Part I: Things Search Engines Look For in brief

Each search engine weights each of these factors differently, and places the emphasis in different spots.

Search Engines Look For:

~ Title tag - You need a relevant title, not just "Home Page" and use it with keywords, description all across the site ~ Headings h1 … h6 - The search engines view tags as being terms of emphasis - they give weight to the words within them. Put key terms in them. ~ Bold - Of lesser importance than tags. the tags still emphasize terms of importance. ~ Alt text - Use descriptive short sentences in your alt tags. If it's a picture of a rose, and you're a florist try "Red Rose - Available at 'name' Flower Shop" ~ Email addresses on page - if you put up an address, make sure the domain name in the address matches the web site domain. ~ Keyword meta tags - Some engines use them directly, some check them as part of a validation process to check if they match with the content. ~ Meta description tag - Most engines look at this tag. Use distinct ones throughout your site, and distinct ones for each page. Make them particular to that page. ~ Key term placement - Terms that are higher up on a page are more heavily weighted. ~ Key term proximity - Terms that are close together are probably related, and thus the site will show up in searches for those terms. ~ Comment tags - Some engines use comment tags for content. Most engines look for them in graphic rich / text poor sites. ~ Page structure validation - proper coding is likely to be of better overall quality, and thus rewarded. ~ Traffic/Visitors - The search engines do keep track of how many people follow their links.