Tips to Test and Measure Your Site’s SEO

Posted on April 27th, 2010

If you’ve been following our last few posts, you now have spent a fair amount of time making your site search engine optimized. And, chances are, you are already seeing a bit more web traffic. However, your website SEO is not complete, nor will it ever be 100%. This is due to step four of the SEO process. Continue reading “Tips to Test and Measure Your Site’s SEO” »

4 Areas of SEO Content Optimization that You Don’t Want to Miss!

Posted on April 20th, 2010

Last post we discussed keyword research. Now that you have your keyword list and have tested them for effectiveness, now you are ready for step 3 of improving your website’s SEO.

3. Implement Content Optimization and Submission

Perhaps the most important aspect of improving your site’s SEO, content optimization and submission can also be quite time consuming and somewhat frustrating. There are 4 primary parts of optimizing your website for SEO (This list of 4 is certainly not exhaustive, but they are the key ones to focus on):

1. using keywords in your title tags
2. using keywords in the H1 tag
3. using keywords throughout the body copy
4. using keyword phrases as anchor text of links on other sites that point back to your website’s pages

Keywords in Title Tags

Title tags should tell both users and the search engine what a page is about. You will want to have a well written title that is both brief and descriptive for each page of your website so that they show up in the search results of search engines and can increase clicks from targeted searchers. Do not write title tags that have vague titles like "homepage" or "page 3." Titles that are stuffed with keywords and are longer than 60 characters will look spammy and also won’t help, so keep it concise

Keywords in H1 Tags

Using keywords in your heading tags is also very important. There are six sizes of heading tags (H1 to H6) and they work as clues for readers to know what information is to follow. These assorted title tags should be used sparingly, generally no more than one H1 tag to a page. Also, be sure that the H1 tag represents the thesis of the page and is as close to the main targeted phrase as possible.  Title tag faux pas are inconsistency in tag size, putting all the information in a title and using heading tags for styling text rather than content structure.

Keywords in Content 

As you write the content for each of your site’s pages, it is important to incorporate your keywords throughout the body copy. You should use bold and italics whenever possible, without being overdone, as well as have a list (numbers, bullets, check boxes, etc.) that includes your keywords. Keep in mind that according to Jon Wuebbon, author of Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web, key phrase use should make up 3-8% of an article or page, but at the same time, don’t get too concerned with the numbers when it comes to keyword density. Just make sure you are aware of the key phrases you are going after and  that your text reads logically and doesn’t sound like you are stuffing in as many key phrases as you can. As you create your web page content, be sure that it is easy to read, has a unique approach, focuses on the subject, showcases your services or products and is written with people, not search engines in mind. You should not have duplicated material – even if it is original work – on your site. In addition, your webpage(s) should not have poorly written material with grammatical errors, extensive misspellings (intentional misspellings not withstanding) or excessive amounts of writing on a wide range of topics without using paragraphs, headings or subheadings.

Keywords in Anchor Text

Using keywords and phrases as anchor text on other sites is a great way to direct people to your webpage. Submit articles that contain anchor text links back to your site on sites such as Ezinearticles.com, Buzzle.com, Ehow.com and others. Be sure the text is descriptive yet short and is easily spotted. When using anchor text, do not use long text (e.g. whole sentences), overloaded keyword articles, unneeded links that detract from a site’s usefulness or use generic terms like "page" or "click here".

Once you have implemented content optimization and submission as part of improving your site’s SEO, you are nearly "finished." As you will find in step four, found in our next post, there is no such thing as being completely finished with SEO, but knowing the steps to bettering your site’s SEO is one of the best things you can do to increase business.

Critical SEO Tips for Keyword Research

Posted on April 13th, 2010

When building or redesigning your website, it is vital to do everything possible to make it rank high in a web search.  After all, a website that is only visited by friends and family is not helping you increase your customer base. To help your site rank high in web searches, one of the most efficient methods is the effective use of SEO.

Coined in 1997, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of making one’s website more accessible and visible to search engines via natural or unpaid (aka- organic or algorithmic) search results rather than through SEM (search engine marketing) which is paid inclusion. When SEO is correctly employed, search engines will crawl your site and find relevance to a search term and the site will rank high at the top of search engine results. The higher your website ranks, the greater potential for business. It should be noted that writing for SEO should be done with social media groups such as Twitter, Facebook and others in mind as Google announced in December 2009 that it would be using the web histories of all its users to populate search results.

SEO is, however, more than stuffing your website with keywords. Paradoxically, too frequently using a keyword or phrase can work against you. To improve your website’s SEO, take these 4 steps (Steps 3 & 4 will be covered in subsequent articles).

1. Develop a list of keywords used to search for your webpage, products or services. As you begin creating a keyword list, be thorough but be sure not to only include your brand or company names. You may want to talk to friends and family for keyword ideas. Other ways to develop a keyword list is the use of synonyms (mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, etc.). Also, keywords don’t have to be single words; phrases with 3 or more words are known as long tail words or niche words and can bring more search engine hits than individual words.
2. Keyword Research and Development- After creating a list of keywords, you are ready to begin keyword research and development through the use of keyword research tools. You can use sites like Word Tracker, Google AdWords, Spy Fu and SEO Digger. These tools range in cost from free to a monthly or annual charge, but are well worth the time (and money) it takes to use them. The keyword research and development tools will show you the most popular search terms for your product or service and how often they are used. With these words and phrases identified you are ready to begin making changes to your website.

   Intentionally misspelled words may seem an odd approach, but according to Gyutae Park of Winning the Web , there are 10 million misspelled search queries every day. To find high potential keyword misspellings check out Keyword Typo Generator. No, you don’t want to produce copy that is rife with errors, but including a statement like "Common misspellings are…" or turning a common misspelling into a brand name can make a difference.

It is also critical to look at web analytics such as Click Tracks, Key Word Discovery or Keyword Spy. Web analytics will show you how many times related words are used to find specific information.  



Once you have your keyword research finished you will be ready to proceed to step 3…covered next post