In our previous post, we discussed how to strategically select the most appropriate and effective keywords for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign. After you have completed your keyword research and have your list of words and phrases, it’s time to use them on your site and close the SEO loop.

There are several places where keywords and phrases are used most effectively to optimize any Web page. We’ll take a brief look at four of the most important elements, including title tags, header tags, content, and the page URL.

Title Tag
A title tag is what appears at the very top of a Web browser window, not to be mistaken for a header tag. This is arguably the most important on-page factor for search engine optimization. Whatever is written inside the <title> tag is the clickable link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The title tag is also among the first set of words a search engine spider encounters when determining the type of content on the site. This may be one of the quickest and easiest ways to generate immediate and noticeable differences in your search engine rankings.

If you are working within the HTML code the TITLE tag will look like this: <title>Title of the document</title>. Most CMS systems automatically generate an appropriate title tag and an SEO friendly URL based on the content on the page.

Header Tags (<H1>, <H2>, etc.)
Placing your keywords within the headers is another critical place that carries a lot of importance.

If you are unfamiliar with HTML code, H1 indicates the most important heading on a page; usually it’s the topmost heading also. For example, the H1 heading of this post is “Keyword Placement for SEO.” More weight is given to keywords that appear within H1 tags, H2 tags get less, and so on down the chain.

Content
As you might expect, the search engines also scan your content for keywords. While the keywords in your body copy don’t have as much weight on their own as your title or headers – they do have an effect. Though keywords in your content don’t carry much weight individually in the search ranking, the search engines have very complex systems that increase your page rank even more when keywords in the various page elements match up.

Page URL
Your page URL is also part of this whole system. Ideally, the file name for the page will match up to your TITLE tag and H1 tag, along with some of the body copy. For example we can see our title, H1 and file name for this page working in concert.

Besides the basic placement of your keywords in those four page elements, there are a number of Dos and Don’ts that will help maximize your SEO return.

Do:
Optimize every page – Just like the cumulative effect of keywords in various elements on a single page, properly optimized pages across your site will improve its standings with the search engines.

Use accurate keywords for content – Write content that accurately reflects what is on your pages and keyword density will happen naturally.

Use synergy – If you use keywords properly in all your page elements, your search rank becomes greater than the sum of its parts – that concept is at the crux of SEO.

Keep the content flowing – Regular updates to your site content will result in more frequent visits from the search engine spiders.

Don’t:
Keyword stuff – Stuffing refers to a number of methods where one crams a page with all manner of keywords in an attempt to improve search position. In the SEO process of incorporating keywords into a page and a site, it is extremely important to remember that keywords can be overused and become detrimental to search engine ranking. Use keywords only as they are truly relevant to the subject matter and in a manner that makes sense to the average user.

Be scattered – Page elements, especially title header and body copy that seem unrelated will result in penalties from the search engines. Also no one will click on a link in Google if it is a collection of unrelated words.

Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive guide to all the elements of SEO, but we hope it will help those who are new to SEO get started on this simple but very powerful practice.

Related articles in Align:
• What is SEO
• How to Pick Keywords for SEO

Read more posts by Mike Barkley