How to apply keywords to optimize your website

Before we start implementing keywords, there is an important feature that is sometimes overlooked, yet It is the most viewed feature in all search engine optimization. Go back to the search engine and do a search for your company. Find your result and let's take a look at it as there is a wealth of information to be learned here.

Next, open the page that the result links to in another browser window or tab. The first thing to notice is the heading of the search result, "Page Title" This is typically the big blue text link in the search results. 

If you've clicked on it, it's a different color. Now, this is what will be seen and read by almost anyone who sees your link in the search results. The words in that link come from the content on your page, specifically the title tag. 

If you look at the tab or window with your website, the page title appears in the tab. Now the page title is under your control. You can most likely edit it in your website management program. Or, to get even geekier, here's the code of the page. And we'll use that to see the other elements as well. 

As you can see, the page title is in the title tag. Tags are the instructions in the brackets. Now, just looking at the overall context, this tells us that the page title is fairly high in importance to the content and the rest of the page. 

Why? 

Because the page title is used in the big blue text in the search results. It is the first marketing message a searcher will read about your company and your content. This is where you present your company and its relevance to the searcher. Now there are several ways to approach writing a good page title.

Many people say to use as many keywords in the page title as possible. 

Others recommend being highly descriptive.

There's a lot of advice out there and the key is to see what works for you. I'm going to give you a few of the guidelines and observations that I've found over the years. 

First, 

Some recommend simply list keywords. One right after another, using a comma or a bar between the words. And I don't recommend that strategy.

You'll see it employed often in search results and the reason I don't like it is because of readability. It is harder to read a series of words to read a structured sentence. 

We process sentences faster than series of words because of the context. And I believe that context makes a sentence faster to read and actually, communicates more information than a series of words. 

Next, 

The length of the page title. While you can write a page title almost as long as you want, it's going to cut off around 50 to 60 characters. Visibility and again, readability are important.

Sometimes, I found that shorter titles are better in terms of rankings and clicks. 

Finally, 

Use your primary keyword as the first or second word. Think about how fast you can scan a search result page. Most attention anyone gives to the page is scanning the first word or two in each page title. If you look at what you're competitors are doing, you'll see a variety of tactics. 

But remember, just because you see tactics being used in the result does not mean they're effective in getting the click or ultimately, getting the sale.