You turn on your computer and navigate to Google. You enter your search term. Shazam! You come up on page one in the unpaid “organic” listing -- like magic. Everyone is clicking through to your site because you’re there. You’ve optimized for the search engines. You’re an SEO wonder. (Someone is on page one, and it isn’t always the big guys. So don’t think that it’s impossible.)
SEO is a stool that rests on three legs: Content, Metadata, and Off-Page elements:
1. Content Optimization:
- Decide on one or at most two keyword phrases for each page. This is your target phrase – when searchers type in that phrase, you are looking to place very well in the search engines for that phrase. Remember that each keyword phrase has to meet three tests: it needs to be a phrase that you can live with, that potential customers actually use, and that is not so contested by other companies that it is unattainable.
- On the one hand, you need to optimize each page separately. On the other hand, the search engines want to see all the pages optimized for the same phrase – the more pages in a single domain that are optimized for that phrase, the better you will do. Google often shows two pages from the same site where those pages are optimized for the same term.
- Use the keyword phrase a lot. This means, use it together ([Web Analytic Consulting]) and use each of the words in the keyword phrase ([Web], [Analytics] and [Consulting]) as much as you can. Use them close together if you can. Use stemmed variations ([Consultant]) occasionally if that works for you. Too much use is not good either – the search engines will think you are spamming them. In general, you need to use your phrase in about 5% of your copy.
- Have lots of searchable copy. It is true that you only need your phrase in about 5% of your text, but using the words 5 times out of 100 words is not as good as using them 10 times out of 200 words. 20 times out of 400 is even better. At the same time, remember your audience’s needs (a tricky balancing act.)
- Your navigation counts as copy if it is searchable (i.e. not Flash or JavaScript.) Therefore, if your navigation includes “Web Analytics Consultant” and “Choice of Web Analytics Package” you get credit for [Web Analytics] twice.
- Use your terms as the anchor text in links between pages (and to other pages outside your site, if you are going to do that.) Instead of writing, “Before we can analyze your site, you need to have web analytics software. For more information on choosing web analytics software, click here,” you should write, “Before we can analyze your site, you need to have web analytics software – a choice we can help with.” So, look to link, and look to put keywords in the hot text (even if they are keywords for a different page – it will help that other page.)
- Debatable: Use the terms high on the page, preferably in the upper left corner. This is debatable because not all SEOs agree on this, and because search engines differ (some search engines care and others do not.)
- Using the terms in bulleted lists, in boldface, in italics and as a heading will help a small amount, depending on the search engine.
- Do not embed text in images, where the search engines cannot read it. Ditto for Flash and JavaScript. (Note: sometimes you do want to use unreadable text. For example, if you cannot use your search term or any variations thereof high on the page, you can bury the other terms that are irrelevant to the keyword phrase in an image. That way, the first words the engine sees are your keywords.)
- Finally, remember that dynamic pages are harder for the search engines to index than static pages. They are getting better at it – the fewer parameters you throw at them, though, the easier you make their job.
2. Beyond content, there is Metadata:
- The title tag. The tag is at the top of the page – the very top. In Internet Explorer, it is the blue bar at the top. Do not waste that space with copy like, “Welcome to LunaMetrics!” Instead, you could do, “Web Analytic Consultants helping you choose web analytic software.” (Notice that we got the search term in that sample title tag twice, which is an important goal.) It is unclear whether Google uses much of your metadata when indexing your site, but they definitely use your title tag – that’s the piece of underlined copy that potential visitors see on the search engine response page.
- The description. Write a meta description for every page. Make it heavy with the search terms (and use them early) but do not create a spammy description. Remember that this may be the snippet that shows up in the search engine response page for all the important engines, including Google. Be sure to indicate your city name at the end of the description if you are looking for a national audience – that way, when someone does type in “Web Analytic Consulting Pittsburgh” you have a good shot at coming up.
- The URL. For every page that you are optimizing, get your phrase into the URL. (Again, this may be ignored by Google and Yahoo! but not by second-string search engines.) A good page URL for [web analytic consulting] would be www.lunametrics.com/web-analytic-consulting. Note that webmasters fight about whether it is better to use underscores or hyphens, and no one really knows the answer, or whether it matters. Also, try to keep the number of characters down in a URL – fewer than 60 is best.
- Alt tags (describing pictures). Some think that alt tags are ignored by search engines now. Maybe, maybe not, but it is always a best practice for accessibility – people who have poor or no eyesight have computers that read to them. You might describe each picture with a tag that includes the term if that is appropriate.
- Remember to do lots of linking among your pages and among the various sections. This shows the search engines that your pages belong together.
3. The third area is off-page elements. These include
- How many links you have to your site from other sites
- How many links you have to your site from other important sites
- How many links you have to your site from other sites with lots of links
- Whether you create new links slowly instead of all at once
- How fresh your content is
- Whether you change the more important parts of your site often
- How often your page is chosen when it comes up in the search results
- How long your domain has been registered
… and many more. In general, the search engines want to see that other sites are “voting” for you by linking to you, that customers choose you when they see you in the search engine results, and that you care enough about your site to be working on it in a slow, continual manner.
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