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Website SEO Tip: Optimizing Header Tags and Keywords

Guest post by: serena carcasole

Article Overview: Driving traffic to your website comes from many strategies, including optimizing header tags in your html. This critical website SEO tip incorporates the proper < h 1 > to < h 6 > tags into your website so that search engines know it is important and will rank it higher. It can also help to use bolded headings for readability and organizing your articles and blogs. Here’s how optimizing header tags can take increase your website rankings and keep readers interested too:

Website SEO Tip: Optimizing Header Tags and Keywords

Driving traffic to your website comes from many strategies, including optimizing header tags in your html. This critical website SEO tip incorporates the proper < h 1 > to < h 6 > tags into your website so that search engines know it is important and will rank it higher. It can also help to use bolded headings for readability and organizing your articles and blogs. Here's how optimizing header tags can take increase your website rankings and keep readers interested too:

Use Correct Header Tags

Your website should be accessible by as many people as possible. Proper code in your header tags can help you do this. When search engines recognize your tags, you'll get ranked higher. Plus, header tags have more significance than your body copy. This website SEO tip means your headlines are the most important part of any blog or article.

Do a check on your html to make sure you aren't missing any of the tags

Start with tag < h1 > for your title or largest heading

Use just one < h1 > tag per page

Tags < h2 > to < h6 > are the subheadings and should contain these tags in order of importance

Don't skip heading levels (for example, make sure your tags go in order from largest to smallest)

Use Keywords in Header Tags

Your keywords should definitely be contained in all of the header tags. The most important tag is < h1 >, which is likely your title, so by all means insert your keywords into it. You should then continue using your keywords in all the header tags, if possible, since the search engines are going to notice the header tags first and foremost. Remember, the tags not only go from largest to smallest, but the least important keywords should also go in those later tags, while saving the best for the first ones.

Use your best keywords in heading tags

Be as specific as possible in keywords, including a short phrase that points to the exact customer you are trying to reach (i.e., life coaches in Canada).

Make sure things like the date is not in your header tags (especially in a < h1 > tag, unless you want the date highlighted as a keyword)

Write Your Headlines with Readers in Mind

Even though you want to use keywords for optimizing header tags for search engines, do make sure your headlines are easily scannable and reader friendly. After all, if a reader comes to your page and sees the headlines are obviously coded, but not the least interesting, they will click away. Using this website SEO tip is what you might call the icing on the cake because it brings all your efforts together.

Start with keywords and then wrap interesting points around them (things to try: tips, how-to's, questions).

Keep headings short and easy to grasp, so the reader knows just what they are getting

Make sure the body copy enhances the headline

The Next Step for SEO Success

Check into your html codes for headers and ensure that none are missing and the keywords are correct. Once that part of your site is optimized, work on incorporating more SEO website elements, such as using keywords in the body copy, meta tags, links, and graphics.

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Article Tags: critical website, header tags, search engines, website rankings



Related Forum Posts
Re: How can I promote my site? - There are various useful techniques for promoting a website. In SEO the techniques could be "white hat" and "black hat" techniques. White hat techniques includes following techniques to promote website as per the search engine rules. - Search Engine Friendly Tags - Website submission to Search Engines - Website Submission to Social Sites (Like twitter, Facebook) - Articles Promotion & Press Release Promotion - Quality Directories promotion - Contribution to Blogs, Forums Black hat techniques can reduce website strength in the search engine and can treat site as spam that could be following. - Keywords Stuffing. - Hidden Links - Maximum Links of unknown sites.
Re: SEO... - 1: Find the Best Keywords 2: Discover Your Competitors 3: Optimize Your Title 4: Optimize Your META Tags 5: Use Headings 6: Use Title and ALT Attributes 7: Nomenclatures 8: Create a Site Map Page 9: Include a robots.txt File 10: Install a sitemap.xml for Google MySQL/Oracle:
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
Re: Web Business Podcast is LIVE! :) - Hi David - have you thought of making these into videos? Even if it doesn't have you live on screen? Remembering the Success Secret Keywords would be a lot easier if we could see them.
Re: Search Engine Optimization - As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.


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