PART II:
The Barebones of Search Engine Optimization

Integrating keywords with the content of your website pages is a critical aspect of search engine optimization.

Optimizing Web Content for Search Engines

Obviously, optimizing a website for the best results in search engines commences with the keyword phrases. For example, if you have an interview with academy award winning, actress Charlize Theron, you might want to optimize Best Actress Oscar. Generally, it's not as cut and dry on which words to optimize. Research will be necessary to determine which word combinations and phrases are searched, regularly:

Bookmark the following keyword research tools:

• The Google AdWords Tool



• The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool



• Yahoo Buzz

Google and Overture depict the number of times a specific term has been searched on in the past month. Yahoo Buzz show how your site is listed. You may not have content to match any of Yahoo's most popular searches. The key to writing content is to think like a searcher.

Important Search Engine Tip: Keyword phrases that appear in the META Title, META Keyword, and META Description must be present in the content.

Repeat Keyword Phrases Often

Because search engines read a minimum of 200 - 1000 characters of content on a webpage, repetition is key. Within the first 200- 1,000 characters, repeat keyword phrases in a natural way. It imperative to include targeted phrases as often as possible without making the text look redundant or overtly repetitive. In certain search engine optimization circles, a crafty way to disburse keyword phrases includes placing the words in :

• A link box



• Section headings



• Image captions



• Credits

Example: http://www.zestrx.com/tramadol_faq.jsp

The keyword phrase "Tramadol " appears 10 times in the first half of the page. The keyword appears in the headline, subheads, content link box. More importantly, the keyword does not overwhelm the reader. It appears natural and flows in an informative manner. From an editorial standpoint, the keyword, Tramadol doesn't compromise the integrity of the copy but flows well and is lightly peppered with repetition.

Keyword Phrases in Links

Search engines like Google and Yahoo pay particular attention to links. Engines assess the anchor text (actual word(s) that are linked) and surrounding text or annotations. Make sure that keyword phrases are linked as well as the content in and around the link. Try to avoid linking words like read more, click here or learn more because the words do not convey anything to a search engine.

For example, click the following sentence:

Learn more strategies in search engine optimization

Do you notice in the above sentence how the keyword phrase, "search engine optimization" (in the link box) is integrated in the body of the copy smoothly?

Proceed to part three of search engine optimization