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When composing the text on your web pages, there are a few
things you want to do in order to make it very easy for search
engines' "crawlers" to see what's important on your
website. These crawlers, or "spiders," comb over
the millions of web pages on the internet and report their
findings to places like Google and Yahoo. Google and Yahoo
use this information to categorize and rank web pages.
Therefore, it's very important that the crawlers see your
web pages clearly. The thing is, though, that crawlers don't
look at web pages the way people do. Crawlers read ALL the
text within your web page, including the text behind the scenes,
like the html code, the file names of images, and something
else called the "meta" information. Crawlers don't
see the colors or actual images--they just don't care about
that kind of thing!
So let's take a look at the not-to-be-missed "text to
do list" for each web page on your website.
Page Title
Every web page has a title--it appears at the very top of
a web page in the blue bar across the top of a web browser.
The title of this web page that you're currently reading is
"Text Secrets for Web Pages." Do you see it at the
top of your screen? Great. Now notice how it matches the topic
of this web page. The title of this page doesn't say "Website
Slug" or "Making a Web Page"--you want the
title of your page to exaclty match the content of the page.
Make sure each web page of your website has a title!
In Dreamweaver, there's a window near the top of the screen
where you can type in a title for the web page you're working
on. If you don't see this window, go to "View,"
"Toolbars," then choose "Document." Now
you should see it. (You can also go to "Modify"
and choose "Page Properties" to type in a title
for your web page.)
H1 Text
The first bit of text on a web page should be in "H1"
format. There are various formats you can use for web page
text, from "paragraph" to "preformatted"
to "none." The text on this web page is in "paragraph"
format--all of it EXCEPT for the large text above the first
paragraph. This is my heading, and the heading of a web page
should always be in "H1" format.
It's easy to re-format text. Just select the text and in
the text properties box, select the format you want from the
"format" box. In Dreamweaver, the text properties
window is usually visible at the bottom of the screen. If
you don't see it, go to "Window" then select "Properties."
Now you should be able to see it. (You can also go to "Text"
then "Paragraph Format" to select a format.)
Incorporating SEO into your CSS design
If you've become familiar with designing web pages using
CSS, then you should definitely check out the article at the
link below. There, you'll learn about how to use headings
and paragraphs in a way that will enhance a web page's search
engine ranking.
- communitymx.com
- Semantic (X)HTML Markup: Headings and Paragraphs
Keywords and Key Phrases
Here's one way to think of key words and key phrases: Key
words and key phrases are the words and phrases that people
might type into a search engine if they're looking for a web
page like the one you're working on.
Brainstorm a list of key words and phrases. If your web page
is about major league baseball hats, your brainstorming list
might include: baseball hat, baseball cap, ball cap, hat,
cap, major league baseball, MLB, major league baseball hat,
major league hat, MLB hat, pro baseball hat, baseball, baseball
fan, baseball team. You might even add "Yankees hat"
since Yankees hats are the most popular baseball hat.
Try to come up with 5-15 words or phrases. Now these key
words and phrases aren't going to be visible to someone viewing
your web page on the internet, but they will be visible to
crawlers. There's a place in the html code where they go.
In Dreamweaver, one way to insert keywords and phrases into
your web page is, from the main menu, click "Insert,"
"Head Tags," and then choose "Keywords."
Web Page Description
A description is a 10 to 20-word (approx.) sentence that
succinctly describes the content and purpose of a web page.
In composing your description, include your best keyword
and/or key phrase. For our baseball hat web page's opening
page, we might have a description like this: "Your source
for authentic Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball hats."
A web page's description is often picked up by search engines
and displayed when the web page is listed in search results.
Otherwise, the description is not visible to people browsing
a web page.
In Dreamweaver, one way to insert a web page description
is, from the main menu, click "Insert," "Head
Tags," and then choose "Description."
"Alt" Text for Images
If you've ever rolled over an image on a web page and seen
a little line of text appear next to your mouse arrow, then
you know what "alt" text is. "Alt" stands
for "alternate," and it's a label you give to images.
Alt text is only visible when a mouse cursor hangs over an
image for a second or two. It then disappears when the mouse
is moved away. However, "alt" text is always visible
to crawlers.
So label each of the images on a web page with alt text--and
try to use keywords and phrases in your labels.
In Dreamweaver, click on a picture and in the "Properties"
window at the bottom of the page, in the window marked "Alt"
you can type a label for the picture.
Planting Keywords and Key Phrases
Embedded in the text on a web page should be your most-important
keywords.
Like all of the strategies discussed on this page, what you're
trying to do is to make it abundantly clear to the crawler
what the exact focus of your page is.
Also, the more the crawler sees the phrase, let's say "baseball
hat," the more convinced the crawler will be that you
have a website that really is totally focused on baseball
hats. Now don't overdo it! Apparently crawlers get a little
disgusted with web pages that are stuffed with certain terms.
When this happens, a page's ranking can suffer.
What's most important is that your text be adequately peppered
with what you've determined to be your key words and phrases.
And the first block of text on your page is the most important.
Be sure to use a phrase or two prominently there.
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