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Web page title...

...is very important for search, although often neglected by web page authors.

Words in the title have more weight than words in the body of the page in ranking search results by search engines. In other words, a Web page with a keyword in the title is placed higher in the results list than a Web page with the same keyword in the body text.

Web page address, or URL...

...is searchable. It often contains useful keywords.

See "Web address, or URL" for more details.

Text in image...

...is not searchable because search engines cannot index words in graphic elements.

Body text...

...is located in the main window of the browser. Some search engines treat all text in this area in the same way.

Other single out body text proper, text in links (anchors), headlines, and other elements.

What is a web page?

A web page is rather a complex object. What we see on screen is only a part of it. The page has both “visible” and “invisible” components. The searcher is interested only in the "visible" and a few "invisible" text elements. The rest of the web page has nothing to do with the search.

Move the mouse over the picture for comments.

Search engines process only the following "visible" components of the web page code: the title of the web page, words in the web page i (URL), and text in the body of the page.

The main "invisible" components of the web page are contained in the so-called page description and keywords metatags. Other invisible components are of technical nature and do not affect web search. Description and keywords metatags are hidden from sight and do not appear on screen, but they are very important for ranking results by search engines. Also, sometimes you cannot find your keywords anywhere on the page because they are "hidden" in metatags. How can you see "invisible" components? Very simple. Right-click on the page body (not on links or images) and then click on "View Source", or similar item, in the pop-up menu.

Anyway, the metatags are of little interest here because Google gives us no direct control over searching them.

Understanding the structure of the web page and keywords in it is an essential knowledge for using advanced search techniques.