Google Search Engine Ranking Factors I

I'm going to split this up into 2 posts. Makes for easier reading as the post is going to be long enough anyway!

Here's some factors to take into account when designing a website page or reviewing it for search engine optimisation. Please see the post with notes on what not to do as well!

Keyword in URL / domain name If you are lucky enough to be able to buy a suitable URL with your chosen keyword in it, this can realy help. Also, separate words with hyphens, for example, www.google-ranking.com would go very nicely! Including the keywords in the page names is even more important.

Keyword in title tag Keep the tag short (up to 60 characters) and do not include special characters, although the pipe ('|' - between shift and 'z') does seem to be ignored so can be used to make the title more readable. The earlier in the tag the keyword is included, the better. But make it readable - this is what people will see in search results.

Keyword in metadata First the description (max 200 characters) then the keyword metatag (max 10 words). Google is supposed to not use the description tag, but it does display the contents in some search results. Can the pundits be wrong? Maybe this tag is used. In the keyword tag, all keywords must appear in the main text, else you are penalised. Don't repeat words, but Google appears to ignores this field.

Keyword density Reports suggest that all keywords should make up around 5-20% of the total text, with each keyword 1-5% of the total. Some experts believe these percentages vary according to topic.

Header tags Include keywords in H1, H2, H3 etc tags.

Text decoration Highlight keywords using bold, italic, font-size etc.

Keyword positioning Keywords in the same order as the query will have more weighting than those that aren't. A search for "ranking factors google" should return different results to "google ranking factors". Also, the higher up a page the keywords are, the more weighting they are given.

Alt text Describe the image, don't fill with spam. Used to work, but doesn't seem to do anything any more.