Remember Who “Owns” Your Site
In my previous article “Projecting the Right Image on the Web” I encouraged you to “give away” your website to the users – your customers – for it is they who seek out your site for something they need or want. And so, it is important to give them what appeals to them and is most relevant to them.
Talk TO Them, Not AT Them
Talk to your readers, not at them. Use words and phrases that are eye-catching, direct, clearly stated and, above all, relevant. Your tone of voice should be immediately appropriate to the audience’s relationship with the site. Don’t be cryptic. Don’t assume that you have their undivided attention, because you probably don’t. On the other hand, don’t be overly verbose, either, because that is the surest way to lose their attention. It is not easy to grab and hold someone’s attention online, so you must work diligently to develop the skills needed to accomplish it This is why we have said to “give away” your site to your readers. Find out what they want and give it to them.
Begin immediately with all the essential information. Then follow with further details. This allows the reader to see the point and purpose of a page instantly so that he/she can make a quick decision as to whether or not to read on. Make the opening paragraph on every page the most important and fill it with appropriate keywords and phrases that will ensure optimization of your site.
Keywords & Phrases
Your careful choice of keywords and phrases announces to the search engines what you do. Writing copy based on your keywords and phrases will help optimize the page, A well-optimized page requires a minimum of 250–350 words. But simply peppering your site with keyword phrases, though affording you a higher position in search engines, will lose you as many customers as it attracts, if not done in a readable, attention-holding style. In other words, if your site is ponderous and weighty, readers will abandon it quickly out of disinterest and boredom, regardless of whether or not it has the keywords and phrases for maximum optimization. The trick here, then, is to write keyword-rich copy without compromising sustainability through readability. Accomplishing this task requires knowledge and skill. Here are some suggestions on how to pull this off:
Keyword-rich Copywrite Without Readability Compromise
Attaining this requires some pre-planning.
- Find out what keywords your customers use when searching for your site. These are the words you’ll want to use to describe your product or service.
- Use only the most important keyword phrases. Don’t include every keyword phrase on every page. Focus on just one or two on each page.
- Be specific and concised
- Use keywords or phrases in links whenever posible
- Use keyword phrases in headings
- When you’re done, test for keyword phrase density
Here are some tools you could use to find out what keywords phrase people use to find your site:
- Google Free Keyword Tool
- SEO Book Keyword Research Tool (free)
- Trellian Free Search Term Suggestion Tool
- Word Tracker (free 7 day tail or paid version)
- goRank Keyword Analyzer (free)
Internal Link and Inter-connection
Another helpful technique is to make use of Internal linking between documents. This is to be used contextually and be relevant to the targeted page and phrase or another section on the same web page
Add a Blog to the Mix If Possible
Blogging is an excellent natural way to obtain higher search engine placement, if you can make the time for it and remain consistent and focused on subjects of interest to your readership. Here are some ideas on how to write an effective blog.
All the above have been internally focused. Next, let us move on to the external factors that also contribute to your site SEO, also referred to as Off-page Optimization.
(Next week we shall look into Off-page Optimization)