Using Keywords in the Body: Put Them Here, Put Them There, Put Them Everywhere!

Author: Janet L. Hall

Using Keywords in the Body: Put Them Here, Put Them There, Put Them Everywhere! By: Janet L. Hall

The keywords you are using MUST be reflected in the page content, the BODY, of the web page you are trying to improve or build.

There are many places you can, and should place your keywords to help you get a higher ranking in the search engines; remember, this is the ultimate goal. People searching for you WON'T find you if you don't use your keywords throughout your web page!

TOP Seven Areas to Place Your Keywords in the BODY of Your Web Pages:

1.Beginning and near the top of web page. 2.Headlines (Headings) and Subtitles. 3.Links. 4.Site Address in Links. 5.Name of Images. 6.ALT (Image) TAGS. 7.Background Images.

This month we'll look at the top first four, one at a time, and next month we'll finish up with the last three.

We continue building and organizing your web page from last time by inserting the BODY TAG: This TAG is automatically inserted for you by FrontPage and probably other web page design software after your ending or closing HEAD TAG

1. Beginning and near the top of web page : Here you want to type in a paragraph, or more, of information about your services, products, or yourself, being sure to incorporate and use the KEYWORDS you have selected for that page. Get your most important and relevant keywords as close to the top of your web page.

Many designers and beginners put logos, images, or banners near the top of their web page. Bad mistake! This can cause some of the search engine spiders to be "caught in the web," so to speak. They can't read the image, so they stop retrieving information from your web page and web site; they move on to another web site to spider. They might be able to retrieve the first few lines on that page, and those lines of text might get used as the description of your site when someone is searching for you. Since search engines seem to be in a constant change of what they want, it's important that your first few lines of text be your most important information, with your most important keywords in there!

According to wordtracker.com, "Make the first 25 words in the body of your page keyword rich…Spread your keyword phrases throughout the body of the page in natural sounding paragraphs. Put a keyword at the end of your body text as well."

Another trick you might try to boost your keyword relevance is by putting your keyword phrases in bold in your BODY text.

2. Headlines (Headings) and Subtitles: The headlines, subtitles, and titles in the BODY of your web page are considered headings. Not to be confused with the HEAD TAG I wrote about in issue 5 of OverHall IT! (http://www.overhall.com/issue5.htm )

Heading TAGS are numbered, one, , being the most important and largest. The Heading TAG is written as: , , , and so on. The ending or closing TAG is written as: , , , and so on.

Heading TAG Sample:

OverHall IT!

3. Links are usually presented on your web page as blue text and underlined. Links to other pages on your web site or to another web site are always written the same, with the exception that you place the web address (URL) of the web site or page that you want people to go to. It is also another place you can place your keywords. Below is an example of a link to my web's home page:

Click here to get organized

Notice the opening TAG is and the closing TAG is . After the first quotation sign you type in the web site address or web page you are linking to. Next, insert another quotation mark, then a bracket, after which you type the text that you want to be blue, underlined, and containing your keywords; the words that a person will click on to move to the web site or page you have linked to. Then your closing TAG .

Here is an example of linking from my home page to another: O rganizing tips and Organizing articles

Please notice how I used an underscore, _ , between the words in the web address. You can also use a dash (-) to separate words in addresses. By using the underscore or dash, the search engines will see the words as individual words in a phrase. If not broken up, issuesandarticles, the search engines see a single term, DON'T DO THAT!

4. Site Address in Links: When you are building your pages, make sure you name the new pages (the htm pages) after your KEYWORDS. Let's examine one of my addresses: My domain name is http://www.overhall.com and I've built a page about a dated filing system that I think is a terrific product, that I sell, and that I refer to as a tickler file. My keyword is tickler file. So that page is called tickler_file.htm and the address looks like this: http://www.overhall.com ickler_file.htm See how I used my keyword as the name of the htm page?

I'm still in the process of fixing some of my pages because when I made them I didn't know to put my keywords in the name of the address. I then have to decide whether to keep the old ones up on the Internet, because people might have bookmarked them, or I can redirect the person to the new page. Then I have the task of resubmitting them to the search engines. So, TAKE YOUR TIME when you start building other pages, carefully deciding on your keywords and using them in the address.

Okay, using this and last month's lesson, let's see what your web page should look like:

WEB PAGE EXAMPLE:

disorganized? organizing help, clutter tips, organizing tools