Search Optimization Tips

Search optimization comes down to the content on the page. So when designing a website, it's helpful to keep in mind a few search optimization tips. Keep the most important words up front, make important keywords the subjects in the first sentence, put keywords first in the paragraphs. Don't use articles and pronouns like "them", "him", "the" and use nouns instead if you want to emphasize the relevance of a particular noun. Or do the opposite if you want to deemphasize a particular word.

Search is based in part on weight, proximity, frequency and prominence. So the first word, the first sentence and the first paragraph tell readers the most important things and to a search engine they have the most prominence.

Let's take a word like "wings". Wings has different meanings: like wings at Super Bowl; wings on things that fly; wings of buildings and so on. Search engines may gain insight into the connotation of the word based on very advanced algorithms. A reader understands wings in context based in part on the proximity of wings to other words in the sentence or paragraph and a search engine does too.

The first paragraph is about search optimization and keywords. The second paragraph is about search. The third is very heavily weighted to wings. If "wings" were replaced by "it" the weight and frequency of "wings" would go down.