About Keywords

When prospective visitors go to a search engine to find information, they type a few identifying keywords that describe what they're looking for. The more those words are honestly reflected on your page, the better your chances are that your page will appear in a search engine's results. So, it's a good idea to think about what your page is about, decide on some keywords that describe your page (and that might be used to find it), and then use your keywords consistently.

Do

• Use keywords in your title (see page 60).

• Use keywords in headers (see page 61).

• Keep the content of your page as specific and focused on your topic as possible, and be sure to include your keywords.

• Specify keywords in a meta tag (see page 363).

• Use keywords in an image's alt tag, where applicable (see page 91).

Figure 24.1. In this document, I've used the keywords Barcelona and market in the title, headers, alternate text for images, and in the first paragraph. Try searching for Barcelona market on Google.

But...

• Don't create headers out of GIF images if they contain keywords since search engines cannot understand the text in an image. At the very least, add keywords to such an image's alt tag (see page 91).

• Don't use keywords where they don't make sense. It is their natural and consistent use which is rewarded.

• Don't repeat keywords endlessly and meaninglessly, perhaps in a small font or with the same color as the background. This is called spamming and can get you banned from a search engine's results.

Figure 24.2. Use keywords as consistently and naturally as you can. If you do it right, there's no reason to cheat.