Building Sales with Words that Work
Search Engine Optimization
Marketing Tips > Search Optimization
Twelve Ingredients for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Even though content is king, there’s much more to search engine optimization. The SEO recipe below provides some key ingredients for a website that floats to the top of the search engine rankings:
1. Do thorough keyword research and select the keywords and keyword phrases that buyers looking for organizations like yours use in queries.2. Have an SEO copywriter create relevant web content for the prospects you want to attract.
3. Then your SEO copywriter should sprinkle your copy with the chosen keywords. How many? There is n
o universal agreement but most agree it should be between 1 and 5% of the words on a page depending on the popularity of the keyword you’ve chosen. The greater the popularity, the greater density needed. And just like when you sprinkle salt, don’t overdo it. Too much of a good thing, and your website will sink rather than soar in the rankings. For more on this, learn how to develop a keyword formula for SEO success.
4. Make your keywords your web content stars. It’s OK for some keywords can hide in the body of your copy, but shining a spotlight on them in titles, sub-heads, internal links, and your first paragraph makes the search engines spiders take note.
5. Proximity counts. Let your keywords snuggle up with each other. For example, I want my website to score well on “SEO copywriting”, so I’m better off having the two words side by side than paragraphs apart. (See how I snuck that one in?)6. Make your words count. Because we don’t have the Google algorithm, no one can say exactly what the best word count is on a page. But in general experts seem to agree that it’s somewhere between 350 and 600 words. That gives you enough words to try to optimize on 2-3 keywords or phrases per page which is more efficient than optimizing on only one keyword. If you start to go over 600 words, think about whether you can split the page into two pages. This gives you an opportunity to optimize another page for slightly different keywords.
7. Attract quality links. If Google sees a multitude of high quality links going to your website, it judges your site to be relevant. Not all links are equal. If the website linking to you is popular, then it’s mor
e likely to be viewed as a quality link. Links are a huge subject that I can’t cover here but, once again, the first step is good content. If it’s worth reading, it’s worth linking to. And, of course, you can always up the odds of gaining links by adopting an ongoing social media strategy.8. Add your tags. These are basically the sign posts that the spiders read as they crawl around your website to assess its worthiness. The most important are title and description tags. The title should include 2-3 keyword phrases. The description is the little ad that shows up when your site appears on the search engine results. And don’t forget to tag your images with “alt tags”—otherwise the spiders won’t know they exist.
9. Submit your website to search engines so they'll crawl it quicker.
10. Check your results! It may take a few weeks for the search engines to take notices and you may not get to where you want to on the first attempt. Even if you do, it’s no time to relax. Rankings are fluid. Don’t lose your position.11. Keep tweaking your site and create a content development strategy to move higher or remain in your number one position.
12. Update your website regularly. Just as you like freshly baked cookies, search engines like a feast of fresh content.
Don't have time to do SEO yourself? Give us a call and find out how we can help. Call 610-340-0622 or email cfrith@carolynfrith.com.
© Carolyn Frith Marketing, LLC, 2011.
Marketing consultant and copywriter serving the Greater Philadelphia Area and beyond.
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