7 Key Elements of Successful Web Page Optimization

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 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.