Search Engine Optimization Programs | SEO Tutorial Program

SEO and the Main Page

Search engine optimization is more important in the context of the main page of a website than the other pages in the subdirectories because in most of the cases – say about 40% of the times – it is the visibility of the main page is what sets the tone for the overall visibility and hence page rankings of the entire set of pages. Therefore, while designing the pages, it is crucial that no fault be made in optimizing the various factors that eventually contributes to page rankings.

Let us begin with the URL. Ideally, for the best search results, the URL must have the relevant keywords instead of any random words. The next vital SEO aspect is the amount of text contained in the main page. Ideally, this should be anywhere between 500-2000 words or 2,000 to 20,000 characters. Anything below or above this limit is most likely to be overlooked by the search engine spider.

As important as the amount of text present in a webpage is the keyword density in the given text. This is because search engines generally lists web pages based on the keywords given for the search by the user. In other words, for a webpage to come on top of the search results, it must contain the relevant keywords an ample number of times. Again, as a rule of thumb, for productive results, the keyword density must be anywhere between 5-7% or to a maximum of 7-8%. Anything beyond that would be counter productive and will dent the page ranking.

Then comes in importance, the location of keywords and the text format: Ideally, for better search results, the keywords must come to the top of the webpage, at the starting of the document. The closer the keyword to the top of the webpage, more are the chances of it catching the eye of the search engine spider. Also, the occurrence of keywords or keyword phrases in the headings is appreciated, for search engines give due weightage to such a page design. It is also a good idea to highlight the keywords 2-3 times using <strong> in the body.

Further, include keywords optimally in the title for search engines generally take the keywords or sentences given inside the title tag to display alongside the URL in the search results. For better results, limit the contents of the <title> to 50-80 characters. Again, don’t over do with the word count, for it will produce undesired results.

Then, there are other factors that are not directly page ranking enhancers, but their optimization as well can make an overall impact on the SEO efforts. It includes the Meta tags – description and keyword – and keywords in links to other pages. The contents of description Meta tag are sometimes picked by the search engines to provide a brief description about the web page in the search results, while keyword Meta tags can be yet again used by search engines for page ranking at any time again (it was used earlier, but not now). But, doing away with any of these won’t affect the webpage in any way either. So it is the webmaster’s choice at the end of the day.

Other factors to be taken care of in the main page – or virtually any page - are the number of pages (more number of pages, the better will be the page rankings), its position in the subdirectories (preferably nearer to the root directory), and avoidance of hidden text, graphic header and navigation menu and session identifiers, and one-pixel links. There is a stress on things that must be avoided because, if the search engines get the feeling that they are being duped, mostly they respond by blacklisting the website as spam and demoting in page rankings.

To sum it up, SEO can be productive, if used optimally and intelligently. But any wrong step in the optimization process, at any point of time, could bring the entire effort spent to naught in one stroke. So, better watch out for this possibility!