How to optimize a page for search engines

How to optimize a page for search engines

How to optimize a page for search engines?

How does a search engine understand the topic covered on a page?

How can you make the task easier for it?

How can you optimize your page code to gain, in return, greater visibility on Google?

When you query it, a search engine such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc… consults its own list of previously scanned pages called an ‘index’ and composes, based on more than 200 criteria of quality and relevance, a page of search results, called a SERP.

The SERP is the search results page, the one that is shown to you.

Now that you know how a search engine works, your job is to optimize the pages. Simple.

Let’s start with the code.

A search engine, when it scans a page, sees only HTML code.

Specifically, there are certain sections of the HTML code that help the search engine understand the topic of the page.

Why is optimizing, namely helping Google understand what the page is about, so important?

Because this way the page will be registered, or rather indexed, for its correct topic and will come into play in future searches, for the right keywords.

For example, if a page is not indexed as pizzeria but only as take-out pizza it will lose a lot of opportunities and customers.

But back to HTML code and how it can facilitate better indexing.

When the software that nonstop scans Internet pages, called spiders, robots, or crawlers, scan a page, the first thing they go looking for in the code is the TITLE field, which is the title of the page.

Choose a title that describes the topic the page is about in a timely and accurate manner.

Next, Google’s algorithm turns its attention to the text of the page.

Make sure you write content that is useful to those who read it.

If it is informational text make sure that it provides the reader, the information they are looking for.

If it is a guide, make sure that the text provides the solution to the problem, is detailed and leaves no doubt.

Another thing to keep in mind is images.

Use descriptive names for images, both in the file name and in the ALT tag of the HTML code.

A file named JPG0000001.jpg will not help Google’s algorithm figure out what your page is about, much better pizza-you-4-cheese.jpg

Read the guidelines Google itself provides about this.

How a search engine like Google works

What happens when you do a search on Google?

How does a search engine select and show the most relevant pages in such a short time if there are thousands of them for the same topic?

The actual search, the one that is triggered by typing a keyword, is just the final act of a process that took place earlier.

We summarize this process in these three stages: crawling, indexing, and ranking.

Scanning: search engines continuously scan the web with software called crawlers, robots or spiders, looking for new pages or changes to pages that already exist in their index.

Indexing: when a search engine’s algorithm finds a new page, it considers whether to include it in its index. If it does index it, it will visit it regularly to discover updates and changes. Not all pages are indexed. You can ask Google not to do it or the search engine may decide not to do it, for example, when it finds duplicate pages.

Ranking: there are more than 200 ranking criteria factors to determine the ranking of a web page. And it is a trade secret. No one except Google engineers knows exactly these factors. What is known for sure is that the search engine wants the result that most closely matches the user’s search criteria.

Organic search

Imagine you’re making the best pizzas in town; someone is definitely searching, right now, for a nearby pizzeria.

How can you make your pizzeria appear in Google against this search?

When a search key, or search query is typed into Google, a page is composed with paid and organic results relevant to the search query entered, called the SERP.

So the coveted first page on Google, is achieved only in two ways: with paid Google Ads Adwords, or on its own quality merits.

So the way to appear on the first page for the organic, non-paid search section is through quality.

After all, the goal of any search engine is to provide an answer, the best answer, to the questions that people type into the search field.

So, now you know what you need to do to optimize a page for search engines.

Let Google know that your web page is the best answer to a user’s specific query.

SEO is just that: optimizing a website to make it appear in organic search.

Help search engines understand what your page is about and strive to understand what customer questions you can answer with your products and services, and respond with quality content that solves problems.