Content Optimization

There are aspects of the optimization process that gain and lose importance. Content optimization is no exception to this. Through the many algorithm changes that take place each year, the weight given to the content on your pages rises and falls. Currently incoming links appear to supply greater advantage than well-written and optimized content.
While currently having a bunch of incoming links from high Page Rank sites will do well for you on Google you must consider what will happen to your rankings when the weight given to incoming links drops, or how your website fares on search engines other than Google that don't place the same emphasis on incoming links.
While there are many characteristics of your content that are in the algorithmic calculations,there are a few that consistently hold relatively high priority. These are:
1. Heading Tags
2. Special Text (bold, colored, etc.)
3. Inline Text Links or Anchor text
4. Keyword Density

Heading Tags

The heading tag is code used to specify to the visitor and to the search engines what the topic is of your page and/or subsections of it. You have 6 predefined heading tags to work with ranging from H1 to H6.
By default these tags appear larger than standard text in a browser and are bold. These aspects can be adjusted using the font tags or by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Due to their abuse by unethical webmasters and SEO's, the weight given to heading tags is not what it could be however the content between these tags is given increased weight over standard text. There are rules to follow with the use of heading tags that must be adhered to. If you use heading tags irresponsibly you run the risk of having your website penalized for spam even though the abuse may be unintentional.

When using your heading tags, try to follow these rules:
• Never use the same tag twice on a single page
• Try to be concise with your wording
• Use heading tags only when appropriate. If bold text will do then go that route
• Don't use CSS to mask heading tags

Never use the same tag twice on a single page. While the H1 tags holds the greatest weight of the entire heading tags, its purpose is to act as the primary heading of the page. If you use it twice you are obviously not using it to define the main topic of the page. If you need to use another heading tag use the H2 tag. After that the H3 tag and so on. Generally try never to use more than 2 heading tags on a page.

Special Text (Optimization using Bold, Italics, Underlines etc.)

When a search engine is scanning page its looking for several factors to determine what is important and what is not. In particular, it looks for text tags such as bold, underline, italics etc to help rank the page.
The reason behind it is quite simple! As the text is formatted specially, search engines think that it is important for users. And hence it is important for Search Engines as well.
"Special text" is any content on your page that is set to stand out from the rest. This includes bold, underlined, colored, highlighted, sizing and italic. This text is given weight higher than standard content and rightfully so. Bold text, for example, is generally used to define sub-headings or to pull content out on a page to insure the visitor reads it. The same can be said for the other "special text" definitions.

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