.Use a Keyword URL:  If your site is about bone fishing in Cozumel, Mexico, you should opt for the keyword URL Bonefishing-Cozumel-Mexico.com. You should also purchase the URL BonefishingCozumelMexico.com. Use the non-separated URL as your website address, but submit the separated URL to the search engines. They will see the keywords as separate words and will rank your site higher because of the keyword url.

2. Optimize Your Title META Tag:  While META Tags are not the panacea they once were; you should carefully optimize your Title META tag to reflect your website’s primary keywords.Optimize Your Description META Tag:  You should also optimize your Description tag to reflect your site’s primary keywords and secondary keywords. It is important that the Description Tag reads in complete sentences rather than simple keywords.

3.Optimize Your Keywords META Tag:  Use WordTracker (www.WordTracker.com) to identify a list of keywords relevant to your site’s primary keywords. Only pick keywords with a high KEI rating and structure them with the highest KEI ratings first. (following your primary keywords). A KEI rating is a rating that is assigned to keywords by WordTracker that indicates the popularity of keywords when compared to how many times they are used on websites on the Internet. The higher the KEI rating, the more likely that you are in gaining a high ranking for the keyword in a search engine.

4. Use Alt Tags for Your IMG Files:  Search engines cannot see .jpeg, .gif and .png images that reside on your website. HTML offers the opportunity to enter text in the Alt tag so that the search engines can see what the image is of. Using your primary keywords in your Alt tags is another way to tell search engines what your webpage is all about.

5. Use H1 Textual Headlines Rather Than Graphics: While using a textual Alt tag on a graphic is good, using a textual H1 headline is much better. The H1 headline is the primary headline on your webpage and is something search engines look closely at. Use your primary keywords in your H1 headline to further help the search engines to figure out what your site is all about.

6.Use Textual Hyperlinks Rather Than Graphics or Java: Those fancy java-effect graphic buttons that change color and size when you roll over them with your mouse are really cool, but unfortunately search engines can’t see them. Using keyword textual links is the way to go. Be sure to use the specific primary keywords for the page you are linking to, as search engines give this a very high priority. Also, be sure to put a complete textual navigational structure on the bottom of each page in your website to gain maximum keyword penetration. Also, make sure that external links (from other websites) use your primary keywords.

7. Use a High Degree of Keywords in the First 250 Words on Your Webpage: Make sure that your primary keywords are repeated consistently within the first 250 words below your H1 title. Keyword density is critical in gaining high search engine rankings.

8. Repeat Your Keywords Throughout the Entire Page:  Make sure that your keywords are repeated throughout the balance of your webpage. Search engines will crawl your entire site looking for keywords to rank your site. By repeating your primary keywords, you confirm that the site is very relevant to your primary keywords.

9.Optimize Each Page in Your Website for Unique Keywords:  Google treats each page in your website with equal value. That means that each page of your website stands a chance to gain top ranking based on its dominant keywords. By picking keywords with high KEI ratings, you should be able to move each page up in their rankings by optimizing pages for their own specific primary keywords. It makes no sense to optimize each page in your website for the same keywords, as each page is another opportunity to gain visitors from the search engines that are using various keyword search strings to find information

10. If you find this information confusing, then you need to do some homework if you want to succeed with your website. Search engine optimization is critical to your success in the future and few web designers understand it. Next month I will share 10 things that search engines hate.