My friend, Kim has a great video interview out talking about SEO and Usability. Kim is a great proponent on ensuring a website is usable once a visitor lands there. As she says there’s no point in being number 1 in the search engines if visitors can’t find what they’re looking for on your site.
Kim also talks a little about the start of Cre8asite Forums, my home away from home. It’s a great interview and well worth a look.
I come across a lot of people who are under the assumption that a website must be optimised for their one main keyword phrase only. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Your website should contain hundreds of keyword phrases all targeting variations of the sorts of words people would use to find the products and services you are offering. As a rough guide focus on one or two phrases per page.
You can also use this approach to target both competitive and not so competitive terms. For example the keyword phrase “blue widgets” may be extremely competitive whereas “buy genuine blue widgets” is far easier to rank well for. By combining both on a page you can effectively target both competitive and non-competitive keyword phrases. You may rank quite quickly for the non competitive phrase, whilst ranking well for the more competitive phrase might take more time and effort.
So now you know how to approach distributing your keyword phrases but how do you know what the right phrases are? This is where keyword research come in.
Start with reviewing your marketing materials and talking to staff to get an initial list of phrases used to describe your products and services. You should also look at what industry jargon is used and what words your clients and customers use to describe your offerings. Use these words to form a seed list.
You now need to research those phrases. There are a number of keyword research tools out there that can help you do this. This research can help you determine how popular and competitive a keyword phrase is and help you choose the best ones for your website. Here are some great keyword research tools you may want to try:
These tools will help you come up with a comprehensive list of appropriate keyword phrases for your website.
Finally nothing beats testing. Analyse your website’s visitors and work out which keywords are performing for you. Ongoing tweaking and adjustments will help ensure you are targeting the right keyword phrases and getting targeted traffic to your website.
Many years ago a client finally admitted to me, after 12 months, that they didn’t know what a URL was. I was horrified as I’d been referring to website addresses as URL’s the whole time and she obviously had no idea what I was on about!
Never again. From then on I made a decision to explain things as simply as possible. It’s paid off, one of the most frequent comments I get from clients and prospects alike is my ability to explain things to them in a clear, easy to understand manner. Recently I’ve had a number of people ask me to explain something they were told by another web designer or marketer. When being told what the original person said I’m usually dumbfounded that they would assume what they said would make sense to the average person.
Our role is to walk our clients and prospects through the complex area of web design and online business. It is up to us to make sure what we say is being understood by those we say it to.
Google are giving away free AdWords coupons to those who don’t yet have an account.
From the site:
Enter your email address and the URL of the website you want to promote with AdWords, then click “Send me a coupon!” We’ll send an email in a couple of days to the address you provide containing a coupon code and instructions for redeeming it and setting up your AdWords account.
Get yours while they last.
Welcome to Widgets Online! We offer a wide range of widgets including red widgets, blue widgets, green widgets, pink widgets, black widgets and white widgets as well as cheap widgets, discount widgets and fast widgets plus many more widgets at great prices. For all your widget needs contact us.
Hardly compelling is it.
Sure you need to include keywords in your copy in order to help rank in the search engines but what use is ranking at number one if your sales copy reads like above? It’s hardly going to compel your prospects to purchase from you.
Your web pages need to be written to cater to both the search engines and your users. Keyword rich copy that is compelling should be your focus. Why should people buy from you? What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)?
As you read over your pages keep those questions in mind. If your site reads like a laundry list of keywords it probably needs a re-write.
One of the definitive guides to promoting your website is the just released 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 by Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall. This is a must read for anyone serious about building a successful website in 2006.
