Using Keywords in the Body: Put Them Here, Put Them There, Put Them Everywhere!

By Janet L. Hall
Posted Thursday, July 1, 2004

The keywords you are using MUST be reflected in the page
content, the BODY, of the web page you are trying to
improve or build.

There are many places you can, and should place your
keywords to help you get a higher ranking in the search
engines; remember, this is the ultimate goal. People
searching for you WON’T find you if you don’t use your
keywords throughout your web page!

[/b]TOP Seven Areas to Place Your Keywords in the BODY of
Your Web Pages:[/b]

1.Beginning and near the top of web page.
2.Headlines (Headings) and Subtitles.
3.Links.
4.Site Address in Links.
5.Name of Images.
6.ALT (Image) TAGS.
7.Background Images.

This month we'll look at the top first four, one at a time, and
next month we'll finish up with the last three.

We continue building and organizing your web page from
last time by inserting the BODY TAG:
This TAG is automatically inserted for you by
FrontPage and probably other web page design software
after your ending or closing HEAD TAG

1. Beginning and near the top of web page :
Here you want to type in a paragraph, or more, of
information about your services, products, or yourself, being
sure to incorporate and use the KEYWORDS you have
selected for that page. Get your most important and relevant
keywords as close to the top of your web page.

Many designers and beginners put logos, images, or
banners near the top of their web page. Bad mistake! This
can cause some of the search engine spiders to be “caught
in the web,” so to speak. They can’t read the image, so they
stop retrieving information from your web page and web site;
they move on to another web site to spider. They might be
able to retrieve the first few lines on that page, and those
lines of text might get used as the description of your site
when someone is searching for you. Since search engines
seem to be in a constant change of what they want, it’s
important that your first few lines of text be your most
important information, with your most important keywords in
there!

According to wordtracker.com, “Make the first 25 words in
the body of your page keyword rich…Spread your keyword
phrases throughout the body of the page in natural sounding
paragraphs. Put a keyword at the end of your body text as
well.”

Another trick you might try to boost your keyword relevance
is by putting your keyword phrases in bold in your BODY
text.

2. Headlines (Headings) and Subtitles:
The headlines, subtitles, and titles in the BODY of your
web page are considered headings. Not to be confused with
the HEAD TAG I wrote about in issue 5 of OverHall IT!
(http://www.overhall.com/issue5.htm )

Heading TAGS are numbered, one,
, being the most
important and largest. The Heading TAG is written as:
,
,
, and so on. The ending or closing TAG is
written as:
, , , and so on.

Heading TAG Sample:

OverHall IT!

3. Links are usually presented on your web page as blue
text and underlined. Links to other pages on your web
site or to another web site are always written the same,
with the exception that you place the web address (URL)
of the web site or page that you want people to go to. It
is also another place you can place your keywords.
Below is an example of a link to my web’s home page:

Click here to get
organized

Notice the opening TAG is and the closing
TAG is . After the first quotation sign you type in the
web site address or web page you are linking to. Next,
insert another quotation mark, then a bracket, after which
you type the text that you want to be blue, underlined, and
containing your keywords; the words that a person will click
on to move to the web site or page you have linked to. Then
your closing TAG .

Here is an example of linking from my home page to
another:
HREF="(http://www.overhall.com/issues_and_articles.htm)">O
rganizing tips and Organizing articles

Please notice how I used an underscore, _ , between the
words in the web address. You can also use a dash (-) to
separate words in addresses. By using the underscore or
dash, the search engines will see the words as individual
words in a phrase. If not broken up, issuesandarticles, the
search engines see a single term, DON’T DO THAT!

4. Site Address in Links:
When you are building your pages, make sure you name
the new pages (the htm pages) after your KEYWORDS.
Let’s examine one of my addresses: My domain name is
(http://www.overhall.com) and I’ve built a page about a dated
filing system that I think is a terrific product, that I sell, and
that I refer to as a tickler file. My keyword is tickler file. So
that page is called tickler_file.htm and the address looks like
this: (http://www.overhall.com/tickler_file.htm) See how I used
my keyword as the name of the htm page?

I’m still in the process of fixing some of my pages because
when I made them I didn’t know to put my keywords in the
name of the address. I then have to decide whether to keep
the old ones up on the Internet, because people might have
bookmarked them, or I can redirect the person to the new
page. Then I have the task of resubmitting them to the
search engines. So, TAKE YOUR TIME when you start
building other pages, carefully deciding on your keywords
and using them in the address.

Okay, using this and last month's lesson, let's see what your
web page should look like:

WEB PAGE EXAMPLE:

Are you sick and tired of being stressed out, disorganized,
and frustrated by the clutter in your life?

let overhall consulting help you

Our website is loaded with HREF="(http://www.overhall.com/issues_and_articles.htm)">o
rganizing articles

See how I inserted the BODY Closing TAG .

This is the TAG you insert at the bottom or end of your page.

TIP: Each page on your web site needs to be given it’s OWN
HEAD information.

Editors NOTE: In the examples above, anything typed in
lower case should be replaced with YOUR title, YOUR
description, YOUR keywords, and YOUR author and
comment information. In the examples above the TAGS
have been typed in UPPER CASE; however, this is not
necessary when entering this information onto your web
page. All brackets and other symbols need to be typed in as
presented in the above examples. All information typed in
lower case in the BODY should be replaced with your
information and links.

Next time image TAGS, until then,
Happy TAGGING!

Copyright 2001 by OverHall Consulting
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute so
long as article is kept intact, this copyright notice and full information about
contacting the author is attached.

About the Author
The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional
Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of
OverHall Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to
her FREE organizing newsletter at
(http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm) or visit
her web site at (http://www.overhall.com)