You have probably guessed it by now – the two most important tags are the title and description tags when concerned with search engines both of which I will discuss in great detail.

The Title Tag
Most important to search engines, if possible it is ideal to place a keyword within the “Title” tag. It should also appear at the top of the page, or as close to the top as possible. An interesting aspect which I did not know about was that the title tag, or title of your article should ideally be 40 to 60 characters to include spaces.

The Description Tag
This tag is of secondary importance and is really just a general description of the specific content or article. It should be placed right after the title tag. The “All In One SEO Pack” recommends a maximum length of 160 characters. I will discuss the SEO pack further in the next section.

SEO Pack
While reading “Search Engine Optimization For Dummies” which this article is based, there was a lengthy discussion on placement of the “title” and “description” tags within the HTML code. I briefly touched upon that here, but thought it appropriate to discuss the “All-In-One SEO Pack” plugin for WordPress again. The great part about this plugin is that it addresses a good deal of your SEO needs without having to actually muck around in the HTML code itself. It basically automates repetitive tasks such as placement of tags – all that is required of you is to enter the specific information yourself within the fields. I will provide a brief demonstration here:

1. Enter the “Title” tag as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Title Tag

2. Enter the “Description” tag as shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Description Tag

I highly recommend this plugin, as it simplifies much of the basic work associated with SEO. For more information on the All-In-One SEO Pack for WordPress as well as where to download this plugin, read Amy’s article called “All In One SEO Pack for WordPress”.

Proper title and description tags, as well as the location of these tags are important for effective SEO!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

Keyword Selection Process
Prior to discovering this process I had more or less just picked keywords out of nowhere. I had heard some advice as to not use “cutesy” and “clever” types of keywords, but to be as descriptive as possible, which I tried to follow. However, my process was not based on any hard data. The following is actually a cool way to take the guesswork out of selecting keywords for your blog, or even individual articles:

1. Visit the Google AdWords Keyword Tool website.
2. Enter the “one keyword or phrase per line” as prompted and verify the “Use synonyms” box is checked.  Enter the security word, and click “Get keyword ideas” all as shown below in Figure 1:

Figure 1. Google AdWords Keyword Tool

3. View the keyword results as shown below in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Keyword Results

For this example I had entered the word “keyword” which I planned to use for this article. Many results were provided, actually many more which I have displayed, for the sake of saving space for this article I condensed the list. For this discussion I have highlighted the keywords of interest.

There are two immediate benefits that one may derive from this tool. First, it provides you with the most searched for term that you may consider using. For our example of “keywords” the results show that “keywords” has 1,000,000 local search volume and “keyword” has 1,500,000 which reinforces my choice. If I did not guess right on the first attempt, this is where the second benefit comes into play. The keyword tool also provides you with similar keywords, should your selected word not have a high enough search volume.

So what exactly is high enough? Not sure really, I believe it is subjective. I strive to use words that have over 1 million in search volume, although this isn’t always possible. My recommendation is that you determine your own desired search volume and stick with it as much as possible. You should always strive for consistency with your blog and/or article content and this should win out even over keyword search volume. Quality over quantity.

Location, Location, Location
In addition to keyword search volume, location is also worth consideration as the location of keywords matters to search engine spiders that crawl your site. Here are five simple tips:

1. Use important keywords near the top of your page
2. Place keywords in your headings – for example headings for this article are the title and the sub-headings
3. Place keywords in bulleted lists
4. Bold & italics keywords
5. Use keywords multiple times whenever possible

One misconception that was debunked by the author of “Search Engine Optimization For Dummies” was that of “click here.” I have seen this used by many blogs and websites and have even done it myself on occasion believing it the right thing to do to increase traffic, however this is not the case. “Click here” may drive more users to click on a given link, however it is not ideal for search engine optimization. The author, Peter Kent, states that you should be descriptive when referencing another article, this assists search engines in indexing and categorizing your material.

Here is an example of what is meant using one of my past articles.

1. Non-optimized approach – Click “here” to read an article on bots and spiders.
2. Optimized approach – To learn more about search engine bots and spiders refer to my article “SEO Part II: Bots, Spiders, & a Big Fat Lie.”

Note that in the second approach that there is more of a description, with the article title actually being written out.

In addition to using these simple tips, I recommend that you do a keyword search on all the keywords that you plan on using. I have noticed that simple changes have a large impact on the search volume of your keywords. Give it a try!

To Be Continued…
This series will conclude with a discussion on the importance of title and description tags.

Keyword selection and location can have a large impact on search engine traffic!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

Indexing Explained
In simplest terms indexing basically refers to having your website listed for later retrieval by a person conducting a search by means of a search engine or directory. There are two important places you need to concern yourself with, the first being the search engines, and the second being The Open Directory Project, both of which are addressed here.

Search Engines
Is your site currently indexed, or located, within the major search engines and directories? These include:

1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. MSN Live
4. Open Directory Project

Here is a quick and easy way to check Google:

1. Go to Google
2. Enter the following: “site:domain.com”, for example our site would be site:http://capecodbranding.com as shown in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1. Google Home Page

3. Click “Google Search”
4. View the Google results. An example of the Cape Cod Branding indexed pages are provided below as Figure 2.

Figure 2. Google Results Page

Note the indexed pages on the left and the total number of results on the right, which I have highlighted.

The same approach may be used to determine how much you have indexed within the other search engines such as Yahoo and MSN Live.

Open Directory Project
The Open Directory Project is a large collection of websites which is volunteer run, but owned by AOL. Your website being present in this listing is supposedly just as important as the search engines. Browsing the rules for submission it appears to be managed fairly strictly. We had submitted back in January, without anything happening since. Back then the backlog was approximately two months for approval and inclusion although we did not receive confirmation. Since then we submitted again about three weeks ago (late May), with the backlog estimated at two weeks, still without result. I will provide an update once I learn more. In the meantime, here is a quick way to check if your site is listed on Open Directory Project:

1. Go to the Open Director Project website.
2. Enter your domain name, without the “www” and click “Search” as shown below in Figure 3:

Figure 3. Open Directory Project Home Page

3. Review the results screen as shown in Figure 4:

Figure 4. Open Directory Results Page

Note again that our site has not been listed yet, hopefully you will have better luck!

To Be Continued…
In More SEO Part II will address the importance of keywords and how to select the optimum keywords.

Checking your sites indexing is a quick way to determine the extent of your web presence on search engines and directories!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding