SEVEN
TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH
KEYWORDS TO GET A LOCAL LISTING
Want to get a top listing
for your local Internet webpage? Here are seven changes
that you can implement today that can make a big difference
on your search engine rankings. Some of you may have
the working knowledge to make these HTML changes, others
of you may need a little help. These tips will help
make your website search engine friendly.
I live in Ventura County
in Southern California. I've spent many hours looking
at hundreds of local websites for Real Estate, Chiropractic,
and Dentist clients. It is very important for them to
show up on search engines for local search terms. I'm
going to use my local Chiropractor listings as examples
in this HTML tutorial. I looked up websites using Keywords
like, "Chiropractor in Ventura County," "Chiropractor
in Thousand Oaks," and "Chiropractor offices in Ventura
County." I want you to know that with a few minor adjustments
to your HTML you can gain a distinctive advantage over
other local websites that could mean more business to
you in the coming months. Who isn't interested in some
new business in today's economy?
Let's examine what top
ranked Chiropractor sites are doing to gain Keyword
relevancy on search engines. You can look at your competition's
HTML tags by going to your browser of choice, clicking
"View" in the upper left hand corner of your browser
(Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator), and then
scrolling down to the word "Source". It will open another
browser window with the HTML language for you to look
at.
1. USE YOUR KEYWORDS
IN YOUR TITLE TAG
Several search engines
use Keywords in the Title tag as part of the their algorithms.
Algorithms are rules that search engines use to calculate
a ranking of a website. Each engine uses different algorithms.
Using a Title tag like;
<TITLE>John Q. Smith
Chiropractor </TITLE>
is wasted text unless you
think that people are going to be using the name (John
Q. Smith) as search term. If you want to attract visitors
who are looking for Chiropractor in Ventura County"
you may want to use the Keyword phrase, "Chiropractor
in Ventura County" in your Title tag.
Here is how you may
want to put Keywords in your Title tag.
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Chiropractor
in Ventura County, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake California,
Chiropractor office in Ventura County.</TITLE> </HEAD>
It doesn't matter what
order you place the tags in the HEAD area, although
some experts recommended that you include the TITLE
tag first on the page, before listing any other tags.
2. USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR
META TAGS
There's a continuing debate
about whether to separate each Keyword in the Meta tag
by a comma, or to group related words (i.e, phrases)
by commas, or to list all the words in one long string
separating each word only by a spaces.
Which method is better?
The most common method is separating each word or phrase
by a comma. However, many experts contend that the search
engines ignore the commas. Their thought is that by
eliminating them, you can include more words in the
tag. My position is that it won't likely affect your
rankings either way.
Caution: Be careful
not to repeat the same Keyword more than two or three
times in the Meta tag. NEVER repeat the same word twice
in a row or you may trigger a search engine's "spam
filter." Never include Keywords that do not apply to
the content of your page.
Here's what your Meta tag
may look like for "Chiropractor in Ventura County".
<Meta Name="keywords"
content=" Chiropractor, Family Chiropractor, Chiropractors,Chiropracitic,
Chiropractic care, Ventura County, Thousand Oaks, Westlake
Village, California, John Q. Smith Chiropractor." >
3. USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR
META DESCRIPTION TAGS
Each engine that supports
the Meta description tag will shrink it down to 150
to 350 characters depending on the engine. Therefore,
include the best portion of your description in the
first 150 characters, but go ahead and add additional
text to fill it out to about 350 characters.
Here's what your Meta Description
tag may look like for "Chiropractor in Ventura County".
<Meta Name="description"
content="Looking for a Chiropractor in Ventura County?
Find expert advice from a proven Ventura County Chiropractor,
Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village Chiropractor expert,
John Q Smith, dedicated to providing the best service
in Ventura County.">
4. USE KEYWORDS IN THE BODY
OF YOUR TEXT
Many engines look at your
first paragraph for Keyword relevance. By carefully
wording the text in your first paragraph, you can add
to your Keyword relevancy. My suggestion is not to use
your Keywords more than five times on any page in the
body of your text.
Here is an example of using
Keywords in the body of your text. Keywords = " Chiropractor
in Ventura County."
When you're looking to
purchase Chiropractor in Ventura County you
want someone who is an expert in buying and selling
Chiropractor in Ventura County. We are here to help.
Located in the Thousand Oaks/ Westlake Village area
in Ventura County. Our Chiropractor office
is here to focus on you and your personal needs.
Some engines will also
check the last paragraph of the body of your text. One
local Chiropractor uses this text at the bottom of his
homepage to gain added Keyword relevancy for his website.
"ABC Chiropractic proudly
serves the following areas of Ventura County: Conejo
Valley, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Camarillo, Lake Sherwood,
Moorpark, Newbury Park, North Ranch, Simi Valley, Thousand
Oaks, and Westlake Village."
TIP: Pages heavy
with text in a small font size may not get listed. Avoid
using font size lower than 2 as the dominant size for
your body copy.
5.
USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR IMAGE/ALT TAGS
Some engines will actually
look at your Image and Alta tags as part of their Algorithms.
On way to take advantage of this is by renaming your
Image and Alt tags with your Keywords.
Here is an example.
You have an image named,
"image1.jpg"
Change the name to "chiropractor1.jpg"
or "venturacounty.jpg"
Here is an example of
how your Image tag may look in HTML.
<A HREF="welcome-ventura-county-thousand-oaks.asp">
<IMG SRC="images/venturacounty.jpg" >
An Alt tag is the text that
pops up when you move your mouse over a Hyperlink and
some text is displayed in your browser as the mouse rolls
over the link.
Example: "Find more
information about Chiropractors in Ventura County, Thousand
Oaks and Westlake Village California."
Here is an example of
how your Alt tag may look in HTML.
<ALT=" Find more information
about Chiropractors listing in Ventura County, Thousand
Oaks and Westlake Village California.">
6. USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR
HYPERLINKS
Some engines will actually
look at the words in your Hyperlinks for added relevancy.
If you have several pages on your website, consider
renaming them with your Keywords. One local top ranking
Realtor uses this technique to gain a top ranking on
Google.
Each of the Hyperlinks
on the home page are packed with Keywords and Keyword
phrases.
These are just a few examples
of clever ways that you can add Keywords to your Hyperlinks
to gain extra Keyword relevancy for your website. Consider
adding some links about your local city with hyperlinks
that use your Keywords, such as;
Learn all about Ventura
County, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village.
Information and hot links
about Ventura County.
My favorite places to visit
in Ventura County.
School information for
Ventura County, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village.
Suggestions_ feature local
businesses, landmarks, points of interest.
Be creative. Make your
links stand out so people will want to click them. The
more time they spend on your site, the better chance
at gaining a new client.
7. USE H1 TAGS TO BOOST
RELEVANCY.
Some search engines will
give words found in your "H1" tag a boost in relevancy.
The H1 tag is used to specify page or topic headings.
In most browsers H1 is an oversized font that looks
out of place on a page.
Here is a smart way that
you can gain keyword relevancy both ways by using Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS). With CSS, you can specify that the
browser display the H1 tag or other tags on your page
anyway you please. By using CSS you can get both a boost
in relevancy and get better control of your webpage's
appearance with this easy step.
In the <HEAD> area
of the page, put the following STYLE lines:
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
H1 {font-family: arial,helvetica;
font-size: 12pt; color: black}
</STYLE>
This will force all H1 tags
on the page to use a 12 pt Arial or Helvetica font in
black text. This will also allow you to adjust the point
size or font to whatever size may look best on your webpage.
Using this CSS tag, you
can now use the H1 tag on all your pages to gain extra
relevancy Keyword relevancy without sacrificing the
look of your pages. Many experts agree that a majority
of the engines give more weight to Keywords that appear
within H1 heading tags. Try it, you'll be amazed at
the results.
A QUICK CLOSING COMMENT.
This past summer I spent
some time with my family at the Palm Desert Marriot
Resort. While playing in the pool with my kids, I noticed
that several people kept asking me what I do for a living.
After some conversation, I realized that the Hotel was
host to Mike Ferry Real Estate Trainer. The number one
question I was asked that day was, "How can I get
my site to show up on search engines for my local area?"
By following the above advice you can help your website's
ranking on many search engines.
All of this information
will make a difference in the way your website is indexed
on search engines that are Keyword driven. I would love
to get you started with making these changes. If you
need any help, you can e-mail me at david@webpositionadvisor.com
A couple of hours with
me may mean a couple of new patients to you. You will
need a slightly different strategy on some of the other
Search Directories.
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David Dimas is an off-site Internet manager in Ventura
County, California. He is a widely read author of Internet
Tutorials. His website contains 30 tutorials on Search
Engines, Internet Advertising, E-zines, Press Releases,
and other "How To," tutorials on Internet marketing.
He is also an approved instructor at USCB Extension
in Santa Barbara, California for Internet Advertising
101 and Search Engine 101.
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