I have never really liked the term SEO Content Writing very much. The idea of writing content for a search engine spider before engaging visitors and readers is never a good idea. The user experience should always come first. Most readers do quick “surf by’s” when visiting a website before taking a deeper dive, so it is important to capture attention right up front. Using buzz words and emphasizing these phrases within the copy, headings and of course page titles allows

Buzz words

the visitor to understand the message at a glance and often make that decision “…do I stay or do I move on?” Search engines generally view a web page in a similar way.

Keyword discovery and selection will be discussed in more depth in future posts but it is always a good idea to understand consumer behavior before reengineering your website’s content, headings and META tags. Using common Buzz words or Keywords/phrases, in the case of SEO, will help level your conversation with the average reader and create a connection with the majority. Keyword tools like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery are a tremendous asset to any marketing professional. Google obviously has a set of Keyword Tools that is rich with information.  These tools are a good place to start gaining the insight you will need.

Now for the 7 Key Elements…

1. You will here me say over and over, Great Content should be at the foundation of On-Page Optimization. Any solid structure requires a good strong foundation. Your body copy should be peppered with the keywords you discovered your future clients are using mixed with a few “local qualifiers” if your business is geographically focused. Local qualifiers are the names of prominent cities in your region, county names, zip codes and local slang terms like “Delaware Valley” or “Princeton Corridor” if appropriate. I personally recommend 250 – 750 words per page with no more than 5 primary keyword phrases per page. Your content should not be “stuffed” with keywords. 
2. From this great body content, you should re-engineer your TITLE tag. The content in the TITLE tag appears on the top of your browser window. A TITLE tag is an important introduction to your Web page and is like the heading of a book chapter…try not to exceed 150 characters. You should customize the TITLE tag on every page to describe the contents of each page. Be sure you always use keywords in your TITLE tag. A well crafted TITLE tag can be the doorway to success when viewed by Search Engine users.
3. A DESCRIPTION tag gives you a little more room to craft a keyword rich message that will engage searchers to take action. It must be relevant to the page content…don’t ever try to misrepresent your content in order to get more visitors. Some search engines show the content in this tag as part of the search results. Do not repeat any single word more than four times, and do not repeat any keyword phrases more than once. 
4. Header tags (H1 – H?) are the page subtopics if the Title tag is the primary topic. A keyword or two should be used early in the phrase and the text should be emphasized on the page. 
5. Alt Image tags are valuable assets, especially with new blended search results that are available in most of the primary search engines. The words used within an image’s alt attribute should be its text equivalent and convey the same information or serve the same purpose that the image would. 
6. URL Structure and keywords used within this page architecture is just plain Smart SEO. The whole process of SEO is not to exploit search engine rankings; it’s to promote the most relevant content (based on a given query) to the audience that seeks this content. One of the most often overlooked issues that can have a definite impact on your online marketing campaign from the organic side of things is URL structure. This tactic just makes it easier for a spider or visitor to understand page content at a glance. 
7. Properly crafted internal links can be one of the most important things you can do for your website. Search engine spiders follow the links on your pages and when keywords are used as the navigational link to transition between pages, this anchor text is part of the index for that page.

Obviously there are more insider tips to Web Page Optimization but these seven key elements if addresses properly will put you light years ahead of your competition. Sound like too much work for you or your team to tackle? This is just the starting point and represents perhaps 15% of the reason why one web page is found over another.

No doubt SEO is a full time job although the rewards are great for a job done well. Too busy to do this work yourself? Ask me how I can help you and your website get found online with Smart SEO in Philadelphia.

One of the most important tools you can add to a website to examine your online health is to install Website Analytics. Measuring how customers interact with your website will prove invaluable.  Google offers an Analytics Tool that is FREE of charge, one of the many gifts offered to you by your friends at Google. For most Small and Medium sized business owners, the data displayed with Google Analytics will be sufficient. More advanced analytical tools are available at a cost.

How do I begin? Quite simply, you need to head to Google Analytics to open an account. The process is painless and the knowledge your visitors are already sharing with you through their online behavior is priceless. Your web administrator can add the code as instructed or most business owners can do this installation themselves.

Free Analytical Tools

Once installed, web tracking will start within 24-48 hours. I recommend setting some baseline objectives and goals and these can always be adjusted as you gain in your comfort level with this analytical resource.  As you may have discovered, Google has answers to the most common questions at your finger tips. The Google Analytics Blog and Google’s Learning Center will also provide you with many useful tips and insights to get the most out of your experience.

What do you want visitors to do once they land on your site? Make a purchase, download something, complete a contact us form or call you on the phone? Google Analytics allows you to ”tag” the pages where these events occur and track them as conversions so you can determine if you’re meeting

decision making

your goals. This new found knowledge will help you to make more intelligent business decision that can dramatically effect future growth of your business. Making tough decisions based upon personal preference alone may not benefit the overall business.

You will also discover where your web visitors are …coming from, going to…, the time they spend on each page, are they new to the site or returning clients, etc.  This information will allow you to adjust your marketing dollars accordingly or decide where to strengthen the conversion capabilities for the weaker performing pages.

Define your target pages for the goal, give it a name and a measurable value, and off you go! There are Funnel options that help you understand the path users follow at the bottom of the goal settings page. 

You will discover great reporting tools with Google Analytics. Most reports will have a small “Add to Dashboard”  button in the upper left. If you find

Google Dashboard

yourself looking at a specific report a lot, click this button to add it to your front-page dashboard for quicker access. Some of the reports you will find most valuable are:

Always start with your Goals - Overview Report: This will tell you how well your site is doing at meeting your original objectives This report is until you define and set up your goals ahead of time.  Traffic Sources - All Traffic Sources: This report breaks down site traffic by source (e.g. Google, direct, referring sites, etc.) and medium (organic, referral, PPC,). It will give you excellent statistics on where your site traffic is coming from, and which sources/mediums are trending up or down.

I love the Top Content Report: This tells you which sections or pages of your site are the most popular. You can learn a lot about your site from behavioral patterns that develop from this report.

As you can see, there is a wealth of good useful information available and it is FREE for you to leverage while benefiting the entire web community. Remember, the common goal is to improve the customer’s experience and perhaps add some dollars to your company’s cash flow with new customers.