When it comes to the Internet search game, there’s only one player in town; Google. Out of the 5 billion web searches performed by Internet users last year, 2.5 billion originated from Google.com.

Here are some helpful tips to creating content that will be seen the way you want it to be seen by the Google-eyed spiders crawling the web.

Tip 1 : Use Headers properly

One of the best content modifying tags you can use in your markup is the <h> tag. It’s easy to style (so people can tell it’s important) and it can be given a priority level (so spiders know its relative level of importance). The biggest one is, naturally, <h1>. Each page should have no more than one <h1> tag, and it should be the same as the title.

Next comes the <h2> tag, or the sub-head tag. Use it for the sub-sections of your content (like the names of these tips). They will help with SEO and help your human visitors identity where the information they came looking for is.

Next is <h3>, which I reserve for widget titles in the sidebars.

This is what good use of the <h> tags looks like:

...
<h1>Title of the page</h1>

<h2>A hint of what's in the next few paragraphs</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Fusce nisi dui, volutpat eget, accumsan ut, mattis id, augue. Vivamus ipsum.</p>
<p>Vestibulum ac massa. Suspendisse neque. Integer ac diam. </p>
<p>Class aptent taciti sociosq</p>

<h2>An informative sub-header that indicates the value of the next set of paragraphs.</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Fusce nisi dui, volutpat eget, accumsan ut, mattis id, augue. Vivamus ipsum.</p>
<p>Vestibulum ac massa. Suspendisse neque. Integer ac diam. </p>
<p>Class aptent taciti sociosq</p>
...

The text is clearly divided, identified and prioritized for people and robots alike.

Tip 2: Use <strong> and <em> for bold and italics instead of <b> and <i>

Before you start thinking that this is just a worthless song-and-dance change that the W3C is instituting to make your life hell, think about it from a screen reader’s point of view; how does one say something in italics? It’s better to be identified as emphasized, which is what <em> stands for. I suppose <strong> is sort of the same thing. Maybe it’s pronounced stronger. I don’t know. But it’s what the W3C demands, so we do it.

This is a <b>bold statement.</b> It is weak.
This is a <strong>stronger statement.</strong> It is superior in many ways.

Using <strong> and <em> will make your code more accessible, and Google wishes to encourage people to create accessible code. They’re a lot like Santa Clause; they know if you’re being naughty or nice.

Tip 3: Always provide alt text for images

While it might seem like a waste of time to write a description of an image (“It’s right there. Everyone can see it. Why do I have to describe it?”), remember that Google rewards accessible markup. If someone is using a screen reader or has images disabled, it would be very helpful for them to have a hand-crafted description from the content creator.

<img src="/images/my-great-image.jpg" />
<img src="/images/my-great-image.jpg" alt="Me at the Washington Monument" />

As for actual SEO, the robots can’t see your images. They read the alt tag for relevant keywords.

Disclaimer: Do not try and trick Google. Do not try and cram a ton of keywords into your alt tags. Do not use more than a few words in your <h> tags. Do not make everything on your page <strong>. Google hires lots and lots of people considerably smarter than any of us whose sole purpose is to marginalize those who would try and game the system. They have doled out harsh punishment in the past. They will do it again.