Keyword use (in document) title

Essential
The document title is the text within the <title>…</title> tags in the HTML code of your web page. This part of the report determines how to use the search term “web design” in the document title and if it’s important for The search engine you are focusing on. Example: <title>Your web page title</title>
Global link popularity of web site (backlinks)

Essential
The global link popularity measures how many web pages link to your site. The number of web pages linking to your site is not as important as the quality of the web pages that link to your site. All major search engines take the quality and the context of the links into account. Search engines assume that your web page must offer relevant content if many quality sites link to it.
Link texts of inbound links (backlink Anchor text)

Essential
Inbound links are links from other web sites to your site. If many other sites link to your site, then search engines consider your site to be important. However, the number of links is not as important as is the relevance of the linking page and the link text used in linking to your site. This part of the report lists a sample of the web pages that link to your site, along with the link text. Note that search engines do not reveal all inbound links to your site.

Keyword use in body text

Essential
The body text is the text on your web page that can be seen by people in their web browsers. It does not include HTML commands, comments, etc. The more visible text there is on a web page, the more a search engine can index. The calculations of our report include spaces and punctuation marks.
Age of web site

Very Important
Spam sites often come and go quickly. For this reason, search engines tend to trust a web site that has been around for a long time over one that is brand new. The age of the domain is seen as a sign of trustworthiness because it cannot be faked. The data for our report is provided by Alexa.com (or Archive.org if Alexa.com does not have data about a site).
Keyword use in H1 headline texts

Very Important
H1 headline texts are the texts that are written between the <h1>…</h1> tags in the HTML code of a web page. Some search engines give extra relevance to search terms that appear in the headline texts. This part of the report examines if this applies to The search engine you are focusing on, too by comparing your site to your competitors site and their use of the H1 tag.

Keyword use in domain name

Important
The domain name is the main part of the web page address. This part of the report looks deep into The search engine you are focusing on results to see if there is extra relevance to search terms within the domain name by looking at the top competitors for your given keyword / keyword phrase. Example: “your-keyword” is the domain name of http://www.your-keyword.com
Keyword use in page URL

Important
The page URL is the part after the domain name in the web page address. This part of the report looks in to the The search engine you are focusing on results to see if there is extra relevance to search terms within the page URL by looking at the top competitors for your given keyword / keyword phrase. Separate your search terms in the page URL with slashes, dashes or underscores. Example: “keyword/another-keyword.htm” is the page URL of http://www.domain.com/keyword/another-keyword.htm

Links from social networks

Important
On social network sites, people decide which web sites are popular. This means that the popularity on social network sites cannot be easily influenced. For this reason, search engines might trust web sites more if they are popular on social networks. (“n/a” means “data not available”.) This part of the report looks at the inbound links to your sites and your competitors sites from social networks.
Server speed

Important
Popular web sites often have faster server response times compared to smaller unimportant sites. In addition, most search engines index more pages from fast web sites. This part of the report shows you how long it takes on average for web pages on the top ranked sites to load. The data is based on the average server speed of the last 30 days and is provided by Alexa.com (“n/a” means that Alexa.com does not have data about your server speed).

Keyword use in H2-H6 headline texts

Important
H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 headline texts are the texts that are written between the <h2>…</h2>, <h3>…</h3>, etc. tags in the HTML code of your web page. Some search engines give extra relevance to search terms that appear in the headline texts. This part of the report examines these tags on your website and those of your competitors. Example: <h3>your big headline text</h3>

Keyword use in IMG ALT attributes

Important
The <img alt> attribute defines an alternative text for an image when the user uses a text browser or when the user has turned off the display of images in the web browser application. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer displays the alternative text if the user puts the cursor over the graphic. This part of the report determines if it makes sense to include the search term in the <img alt> attributes to improve your rankings. Example: <img src=”logo.gif” width=”200″ height=”75″ alt=”picture description with keyword”>
Top level domain of web site

Important
Web sites with certain top level domains (TLD) are statistically more likely to contain higher quality, trustworthy content. For this reason, search engines might prefer web sites with restricted TLD (.edu, .gov., .mil) over younger TLD (e.g., .biz, .info, .jobs). In addition, country code TLD (e.g., .ca, .de, .fr) are often preferred in the country’s local search results.
Keyword use in bold body text

Important
The body text is the text on your web page that can be seen by people in their web browsers. The bold body text uses a darker and heavier face than the regular type face. It appears between <b>…</b> or <strong>…</strong> tags in the HTML source of your web page. CSS is not recognized. The statistics include spaces and punctuation marks.

Number of visitors to the site

Important
Some Search engines look at web site usage data, such as the number of visitors to your site, to determine if your site is reputable and contains popular content. The Alexa.com traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and number of site visitors. This part of the report will look at the top results for your keyword / keyword phrase and compare traffic to your site.
Keyword use in same domain link texts (anchor text)

Moderately Important
Link texts (anchor text) are words and sentences that are used as links. Same domain link texts are the link texts of the links that point to a web page on the same domain. This part of the report examines if the search engine you are focusing on takes search terms in same domain link texts into account. Example: The HTML tag <a href=”contact.htm”>Contact information</a> contains the same domain link text “Contact information”.

Keyword use in outbound link texts (anchor text)

Moderately Important
Link texts (anchor text) are words and sentences that are used as links. Outbound link texts are the texts within the <a>…</a> tags when the <a> tag links to a web page on a different domain. This part of the report examines if The search engine you are focusing on gives relevance to search terms in outbound link texts. Example: The HTML tag <a href=”http://www.not-your-site.com/about.htm”>About the company</a> contains the outbound link text “About the company”.
Keyword use in same domain link URLs

Moderately Important
Links connect one web page to another. Same domain links are the links in <a href> attributes that point to other pages on the same domain. This part of the report examines if search terms in same domain link URLs are relevant to The search engine you are focusing on. Example: The HTML tag <a href=”contact.htm”>Contact information</a> contains the same domain link URL “contact.htm”

Keyword use in outbound link URLs

Moderately Important
Links connect one web page to another. Outbound links are the links on a web page that point to web pages on other web sites, i.e. links to other domains. This part of the report examines if The search engine you are focusing on gives relevance to search terms in outbound links Example: The HTML tag <a href=”http://www.not-your-site.com/info.htm”>Click here</a> contains the outbound link URL “www.not-your-site.com/info.htm”.
Keyword use in meta description

Moderately Important
The Meta Description tag allows you to describe your web page. This part of the report determines if The search engine you are focusing on takes the Meta Description tag into account. Some search engines display the text to the user in the search results. Example: <meta name=”description” content=”This sentence describes the contents of your web site.”> Even if the Meta Description tag might not be important for ranking purposes, you should use the Meta Description tag to make sure that your web site is displayed with an attractive description in the search results.
Number of trailing slashes in URL

Moderately Important
The number of trailing slashes (/) in the URL indicates where a web page falls in a site’s overall hierarchy. If the URL contains many trailing slashes, meaning it is placed in a sub-sub-directory, then the webmaster does not seem to think that the page is important in relation to the other pages.

HTML validation of web page to W3C standards

Slightly Important
Web pages are written in special languages called HTML and CSS. Like any language, HTML and CSS change constantly. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the governing body that establishes what is valid HTML/CSS and what is not. Search engines obey the HTML/CSS standard. If there are errors in the HTML/CSS code of your web page, then search engines might not be able to read everything of your web page.

Readability level of web page

Slightly Important
The Flesch Reading Ease test is a United States governmental standard to determine how easy a text is to read. It measures the approximate level of education necessary to understand the web page content. Higher scores indicate the text that is easier to read, and lower numbers mark harder-to-read texts. Scores among different languages are not comparable.

Keyword use in meta keywords

Slightly Important
The Meta Keywords tag allows you to define which search terms are important to your web page according to your opinion. It should be placed between the <head>…</head> tags in the HTML code of your web page. This part of the report determines if The search engine you are focusing on gives relevance to search terms in the Meta Keywords tag. Example: <meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword, another keyword”>
Keyword use in the first sentence of the body text

Slightly Important
The first sentence of the body text is the first sentence after the <body> tag in the HTML code of your web page. Some search engines give more relevance to search terms when they appear in the first sentence. Some will use your first sentence as the description of your page on the search result page. Example: <body>Here goes the first sentence. This text is not the first sentence.

Keyword use in HTML comments

Slightly Important
HTML comment tags are “hidden comments” in the HTML code of your web page. They are not visible to the user. This part of the report determines if search terms in the HTML comment tags are relevant for a good ranking in The search engine you are focusing on. Example: <!– comments with keywords –>

Search engine compatibility
This part of the report examines the general search engine compatibility of your web page.

SEO Ranking Factors that could prevent your top ranking
Some ranking factors cannot be measured because the search engines do not reveal the necessary data, or it would be extremely time-consuming to measure the data. Make sure you pay attention to the following factors because they could prevent a top ranking for www.webpagedesignfirm.com on The search engine you are focusing on.

SEO Considerations

Inbound links to your web page
Are the web pages linking to your web page relevant to the primary search term?
How fast does your web page get new links pointing to it?
Do the web sites which link to your page belong to the same content category?
Since when do the links to your page exist?
Is the text surrounding the link to your page relevant to the primary search term?

Your web page
How many important links from your other pages point to your web page?
Do the links on your web page point to high quality, topically-related pages?
How often and how many changes do you make to your web page over time? Is your content up-to-date?
How often and how many web pages do you add to your web site?
How long do your visitors spend time on your web page?

Search engine result page
Do your competitors on the search engine result page get a manual ranking boost by The search engine you are focusing on, for example Amazon or Wikipedia?
How many visitors of the search engine result pages click through to your page?
How often do search engine visitors search for your company name or web page URL on The search engine you are focusing on?

Negative ranking factors (you should be able to say “no” to all the following questions)
Is your content very similar or a duplicate of existing content?
Is your server often down when search engine crawlers try to access it?
Do you link to web sites that do not deserve a link?
Do you use the same title or meta tags for many web pages?
Do you overuse the same keyword or key phrase?
Do you participate in link schemes?
Do you actively sell links on your web page?
Do a majority of your inbound links come from low quality or spam sites?
Does your web page have any spelling or grammar mistakes?