 To
Search Engine Optimize, or Not to Search Engine Optimize:
That is the Question
by Dina
Giolitto
The other day while interviewing a potential
copywriting and marketing
client, I asked about keywords. Did he know what his were?
Did he plan to search engine optimize his website? My client's
response was, "Well, I figured we didn't need SEO because
most of my clients are going to come from word-of-mouth referrals
anyway."
I was a bit taken aback by this. My reaction:
Why have a website if you aren't going to bother search engine
optimizing it?
A lot of web design professionals like to
spin dizzying tales of keyword density and keyword diagnostics
and all that. It appears they go through a very highly complex
and roundabout process, to arrive at the exact same place
as someone who consistently applies organic search engine
optimization methods would. Seems to me, all that crazy talk
does is scare people away from a very necessary step in developing
a website: choosing keywords, and adding them in all the right
places.
Another curious thing: it seems that many
people regard SEO as an "optional" aspect of website
development. Indeed, you can just decide not to make use of
the built-in features of websites that let you slip keywords
in so the web crawlers will know how to index you. But then
you only have "half" a website.
It's almost like saying, "Build me
a custom automobile, but leave out the engine!" Looks
nice, but what's the point?
Why do you need keywords and SEO? Because
when people out there search for your services, you want your
site to come up high on the list. Mind you, this is
different from people "Googling your name" to see
what comes up. If they're searching for your name, one has
to assume that they already know who you are. But what about
all those people who have no idea who you are, but they DO
know that they need what you have? You want them to find your
website at the top of the search engines. Right?
Search engine optimizing your website is
much easier than some would have you believe. You do it by
constantly adding pages of new content to your website and
including your chosen keywords in the titles, tags, copy,
and links of every page. Here's how.
1. Select your keywords. Use the Google
Keyword Tool to assist you in this process.
2. Place your chosen keywords and keyword phrases in the page
title, description, keyword tags, and image alt tags of every
page of your website. If you use a program like Dreamweaver
to design your pages, you'll find these under the INSERT menu
at the top, under HEAD TAGS.
(Word to the wise: be diligent about this!
In my experience, all it takes is a few neglected image tags
on a couple of pages to bump you down a few pegs on Google.
If that happens, don't fret - just put those keywords back
in and you'll be back in good standing in no time).
3. Make use of keyword links when building
menus (or categorical lists) for your website. That is to
say, use your magic keywords and keyword phrases as the first
few words of your live links, so as to describe what the reader
will see on the linked-to page if they click. This applies
to more than just menus - basically any time you link to a
new page requires a keyword. Think of the link as a directional:
want copywriting? (Then
go here.)
4. Use your chosen keyword/keyword phrase
as the first few words of your page headlines. Take note,
this doesn't mean that every headline has to be "literal"
- you can still have fun with this. Just make use of the colon
to connect a category description with a clever lead-in. For
example, an article headline taken from my own website: Power
Writing 101: Tips and Tricks to Get You Taken Seriously!
(notice I managed to fit the word "writing" in there?)
5. Sprinkle your keywords throughout the
copy on every web page you publish.
6. When you publish content on other people's
websites, keyword-link back to your own website when possible.
For instance, the author "sig line" for my Lockergnome
articles always says:
Sign up for the Copywriting
and Marketing Ezine from Dina at http://wordfeeder.com
and learn to write search engine-friendly Web copy and market
your Web based business for free.
(Notice the way I used the words "copywriting
and marketing" in a live link.)
7. Publish fresh content on your website EVERY month. Do it
systematically - write and publish a new article on your website,
develop an offer or pitch to match, package in your ezine
with "click to read more" links, then send it out
to your readers. Then, archive the ezine issues live on your
website. Of course, make sure that every page you publish
(including your ezine pages) follows the above format (steps
1 through 6) to assure proper keyword placement.
One subject that has come up lately: should
you use the same header keyword tags for every single page
of your site? Or should you vary the header according to what's
on the page?
SEO experts advise that each page should
contain its own unique keywords, depending on the "theme"
of that page. If you check the page rank of your homepage
(for example, http://wordfeeder.com
in my case), and then compare it to the page rank of other
pages of your website (for example, http://wordfeeder.com/articles.htm),
you may be surprised to find that some pages rank higher than
others. This proves the theory that each page of your website
stands on its own, competing for traffic and rank on the search
engines.
For example, let's say you're a copywriting
and marketing expert like I am. The keywords on your copywriting
newsletter page should relate to copywriting newsletters...
NOT to the generic topic of copywriting.
If you're new to the search engine game,
you may feel slightly overwhelmed by all the fancy lingo.
Fear not... once you actually "get your hands in it,"
you'll see that the terminology means nothing. Really, it's
all about putting little "signs" in the content
and code of your website pages that tell your visitors where
to go.
Even if you can't get into this article
today, copy the text and save it to your computer. I promise
you it will come in handy if you ever plan to build a successful
business website that generates real income.
Copyright 2007 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com
Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
Explore our Individual Copywriting Services
Learn about our Monthly Marketing Services
Back to Copywriting Articles Page |
