Now that you have chosen the right keywords, you are ready to apply them to your site. Website optimization is the process of modifying your website to include your selected keywords in the content and HTML code of the website.
Note: Many of the strategies outlined in this step are technical in nature.
If you are using a traditional website designed in Dreamweaver, Frontpage,or other web design software and the techniques described in this step seem unfamiliar, your webmaster will be able to help. You may also want to visit our Nonprofit SEO Forum for advice.
Search engines consider your home page the most important part of your site, so what you put there is extremely important. Begin by focusing on your home page, and then apply the same principles to other pages on your site.
Content guidelines:
- Include one paragraph about each of your top keywords.
- Cut the Flash and/or animation (these do NOT work with SEO).
- Avoid “splash” pages with images and little or no text content, as these are poorly optimized and reflect bad information design principles.
- Limit the title to about 70 characters and 2-3 keyword phrases. For example, if you look at the very top of this page (in your browser's title bar), you'll see that the title for this page is "SEO Begins At Home | Website Optimization | Nonprofit SEO".
Make sure your keyword phrases for each page appear in the HTML title tag - Use one or more explanatory headings on each page. In HTML, these are indicated by the tags H1, H2, H3, etc. Include relevant keywords in heading tags for content sections. This isn’t just good search engine optimization; it’s good information design, since users appreciate content that is clearly and logically organized. On this page, the heading "SEO Begins At Home | Website Optimization" is in H1 tags.
- You should also focus on the name of the page itself, because search engines pay a lot of attention to what pages are named. Are you naming your ”about us” page “about.html”? This does nothing to further your rankings. However, a page named “About-XYZ.html” would help your rankings if your name is “XYZ”.
- Give images relevant names (communitycenterfront.jpg instead of image1.jpg) and use descriptive “alt” text for images. Search engines look at these words too! This is also a requirement if you wish to comply with accessibility requirements for users with special needs. Keep in mind that “users with special needs” includes those with cell phones and pdas as well those using screenreaders or other assistive technologies; this is a much larger percentage of the population than most people think.
- Create navigation text links using keywords (not “click here” or linked images). Search engines pay attention to the text linking to website pages, so your navigation menu is a chance to let the search engines know what those pages are about.
- Be sure that every single page on your website is linked from your navigation structure, so that no pages are “orphaned”. If you have a page that no other page links to, then that page is invisible on your website; remember that users, like search engines, will follow your links to find their way around your website. It is also a good idea to include a sitemap page that has links to every page of your site
- Remember to refer back to your keyword list often to make sure that you have all of your target keywords on at least one page of your site. If you find any keyword that is not included, you can add another page about that keyword or phrase.
Continue to keep your keywords in mind as you move on to the next step: Link Building For Nonprofits