seo tips
Did I mention that content is really important?
One of the most common mistakes people do when they are building content is thinking only of the search engines. They will stuff in keywords even when they make no sense. Even if you do get past the Search Engine filters and spam detectors, what happens when someone actually lands on this page? What is the point of having someone come to your site only to find the content makes no sense? Wouldn’t you leave? You are better off spending more time or paying more for content that a visitor will find valuable. Also, good quality content will stand the test of time.
When you build good content, the links will come. When you have good content, other websites will link to you to make their sites look better. I have found that if you write about a relevant topic and then go out to the expert bloggers and notify them of it, they will usually reference your content and link back to you.
This one tip is for sure, content is forever. Links, metatags and other SEO (search engine optimization) techniques come and go but content has always been relevant at some level. Don’t look at your content task as an ongoing uphill climb. Get in a ritual of writing 1 page of content every other day for your site, or find a partner that will. Within 2 years, you will have roughly 350 pages of unique, indexable content on your site. Search engines will love it, your visitors will love it, you will benefit from it for years to come!
It doesn’t have to be award winning content to make a difference. Many people get stumped on what to write about. Just write! Read an industry publication to get the ideas rolling. You don’t need a 5,000 word essay that will change your industry. Just write about a topic you were challenged with recently. Write about how great your employees are, write about a new portion of your product or service that few know about. Just write!
Of course if you just don’t have the time to create content or just what to pay someone to do the job for you then you can always hire a freelance copywriter like myself.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics
Before you begin more complex search engine optimization (SEO) techniques you must ensure that your website is “search engine friendly.” This means making sure that each individual page is compliant with search engine standards and ready to be indexed correctly. Follow each of the steps below for each page on your site.
Page Title: The title of the HTML page should be relatively short and describe the page content accurately. Wherever possible, try to include keywords (without distorting the true purpose of the title). For example:
<title>McGrath Discount Office Furniture Store</title>
Meta tags: Use the description and keywords metatags in the head of each web page. Make these tags different on each web page.
<meta name=”description” content=”Suppliers of quality office furniture and accessories at discount prices.”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”furniture, office, store, shop, retail, discount”>
Heading Tags: Use heading tags. Many search engines place more emphasis on text within heading tags, so make sure they use keywords. Use one <h1> tag per page with the most important keywords. Use other head tags (<h2>, <h3>, etc) to provide variations and support the main heading.
<h1>Desks</h1>
<h2>Large Desks</h2>
<p>… information about large desks…</p>
<h2>Small Desks</h2>
<p>… information about small desks, etc etc…</p>
Page Text: Make sure the text of your web pages contain keywords and common phrases which people might search for. Be careful with the frequency of your keywords – you want to have them occur at least a few times if possible, but don’t repeat yourself so much that the copy becomes unnatural. The idea is to discretely spread keywords around without making it obvious.
<p>Buy office furniture at affordable prices from any of our retail stores.</p>
Note: Use all these methods in moderation. If you include a hundred keywords in the meta tag or saturate your page with heading tags they will lose their effectiveness and you may be penalized in other ways. Keep it simple and under control for maximum impact.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Copywriting
Search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting requires a different approach than traditional copywriting. It could be boring, to be honest, but if done properly it will bring you results. Here are some tips that you can apply to help your SEO efforts:
1. Give the primary keyword most importance. Always keep the primary keyword in mind while writing the article. While I don’t believe in taking away a writers freedom, it’d be good if you can write an article around the suggested keyword and maintain a keyword density of 6-8% in the whole article. Also make sure the primary keyword is evenly “sprinkled” around in the whole copy.
2. Use tags to highlight phrases containing the primary keyword. Make sure you use strong tags to highlight phrases that contain the primary content and the variations of it. Also make sure that you don’t go around highlighting every occurrence of the keyword but around 3-4% in the whole text and near the start/end of the entire copy is ideal.
3. Use variations of the primary keyword in the articles. Use variations of the primary keyword in a healthy ratio of 4% of the entire copy. For example if the keyword is “Flower” the variations would be “red flower” “blue flower” etc and not “flowers” or “flowering”.
4. Maintain a keyword density of 6-8% of the primary keyword and at least 3-4% of the variations
5. While linking to other sites, use a nofollow attribute. Use a nofollow attribute to external link sources wherever necessary, especially if there are lot of outgoing links in a particular article. I’d say if you run beyond 3 links in an article, it’s better to nofollow them while you can ignore nofollows for links less than three in number.
6. Use titles for links. Use the “title” attribute for all links external or internal. In the title attribute, give a short description of less than 6 words containing the primary keyword or its variations. Ex:- “More articles on Wedding” where “Wedding” is the primary keyword.
7. Try to interlink to your own pages/articles with the appropriate keyword that suits the content of the destination article. Do not use nofollow attributes while doing this.
8. Try to maintain a length of at least 250 words in the whole article. This is to make sure that Google gets the chance to scan your copy and collect the keywords from it. If it’s a short article, the engines might not consider it a valid doc.
9. When writing headings, try to make sure that the primary keyword is placed in the first three words. Ex:- “Wedding Troubles – Article 1,2 and 3” where Wedding Troubles is the keyword.
Marketing Your RSS Feed
Here is another useful – well at least I hope so – SEO tip from yours truly. If you go through the necessary steps and time to set up an RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) feed, it will only help you if people actually use it. In short, you need to give some thought to marketing your RSS feed.
An RSS feed is potentially a powerful marketing tool for any site. Imagine a scenario where other sites automatically publish your content. Think of how much bigger the audience will be for your content. If a lot of sites pick up your feed, the numbers could be staggering. The problem, of course, is how you get people to publish your feed on their site. Well, you need to get their attention. Yes, marketing your RSS feed should be another part of your overall marketing plan.
The first step in marketing your feed has to do with your site. Simply put, you need to let people know you have a feed and they can use it. It is important to understand that RSS feeds can be used by individuals as well as other sites. My Yahoo is a popular add on to all Yahoo email accounts. My Yahoo has a tool that allows users to add RSS feeds to their page. Bingo! If you are serious about kicking out an RSS feed, you need to put text on your site showing people how to add your feed to their systems.
Once you have covered your site, you need to consider how you will get notice of your feed out to the web at large. There are two excellent ways that come to mind. The first is optimizing your feed page to obtain search engine rankings. You want to optimize for your subject area in combination with words like news, updates, tips or whatever is appropriate for your situation. Once you have rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN, people will naturally start picking up your feed because they are searching for it.
The second method for promoting your feed is through articles. Simply put, you should publish articles in the big article directories anyway to promote your site. In your author byline, however, you will make a small change. Instead of blabbering on about your site, you can include text indicating the reader can get a feed for more articles from your site if they like what they have read so far. This is a slower approach, but one that pays off over time.
Starting an RSS feed makes sense for just about any site on the web. While this is true, you need to keep in mind that you will also have to market your RSS feed for it to reach its true potential.
If you have additional questions or would like more online marketing tips, please contact me and I will be more than happy to help. I can be reached at 208.598.0084 or matt.shifley@yahoo.com.
Matt Shifley: Marketing Specialist 
