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Creating Keyword Rich Pages
By Sumantra Roy (c) 2005

This article is focused on how you should create these KRPs. I
am assuming you have a working knowledge of the different HTML
tags like the Title tag, the Meta Description tag, the Meta
Keywords tag, the Heading tags, the Alt Tag etc. If you don't,
just go to:
http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex.html
for a good introduction to such HTML tags.

Now, let us assume that your company sells packaged tours to
Australia, and that you are targeting the keyword "travel to
australia". Here's how you create the KRPs:

The Title Tag:

The first and most important tag to consider is the Title tag.
You should always begin the Title tag with the keyword that you
are targeting. Also remember that the search engines are going
to display the Title tag while they are displaying the results
of a search. Hence, you need to make the Title tag attractive
to humans as well.

Here is one Title tag that I may have used: "Travel to Australia
and discover its scenic beauty". Have a look at the Title tag -
it uses the keyword right at the beginning and also tells people
how beautiful a place Australia is.

Of course, all Titles need not be like the one I used. The Title
that you use depends on the subject matter of your site. However,
you should follow all the general rules that I have outlined
here.

Meta Description Tag:

The Meta Description tag is used by many search engines to
provide a short description of the page that is listed in the
search results. Hence, like the Title tag, it is important that
the Meta Description tag be keyword rich as well as attractive
to humans.

The rules for the Meta Description are more or less the same as
those for the Title tag. However, the content of this tag will
generally be longer than that of the Title. Here's what I may
have used in the Meta Description tag:

"Travel to Australia - We take care of all the details of your
trip so that you can travel with complete peace of mind."

Note how this description repeats the keyword and also the
benefit that it stresses - it says that the customer will be
able to travel without having to worry about the intricate
details of the trip - you will take care of them.

Meta Keywords Tag:

The Meta Keywords tag has become less and less important as far
as search engine optimization is concerned. In fact, you can get
top rankings without having anything in the Meta Keywords tag at
all. However, just to be on the safe side, you would want to
include some keywords in the Meta Keywords tag. You should also
include some of the common upper/lower case variations of the
keyword. The rules for the Meta Keywords tag are pretty simple -
don't repeat any keyword in the Meta Keywords tag more than
three times and don't repeat any keyword one after the other.
Here's what I may have used in the Meta Keywords tag:

"Travel to Australia, tourism, travel to Australia, Down Under,
TRAVEL TO AUSTRALIA"

Note how I have introduced "tourism" and "Down Under" just to
separate the different instances of the keyword.

Body of the Page:

Now we come to the actual body of the page. Begin by getting
hold of a nice (but not too large) picture which is applicable
for the page that you are creating. In the present case, I might
include a picture of the lotus shaped Sydney Opera House. Place
this picture at the top of the page. In the Alt tag for the
picture, just mention your target keyword once, i.e. the Alt tag
would be "Travel to Australia". You can include other words in
the Alt tag, but it should start with the keyword you are
targeting.

Once you've put up the picture, it is time to create a Heading
for your page. Use the H1 tag to do so. Again, in the H1 tag,
mention your target keyword once, i.e. like the Alt tag for the
picture, the H1 tag could be "Travel to Australia". Again, like
the Alt tag, you can include other words in the heading, but the
heading should start with the keyword you are targeting.

Now it's time to create the actual text of the page. The way you
create the text of your page would depend largely on what you
want the visitor to do after reading this page. In some cases,
you may simply want the visitor to go to the home page or another
specific page in your site after reading this page. In this case,
you should write the text in such a way that the visitor is
attracted to the page that you are targeting. You would also
want to provide links to the home page or the specific page that
you are targeting at strategic places in the KRP. Or, you may
want the visitor to click on the link to an affiliate program
that you are a member of. In this case, you would stress the
benefits that the visitor gets by purchasing the product or
service that the affiliate program is selling. You would also
want to provide links to the affiliate program at strategic
places in the page and/or at the end of the page. Whatever it is
that you want your page to do, there are some general rules to
follow:

1) The first thing to remember is that some search engines don't
recognize the Meta Description tag. These search engines will
often simply take the first few lines of text in the body of
your page and display that as the description. Hence, you must
ensure that the first few lines of text in your page are
attractive to human beings.

2) Ensure that as many sentences as possible in the page contain
your target keyword once. The keyword shouldn't just be placed
on an ad hoc basis - the way the keyword is placed in every
sentence should actually make grammatical sense and the
repetition should be such that your human visitors do not feel
that you have deliberately repeated a particular phrase
throughout the page. This is not only important from the point
of view of ensuring that your readers don't get a bad impression
of your site, but also from the point of view of search engine
optimization - the search engines may penalize your page for
spamming if they find that you have randomly repeated the
keyword throughout the page. Also, while repeating the keyword
in the page, try to repeat the keyword once near the top of the
page and once near the bottom.

3) Make sure that your paragraphs are not too long - each
paragraph should be no more than 3 or 4 sentences long. This is
because people on the web simply don't have the time or the
inclination to read long paragraphs.

4) Try to ensure that the page contains links to other pages
with the keyword being present in the text under the link. This
can often lead to a higher ranking for your page.

5) There is no hard and fast rule regarding the total number of
words that should be present in the KRPs. As a rule of thumb,
try to ensure that there are between 500-600 words. However, if
the number of words falls a bit short of or exceeds this limit,
don't worry too much.

Once you have created the page, ensure that the name of the file
in which it is saved contains the keyword and that the individual
words of the keyword are separated by hyphens. In this case, the
name of the file would be "travel-to-australia.html". This will
get you a higher ranking in the few search engines which give a
lot of emphasis on the keyword being present in the file name.

After doing all this, simply link the home page of your site
with the Sitemap page using a text link. Then, submit your home
page, the Sitemap page and each of the KRPs to the search
engines. When you are submitting these pages, to be on the safe
side, make sure that you submit no more than 1 page per day to
any search engine - otherwise, you run the risk of some search
engines ignoring some of the pages you have submitted. You can
submit your site by going to the individual "Add URL" pages of
each engine. Or, in order to save time, you can use our free
submission tool which helps you submit your site manually to the
search engines, without having to go to the individual "Add URL"
pages of each engine. The tool is available at
http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_b&submission.htm

Follow all the rules that I have outlined in this article and
you can soon see your search engine blues disappear forever!

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Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected
search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. To have
Sumantra's company place your site at the top of the search
engines, go to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_b
For more advice on how you can take your web site to the top of
the search engines, subscribe to his FREE newsletter by going to
http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_b&newsletter.htm
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