Keyword Phrases in Web Page Titles and Alt Text

What are 'page titles' and why should they contain 'keyword phrases'?

This section is broken into 3 main elements:

1. Page titles
2. Main text
3. Alt text

1. Page titles
As you browse and navigate your way around the internet, the page titles can be clearly seen in the blue bar at the top of your browser in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Technically speaking, when it comes to your website, these are known as 'title tags'. According to Microsoft, it is recommended that your title tag (or page title) is 50-80 characters in total length, including letter spaces. In other words, keep it to around 6-10 words per web page.

Your page titles are the fuel for search engines. With this in mind, if you place the right mix of keyword phrases in your page titles, they can be picked by search engines.

It is our belief that keywords in your page titles are the most important ingredient for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You should ensure that the page titles for every web page in your website are targeted with a few different keyword phrases. This is important! There is no point targeting all your web pages with the same information.

At QuickontheNet.com, your page titles are controlled by the 'Heading' field when you are editing 'Pages'. To put it another way, when you enter your heading, it will automatically appear in the page title as per this illustration below:

2. Main text
The second most important ingredient when it comes to SEO is the text (also known as copy) in your web pages. At QuickontheNet.com, we call this 'Main text'. Put simply, this is the regular web page text that your site visitors will read.

Try to ensure that each web page in your site contains around 200 words of copy. The text should contain keyword combinations, to form keyword phrases, but at the same time, it is important to make sure your text is well-written, clear and readable.

The keywords used in each web page should match and synchronise with those in the page titles (title tags) - see above.

How many keywords should appear on a web page?
SEO expert opinion is divided on this subject, but in our opinion and experience, your keyword density should be approximately 10%, or roughly 10 keywords in the form of keyword phrases for every 100 words.

Search Engine Tip
Some search engines, such as Yahoo, give a higher search engine ranking to web pages when the keyword phrases are placed in bold text. With this in mind, pick out a few of your keyword phrases (as used in your page titles) and make them bold.

3. Alt text
Finally, the third most important ingredient when it comes to SEO is the 'alt text' in your web pages.

What is alt text?
This is the optional, but important text description for images, graphics and photos in your web pages. Alt text can be used to provide visually impaired users with a description of graphics and photographs and this should be your top priority when it comes to adding alt text descriptions to your images, as per this illustration below:

However, if it is also possible to load your alt text descriptions with keyword phrases, then this can increase your performance on the search engine indexes.

At QuickontheNet.com, we provide you with a field for your alt text information, making the process very user-friendly.

Search Engine Tips

• It is our view that you should consider using a slightly different mix of keywords (when compared with your 'Page title' and 'Main text') in your alt text, in order to avoid over-loading your web page with too many keywords (sometimes known as ‘keyword stuffing'), because over-loading can in fact be counter-productive.
• If you know a common misspelling of a popular keyword, then consider including this in your alt text.
• If you know an alternative American spelling of a popular keyword, then consider including this in your alt text e.g. ‘color’ versus ‘colour’.

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