Web Page Headers

It goes without saying that wit is wasted on machines, especially search spiders. I could write a story entitled "Our Favorite Cable Company does a Stellar Job of Demolishing our House!" and the sarcasm would be lost on Google's bots.

A lot of time is spent putting content on a page, but you shouldn't neglect the name of the page. Having a well-chosen name can be a good thing from an SEO perspective, which in turn, gives you more visitors. Because of how search engines work, you are writing for two very different types of visitors; guests, and search spiders. The first thing people see when they do a search is the name of the site, and having a site with a relevant name makes them more likely to click.

An example is The Kanji SITE, which covers the Kanji alphabet of the Japanese language. One look at the sites name told me that it's a site that focuses on learning the extensive alphabet. Because it covers a niche, and has the main keyword Kanji in the title, it's the very second result on Google for the search term "Kanji", second to the Wikipedia article on the subject.

A site named The Black Ship, which is aimed at foreigners who are looking to go to Japan, is far less obvious in intent. When I first looked at the site, I would've thought it to be a club or a site devoted to pirates. Both far from being related to Japan at all and the relevance of the name itself is rather obscure in general history. Though a clever use of the name, the obscurity means it will stay rather low on the search ranks unless they get a stroke of popularity.

Having a list of important keywords, and actually using them is vital. If I had a site focused on learning German, I'd use German, Language learning, and other related phrases as keywords, and I'd use them frequently. The keywords are what people look for. They stand out on search engine results through means such as bolding, and are sometimes highlighted on the page itself. Naming such a site however could be tricky, as a site called "SprechenSieDeutsch" wouldn't be picked up easily by English search engines due to being a German phrase, and your non-German visitors probably wouldn't remember it due to it being a nightmare to spell.

It can be tricky to have a sense of humor while having the right keywords. Computers can't pick up sarcasm, and even humans have difficulty discerning it when it's not blatantly obvious. Having the keywords on the actual content is just as important as an eye-catching and bot-catching title. It makes up for sarcasm that most bots would miss out on.

A title that has the keywords is a big help, since it may appear on multiple pages through "Recent Articles" listings and such, making your site that much more likely to be picked up by the search engines. Don't let keyword dominate your writing. You can be as subtle as you like, but people will notice you using keywords like "German Language Learning" liberally, as opposed to more natural phrases such as "Learning German".

Keeping your visitors there is important as well, since rubbish content on the top result for "Language Learning", will make them look elsewhere in their quest to sprechen deutsch. Some people, especially the webmasters of the better sites, might even accuse you of using blackhat techniques, illicit means of gaining a high rank, to get your site above the others. Especially if your writing skill is shoddy and you update once a month.

Even though you want to be high in the rankings, you need to make sure you have quality content to match your rank. There is no point in being the King if you can't rule, and we all know what happens to a King who can't rule.