If you want to make sure your website turns up in more search engine results, then this post is for you, in this post you will learn:
- How search engines understand what’s on a web page
- Which parts of a web page help search engines do this
- How to make your web pages more visible to search engines.
Page Indexing
In simple terms, when you ask a search engine to find something, it looks through a huge list of previously indexed pages, called “the index,” and pulls out relevant results based on what you’re looking for.
Pages make it into “the index” only after the search engine has determined what they’re about. That way, it can file them in exactly the right place amongst the other pages, and find them the next time a search relates to their content.
By knowing how a search engine decides what a page is about, you can optimize your pages to make sure they show up in the search results of people looking for websites just like yours. For instance, when you visit the Techpadi homepage you see a file of blog posts and When you click this post you see the post you are currently reading.
But when a search engine looks at the same page, in addition to seeing what you see on your screen, it also sees the code behind it, called HTML.
Specific parts of this code help the search engine understand what the web page is all about. And knowing which parts are important can help you to optimize your site.
Read also: how to create an online presence for your business.
Page Title
The first thing the search engine sees when crawling a page is the Page title.
In this post, you can see the title in the tab at the top: “How search engine sees the web.” However, The search engine sees the title enclosed in a piece of code called a title tag. Something like this
<title> How search engine sees the web </title>
Many websites can be edited using tools that handle all the HTML coding for you – that’s called a content management system, or CMS. If you use a CMS to make changes to your website, there’s probably a place to add this title, too. You can help the search engine index your page properly by making sure your page title accurately describes its content. That way it can show up in relevant searches.
Read also: What is a website and how does it work: Server and Domain Name Explained.
Page Content
The next thing you’ll want to think about is the page’s text. Think about who you want to visit your page, and what words they’re using to describe your products and services. What Do they talk about and how do they do it? Do they use the term soccer instead of Football? These are probably the terms they’re also using to search. You have to search out your customers’ intent to effectively attract them.
Try to speak the language of your customers when you write your content. Because this can help ensure they’ll find your pages when they search.
Page Image
Finally, let’s talk about the page’s images.
Search engines won’t see the mouth-watering photos of your coffee creations in the same way we do – which is a shame. But what they will see is the code behind it.
To help search engines identify the image, give it a descriptive name.
For example, image.jpg is not a great file name for search engines. Whereas, something that describes exactly what’s in the picture, like A picture of a house at Lekki.jpg, is.
You can even take it one step further by adding “alternative text” in the code with your image. Known as an “Alt tag,” it describes the image, which is useful for people using web browsers that don’t display images, or for people with visual impairments who use software to listen to the content of web pages.
In the HTML, the alt tag will appear something like this:
Again, if you use a content management system to update your website there’s probably a place to add an Alt tag, too.
Conclusion
In summary remember to Use descriptive, unique titles for each page on your site. Write for your customers, but remember to include important words and phrases that can help search engines understand what your pages are all about. And don’t forget to name image files with descriptive words and include alternative text.
Together, all of these tips can help search engines understand your pages and put them in front of the people that matter – your potential customers.
