Decide what it is that your page is about. Create a list of words (key phrases are even better) that describe the content of the document
For example, a document relating to a Software Development course could have the following key words and phrases.
Words
Phrases
Once you have a list, test the phrases out. Try a number of search engines. If sites similar to yours are returned then you are on the right track. If, however, garbage is returned then you should re-consider the words. This is based on the fact that people will look past the first page when relevant data is returned but move away when non relevant data is returned.
<title> tagPlace as many of your important key phrases as you can into the title tag (15 to 20 words maximum):
E.g.
<title>Software Development Course - Study Computer Application Design and Development in South Africa, University of Natal</title>
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<meta> TagsThere are 2 important tags to consider (although Google ignores them, most other search engines make use of them)
The Description Tag should be a neat version of the Title tag. A Maximum of 150 characters is recommended - remember that this will most likely be the text description returned by the search engine and could be cut off abruptly depending on the amount of text a specific search engine displays.
E.g.
<meta name="description" content="Study Computer Application Design and Development in South Africa, University of Natal" />
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The Keywords Tag should be between 200 to 400 characters (a maximum of 874 is allowed but not recommended). Do not waste space with extra space characters after each comma. Too many keywords may make search engines lower your rating
E.g.
<meta name="keywords" content="study, computer, application, design, development, South Africa, University of Natal,study software design and development in South Africa,learn application development in South Africa,computer application development in South Africa" />
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The Robots tag can be used if your page changes on a regular basis. This will prevent most search engines (such as Google) from "Caching" or Archiving your page.
E.g.
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive" />
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In order to increase what is referred to as "Keyword Density", your first paragraph should re-iterate the key phrases you have used in your Title and Meta tags. Try to place this as close to the <body> tag as possible - place graphics later on the page
E.g.
<body>
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E.g.
<html>
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When a Search Engine examines your document it will be able to intelligently index the content.
(Some may not be possible in a closed environment)
There are a number of sites on the Web offering (either "Free" or for a price) to make your site more highly ranked on search engines. In most cases they suggest you use methods to include "invisible" text on your page that the search engine will see but the visitor won't.
Examples of these are
It is recommended that you do not use these methods as they are likely to cause rejection from "savvy" search engines and frustration for misled visitors.