My SEO strategy depends on two things: 1) write relevant content and 2) properly code each page. They are both equally important and search engines take both of these into account when ranking pages. In this article, I give you a quick start assignment that gets you on your way!
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the art of improving the chances of your web page showing up when someone searches for your type of business, a service, or a product. This article cannot possibly go into all the aspects of SEO in-depth, but I do want to give you a few basics to give you a better understanding of how SEO works and what you can do TODAY to improve your web pages for the search engines.
The two most important items of my SEO strategy are to 1) write relevant content and 2) properly code each page. They are both equally important and search engines take both of these into account when ranking pages. You can have loads of great content but if the page cannot be read by the search engine robot, then it is a problem. On the other hand, a page can be properly coded and pass validation, but with very little content, it will not do you any good.
Content is King
"Content" means the words, headlines, subject headers – what is seen on your web pages and viewable by the public. Content is important because search engines crawl your web page and read words and phrases. It takes this information and adds to an index, sort of like a giant catalog. Then, when someone does a search, the search engine returns the results, ranking each page by relevancy. Search engines are not mind readers; therefore, it only makes sense that you need to write the content using words that people (your target market) will most likely search on if you want your page to come up high on the results pages.
One of the first things that I tell clients as they go about setting up their web page is, "do not write website copy for the search engines, write for your audience." A genuine message from your heart is going to go a lot further than a page that's stuffed with keywords but not much else. You may think that you do not know what to write, but once you get started, the words will come.
Write about how you got started in the business, why are you passionate about your product or service, how you have helped people in the past… Don't forget to include as many details as you can about the problems your service will solve, how you deliver the service, who might be the best client for this service, etc.
Try to use the exact wording that someone in your target market might use, e.g., "Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and think, 'How am I going to finish my newsletter article, answer all of those client emails, and still have time to actually do my coaching work? I need some help with my newsletter!'"
That way, when your prospective client types something like, "Help with newsletters" in to a search engine, this specific page is more likely to show up in the results, and higher up. This is what is called a "key phrase." Incorporating key phrases into your content is much more useful than relying on single words, which has much more competition.
Quick Start Assignment
Choose just ONE of your web pages and look at the content. Do you give a clear explanation of what the intent of the page is? Do you give enough information about the product, service, etc.? Remember, each page is indexed individually. For example, if you are a virtual assistant offering a variety of services, of course you can list them on your "services menu" page, but also create a separate page for each service. This will go hand in hand with the back-end coding, which I'll talk more about next week.
During my first year as a virtual assistant, when I didn’t have any clients and lots of free time, I took a free SEO online course and it was excellent! There is a time investment involved; the course requires active participation, and it lasts for a few weeks, but I would still urge you to attend. I literally learned everything I know about SEO by attending these classes and by completing each of the exercises. Find out more at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SEO_Techniques/
Next month I will cover what you can do behind the scenes that will have a positive impact on your SEO rankings. Stay tuned!
Copyright 2008 Lisa Wells, Coast2CoastBusiness.com
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