This month Pam Ann Aungst, our resident SEO expert, shares more advice regarding keyword placement
Image Tags
Another place that search engines look for keywords is the image alt tag. This tag accompanies the code that places an image on a page, and it is the only way that a search engine can know what an image depicts. This tag should never be used simply to stuff general keywords into; it should always be used to describe what is actually in the image. However, if you're wise about the words you choose to describe an image, you can really take advantage of this tag.
Hyperlinked Text
Search engines place a lot of weight on hyperlinked text (the clickable, usually underlined text of a link). Take advantage of this and use some descriptive keywords as opposed to the all-too-common "click here".
For example, instead of:
"Click here to read about our latest widget building project"
It would be better to link it like this (the underlined text is the linked text):
"Follow this link to read about our latest widget building project"
The latter is much more likely to attract the search engine's attention when a searcher types in a phrase like "widget building".
Internal Linking
Internal linking (linking from one part of your site to another) helps search engines crawl your site more easily. Take advantage of as many internal linking opportunities as possible. If a paragraph on one page makes reference to three different projects, and you have case study pages on each of those three projects, link those words to those case studies! Not only will the user be glad to be able to click right there for more information, the search engines will pay much more attention to those words than they would have otherwise. This also gives you more opportunities to use desired key phrases in hyperlinks as described above.
Also note that whatever internal linking is present on your home page will be valued higher than other internal linking, so be sure to choose those links wisely. Only place links on the home page to content that you REALLY want to rank. Don't spread your home page "link juice" too thin by linking to too many different pages from the home page.
Pam is a uniquely well-rounded internet marketing professional. She has been deeply involved in each aspect of the e-commerce business model as well as traditional business functions such as accounting, sales, and customer service.
