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SEO Hints and Tips: How to Optimize a Web Page 
By Peter Nisbet (c) 2008 

SEO hints and tips can inform you how to optimize a web
page,  and if you can understand how  to carry out your own
search engine optimization then you can get yourself a
whole heap of free traffic to your website. Not only your
website, but free traffic to selected pages on your
website:  pages selected by you!

You no doubt understand all the basic stuff, but in case
you are new to this, let's first have look at these basic
SEO hints and tips, since many seem to omit them from their
web pages. The most important are the essential HTML tags
needed to convince the search engines of the theme of your
web page.

Note the term 'web page', because many people don't realize
that Google, along with most other search engines, doesn't
list websites, but individual web pages. It is essential
that you understand how search engines work if you want to
learn how to optimize a web page.

I am going to refer to Google, not only because it is the
biggest of the search engines, but also to save the bother
of referring to search engines all the time. I will refer
to Google, but what applies to Google also applies to the
rest. Here are the main SEO basics:

a) The TITLE tag. This appears in the HEAD portion of
your html, and is not actually seen by your visitors but is
the most important tag on your web page because the
spiders place very high weight on it. Use your main
keywords here, and also any other text that will inform
Google of the theme of your web page.

b) Heading (H) tags. Your page title should be placed
within H1 tags, and should contain the same major keyword
as you used in the TITLE tag. Any subheadings should be
contained within H2 tags. I don't use any of the lower
tags, from H3 down, except perhaps H3 very occasionally.
Google will regard any text with H tags as being important,
with most weight given to the lower numbers. However, if
you place everything in H1 tags, that will dilute its
importance on your page and defeat the object.

c) Text enhancements: Use bold, italic and underline
enhancements sparingly, and where you once again want to
stress the importance of certain keywords.

d) Use your keywords mainly in the first third of your
page. Don't use too many: I get good results with under 1%
overall keyword density, by using the main  keyword in the
first 100 characters, once in the last paragraph and once
more each 300 words but concentrated in the first third of
the page. Thus, an 800 word page will have the keyword
three times in the first 250 words and once in the last
paragraph.

e) Meta tags: The only meta tag worth using is the
description tag, which is used by most search engines in
the description of your web page in their listings. Google
mainly uses it exactly as you write it. The keyword tag can
also be used, but few search engines are thought to use it:
Google does not. Any other meta tags are a waste of your
space. Anybody that claims differently is wanting to sell
you something.

These are the basic hints on SEO, now here are some of the
more advanced SEO hints and tips that will teach you not
only how to optimize a web page, but to understand the way
that search engines work. These are less obvious, and
generally not used by beginners to search engine marketing.

f) Use text links to other pages on your website. Search
engine spiders love text, and fancy graphics or java links
might look great, but don't get you kudos from the spiders.
Stick to text if you want a good listing: there's no point
in fancy graphical links if you have no visitors to use
them.

g) Try to use as much text as possible, and as little code
as possible. Your code to text ratio should be minimized
as much as possible because ...  yes, you've got it!
Spiders love text!

h) Another good SEO tip is to focus on your off-page
linking. It is possible to get a #1 spot on Google with no
content: just loads of links coming into your web page
from other websites. Not just any websites, but authority
sites, so reciprocal links to and from web pages not
directly related to your niche are a waste of time, and can
even harm you. Link farms can positively damage you.

i) Use anchor text for your links where at all possible.
Google shouldn't have to work out what your web page is
about: tell them. Hyperlink your keyword to your website,
but don't use the same form of keyword from every webpage
linking to yours. Mix them about so as to keep the links
fresh.

j) And lastly: Keep adding pages to your website. You
have more chance of a high listing from one website of 60
pages than from two of 30 pages each. Keep refreshing your
content with new pages, and take time to revise some of
your older pages now and again. Google detests stagnation.

These are just a few SEO hints and tips that can teach you
how to optimize a web page. There are many, many more.
Some quite basic, others very much more advanced than the
above. However, you can't get everything free!
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For many more useful SEO hints and tips, check out Pete's
acclaimed eBook http://www.improved-search-engine-rank.com
that shows you how he gets listed on Google in two days,
and high listings for his web pages in a relatively short
time. Or better: http://www.articleczar.com/gift.html that
offers a complete solution to search engine mastery.
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