One of the most common forms of internet marketing is search engine optimization, also known as SEO. SEO is a process of helping your site show up higher in the search results for specific searched terms. The search engines do need some help to determine what terms your site will rank for, and you can help control that to a degree by employing stellar site optimization.

Typically, site optimization is a function performed by your SEO expert; however, there are several things you can do yourself that can help you rank without the need of an internet marketing company. These items are your page titles, page descriptions, page URLs, content, and image tags.

To start, your page title is exactly what it sounds like. The title should act as a very brief description and act as motivation for people to click on your site in the search results. When you are figuring out your page titles, you want to utilize the keyword you want that page to rank for. At the same time, you need to make sure the title is related to the content on the page.

It’s been argued that page descriptions don’t provide any actual SEO benefits. The contrary has been seen, though, so you still want to make sure your page descriptions are functional. Each page should have a unique description of approximately 1 to 2 sentences that contains other keywords you want the page to rank for. The description will also often appear in the search results, so you still want to make it coherent and related to the content of the page.

Your page URLs can also help your site to rank for specific terms as those terms are actually used as the page address. You want to use hyphens between each word to signify the beginning and end of each word. You do have to be careful, though, as using the same word in your URL, title, and description could cause your page to be seen as over-optimized. This could make it more difficult to rank for any given term.

When it comes to the content of your page, you want to make sure that your main keyword and similar terms are used throughout the page; however, you want to use them sparingly as to avoid over-optimization. As long as it looks and reads naturally, you should be fine.

On top of your standard content, you want to take advantage of the heading tags. These are your H1, H2, H3, etc. tags. They should contain your keywords and similar terms, but there are some things you should understand about heading tags prior to using them.

Your H1 tag should act as your visible page title. Your page title, mentioned above, is generally not visible within the content of your page. As such, having an H1 tag can clearly indicate the title of your page. Keep in mind that you should only have one H1 tag on any given page.

Next is your H2 tags. These should be considered section headings. You want to include similar terms related to your keywords, but again, use them sparingly and ensure that they read properly.

Your H3 tags are your sub-section headings. Again, the same rules as your H2 tags apply here. You can also utilize H4, H5, and H6 tags if needed to further break down your content.

Last, but certainly not least, you want to pay attention to your image ALT tags. Each image on your page can hold multiple tags; however, this is an opportunity for you to add in more keywords you want your page to rank for. ALT tags are sometimes overlooked, so ensuring that you are using them properly could certainly give you a leg up on your competition.

Analyzing and adjusting these site properties can give your site a boost for certain keywords if your site and its pages aren’t already optimized.