SEO Basics-How To Properly Structure Your Website
I’m continuing with my theme on SEO basics because I’ve received a ton of great feed back from my readers and I think it’s important stuff you should know if you really want to dominate the search engines and make a ton of money!
So here we go….
In my last few posts I spoke to you about using title tags and meta descriptions on your website.
Today however I’d like to chat with you about using <H> tags, otherwise known as “header tags.”
Warning- This next paragraph gets a little geeky but just stick with me as it will get better, OK?
So here’s the deal, web pages are made up of HTML code which stands for, Hyper Text Markup Language.
This language is based on “structure” which makes it easy for web browsers to show your website to your prospects and for the search engine bots to read and store your website content in their indexes.
One of the most basic ways to structure your website is by using “header tags.”
The most common header tags are your H1, H2, and H3 headlines.
These tags are easily added to your web pages and helps search engines categorize your web pages better.
Because the bots can categorize your webpage content better your website will rank higher which means more traffic and more sales!
Do you remember in high school and college when your English professor had you write an outline for your report? Well this is exactly how you want to think of your web pages. You “header tags” help divide your web page into different sections.
You’ll want to start your web page with a <H1> headline tag.
Your H1 headline should be the main topic for your entire web page. You’ll want your h1 tag at the top of your web page so your visitors can quickly determine what your web page is all about. ( You can see mine above in red)
Because search engines want to show relevant search results to their searchers, they use the H1 tag to determine what your page is all about in addition to your “title tag” and description.
For this reason you’ll want to put the most important keywords between your H1 tags. I’d also suggest putting your keyword or keyword phrase as your first words inside your tags like this:
<H1> SEO Basics- How To Properly Structure Your Website</H1>
So going back to the outline example, you’ll use your H2 and H3 tags under your H1 tag as you build out your web page. This makes your web page much easier to follow then not using “header” tags at all.
There are a few things you’ll want to avoid however, do not use more than (1) H1 tag per page and do not use an image or graphic as your h1 tag. Search engines do not have the ability to read graphics or images so you’ll lose the power of your h1 tag by doing this.
When you combine a properly structured web page while building external one way back links to your website you are on your way to dominating the search engines for sure!
Now get busy, Bill Parlaman
