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 < h> tags as being terms of emphasis – they give weight to the words within them. Put key terms in them.
~ Bold – Of lesser importance than < h> tags. the < b> 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.
