#TechTuesday: Six quick and easy tweaks to increase your search engine traffic
Posted: Tue 11th Dec 2012
Lola Bailey, author of The Small Business Guide to Online Marketing, has already explained how to identify keywords to help you with your search engine optimisation. But where should you place your keywords on your website pages to maximise your search engine visibility?
If you've read any of the search engine-related posts here on Enterprise Nation, you'll have come across keywords and their importance in getting search engine traffic to your website, writes Lola (left). This post gives you a run-down of how you can gain increased traffic through clever keyword placement.
1. Place keyword-rich page titles on each of your pages.
The screenshot below shows you what a page title looks like. Page titles often show up in search engine results - so you could say they're pretty important! Â
Page titles are found between the <head> and </head> sections of HTML coding, within <title> </title> tags: 
Avoid making the mistake of using the same page title for each page, regardless of relevance. Go through each page of your site and substitute irrelevant titles for relevant ones. A tip here is to ask yourself what a customer want from the page, and which keywords would they use to help them find it. Some page title tips:
Make them no more than 60 characters' worth of letters, numbers, spaces and symbols.
Don't be too clever with the title. Communicate for understanding.
Place your most important words at the beginning of your title. Remove articles such as 'a', 'an', and 'the'.
Use dashes (-) to join ideas together.
2. Include a "meta description" on every page of your website.
A meta description is the text that appears underneath your page title, in the search engine listing's blurb as shown here: Â
This meta description gives you an opportunity to entice and attract visitors to your site through an inviting, 'keyword' summary of what your site offers. Here's what the coding for meta descriptions should look like with the keywords in bold:
<meta name = "description" content= "Tips for writing and editing sales copy that generates conversions">
Meta descriptions should be no more than 20 words.
3. Use natural sounding words when you write your link text.
Write longer text for your links as these enable you to insert more keywords, and allow you to be more specific about what's on offer in the page where you are asking people to click. Here is an example of  a keyword-rich link (keywords in bold) :
Learn how a copywriter can benefit your small business
4. Make your headings and subheads keyword-rich.
Every three or four paragraphs break up your content with subheads that contain desired keywords. Similarly, your headings should be keyword rich. If, for example, you're a web designer, the subheads on your pages (keyword: web designer) could look like this:
- Navigation labels and on-site searches for web designer
- Trust-building elements for web designers.
5. Ensure every image, photo or illustration on your site has its own 'alt' tag.
An alt tag is a little tooltip that pops up when a visitor hovers their mouse over an image. To see what they look like, hover your mouse over any of the images on Enterprise Nation. Alt text presents an opportunity for you to insert your keywords - you may need the help of a designer to do this at first. Another way to add extra keyword value to your images is by making sure every image has a keyword-appropriate caption. Captions are, unlike alt tags, permanently visible.
6. Expand your on-site linking horizons.
Commonly overlooked areas for placing your keyword-rich links are sidebars, footers and navigation links. Many sites have two navigation menus: the first is the standard one that runs across the top of your screen and which is worded for the customer - eg, 'About Us', 'Our Services', 'Contact Us', etc.; the second is usually placed unobtrusively in the footer, worded for search engines. Another good placement is at the bottom of your articles. Simply place a 'Further Information' section underneath each article, followed by your keyword -rich links to relevant sections of your website.
Need more tech tips? Join in with #TechTuesday, every Tuesday
If you're your own IT department and you need some help, make sure you follow us on Twitter (@e_nation) and tweet #TechTuesday, every Tuesday, between 11am and midday UK time.It's a great way to find a quick solution to an IT problem that's been bugging you and we're helped by other Twitterers, who chip in with their tips and advice, suggestions and recommendations, too.
Photo credit: Simon Wicks
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