Posts Tagged ‘keywords’

Action List: Don’t overdo the page content

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

content

I was reading a competitor bookstore’s online newsletter the other day and it gave me an idea for a post.  The newsletter went on and on and on.  I scrolled, scrolled, scrolled down through the content and found myself deleting the email before reaching the bottom. 

It’s not that the content was bad – it was actually really good (and it gave me some ideas for our own Boomerang Books Bulletin).  It’s just that I didn’t have the time or the inclination to take it all in. 

There’s a lesson in that for netpreneurs.

People’s attention spans are short these days.  We have so many things impacting on our time - so many distractions, competing priorities, and the ever-increasing demands of everyday life.  We just don’t have the time to read through a lengthy web page or email newsletter.  And when we do have the time, we can’t possibly take in all that information, because our mind is full of so many other things!

So for our human visitors/newsletter subscribers, the advice is to employ the KISS principle - keep it simple, stupid!

There’s also another important consideration when reviewing the length of our web pages - will Google index all of the content if it is too long?  Like most people in modern society, the Google indexing robots are busy little bees.  They will only spend a certain amount of time on your website before moving on to the next site.  If each page of your website contains a thesis, then much of the page content won’t be indexed, which means that your site won’t achieve its traffic potential from the search engines.

With that in mind, here are some tips for good page content:

- Keep each page or newsletter to 200-300 words maximum per page.

- If your content is more than 200-300 words, span it over multiple pages, but offer a ‘print version’ that contains the entire text (it’s painful having to print articles that span over multiple pages)

- Use bullet points, prominent headings, white space, 1.5 line spacing and short paragraphs to break up the content and enable the reader to ’scan’ your content.  It’s proven that most people scan, rather than read.

- Include keyword combinations that you want to rank highly for in Google and other search engines, but make sure that they appear ‘naturally’ within the text (ie. when read, the text should read naturally)

- Put your best content ‘above the fold’ so that every visitor can see it – ie. it is visible once the page has loaded, without the necessity to scroll down to reveal the content.

- Cross-link to other appropriate pages on your website so that your visitors can find other content quickly and easily.  Use contextual links (links within the body text, like this one!) to provide natural pathways throughout your website.

Of course, I am aware of the irony – this article appears on a blog page that scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.  A consequence of using Wordpress, although I am sure that it could be configured differently…

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Action List: Use keyword combinations to optimise your page

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

 key

Once you have settled on a combination of keywords that you would like to optimise your site for, it is important to ensure that these keywords are represented in different areas on your home page.

Your keywords should appear in the following places:

1. In your domain name, if possible (eg. www.cheap-hotels.com.au) - this is not always possible if you are working with an established domain, but it can help if you are contemplating a new website.

2. In the page URL – if you are trying to optimise a page for ‘canberra hotels’, then you should try and include these terms in the URL: http://www.getaroom.com.au/Canberra-hotels-list.htm

3. In your page TITLE tag – this is the text that appears at the very top left of the web browser when you view a web page – it is considered one of the most important factors in your search engine optimisation efforts, because this is normally the text that appears as the title of your page in the search engine listings.

4. In your page meta DESCRIPTION tag – hidden to the viewer, but important, as this is often the text that appears in the site description in the search engine listings.

5. In your page meta KEYWORDS tag – hidden to the viewer, not overly important, but worth reviewing.

6. In page headings – H1 (and H2, H3 etc.) headline texts are the texts that are written between the <h1>…</h1> tags in the HTML code of a web page. Some search engines give extra relevance to search terms that appear in the headline texts.

7. In the page body text (preferably in the first sentence of the body text and also consider bolding the keywords, if appropriate, as some search engines give greater weight to bold text)

8. In image ALT tags – this is text that is displayed on a website when the image fails to load or if the browser has turned off the view images function.  They are also displayed as a mouseover effect when scrolling over images in Microsoft Internet Explorer.  These tags can have some bearing on search engine listings

9. In on-site links anchor text - this is the anchor text that is used in a hyperlink to point to another page on your own site.  For example, if I had a page on ‘Canberra Hotels’ and I wanted to optimise for those keywords, I would use Canberra Hotels as my anchor text on another page of my website to link to that page.

10. In on-site links URLs – this is the text contained within a URL that points to another page on your own site.  For example, if I had a page on ‘Canberra Hotels’ and I wanted to optimise for those keywords, I would use http://www.getaroom.com.au/canberra-hotels-list.htm as the URL on my website to link to that page.

11. In outbound links anchor text / URL text - whilst less important, some credence is given to anchor text and URL text that links to other websites, although this seems to be a relatively minor factor, and I wouldn’t be providing links to your competitors!

12. In HTML comments – HTML comment tags are “hidden comments” in the HTML code of your web page. They are not visible to the user.

You should ensure that you follow these guidelines when tweaking your on-site keywords:

- CRITICAL – be careful not to include too many instances of the keywords words, as many search engines look unfavourably on sites with high keyword density – they see this as a deliberate strategy to dupe search engines

- Don’t add keywords to headings and body text if they serve to distort the meaning of the page/section – the keywords need to appear naturally in the text, particularly as this text is read by your site visitors.

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Action List: Advertise your business using Google Adwords

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

google-adwords

Google Adwords is one of the most well-known pay per click advertising programs on the web.  No matter what your budget, you can display your ads on Google and its vast advertising network and you only pay if people click on your ads.

You create the ads and choose the keywords that you would like to target. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results. If the user clicks on your ad, he/she will be taken to your chosen landing page and your account will be charged.

Often you can start advertising from as little as 20c per click, depending on the industry that you are working in. Importantly, your advertising is highly targeted as the user has already indicated an interest in the keywords that match your advertisement.

Google Adwords takes some experimentation.  It is important that you identify and use keywords that will generate a genunie lead (ie for a sale), rather than advertise on generic keywords that do not achieve your ends.  Whilst it is easy to sign up and seemingly inexpensive to start attracting leads, the costs can add up if your campaigns are not well-thought out and go unmonitored.

To help you with your campaigns, this ebook is the most comprehensive specialised book about Google AdWords that is currently available. The ebook contains comprehensive screenshots, tables and check lists, which help you to get quick results and lower advertising costs for more profit.

To sign up for Google Adwords, click here:  http://adwords.google.com.au/select/Login

A TIP FOR NEW ACCOUNT HOLDERS – Most Australian small business magazines (Dynamic Business, Anthill) run Google Adwords promotions, whereby new account holders are given $50 or $60 credits to start off with – buy these magazines to receive the unique URL for signing up.  At the time of publishing, you could get a $60 credit from this Dynamic Business promotion.

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Action List: Develop effective ‘landing pages’ for your paid advertising

Monday, January 12th, 2009

landingAttracting customers to your website through Google AdWords is one thing, but it is an entirely different thing to persuade them to transact with your business once they get there.

Each time a person clicks on your Google AdWords advertisement, it costs you money. It doesn’t matter whether the page fails to load or if the visitors spend only 2 seconds on your site, your money still goes into the Google coffers.

That’s why it’s so important to develop effective ‘landing pages’ for your Google Adwords campaigns – landing pages are the pages that visitors ‘land’ on after they have clicked on one of your advertisements.

If you want conversions, your landing page must have a clearly defined goal. It must guide the visitor and it must contain a clear call to action. Your website visitors must be able to see within seconds what’s in for them when they visit your website. 

It’s also important not to distract the potential buyer by offering them ‘escape’ routes on your landing pages.  You’ve paid for them to arrive at your site (and they are a qualified buyer because they have used a keyword combination relating to your goods or services), so it’s not a smart move to distract them with third-party advertising banners, links to other sites, or with content that does not relate to the original keyword entered by that person to find your site.

If you are not following these guidelines, then your Adwords campaigns will not achieve their aim – that is, to convert visitors to leads.  You may very well be wasting your hard-earned marketing dollars if your ads and landing pages are not constructed correctly.

This ebook is the most comprehensive specialised book about Google AdWords that is currently available. The ebook contains comprehensive screenshots, tables and check lists, which help you to get quick results and lower advertising costs for more profit.

To read a little more about good landing pages, take a look at this article from Search Engine Watch – http://searchenginewatch.com/3632318

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Action List: Choose ‘long tail’ keywords over short keywords

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

I’ve just been reading an article about long tail vs head keywords – http://searchenginewatch.com/3632347 - and it prompted me to add this action item for netpreneurs.

It is almost impossible to get your website optimised for single-word keywords – eg. hotels.  It’s much better to optimise your site for a combination of keywords, or what are known as ‘long tail’ keywords.  Not only will it be easier to get to the top of the search results, but you’re more likely to get a sale if somebody finds your site using these keyword combinations.

Using the example above, how many times have you searched on the single keyword term ‘hotels’?  I’m willing to bet that you have never done so, because the keyword ‘hotels’, in isolation, has no context – where is the hotel that you are looking for?   It’s not likely that you will find what you are looking for in the search engines if you were to use this term.

If you were looking for a discount hotel in Sydney, you would be more inclined to use the terms ‘cheap hotels sydney’, which is an example of a ‘long tail’ keyword.  It is much easier to optimise for this keyword combination and get results, than if you were to use the generic term ‘hotels’.  In fact, one of my sites, www.getaroom.com.au, currently appears in the top ten listings on Google for this keyword combination (at least it did when I checked last).

Clearly, the person that searches on ‘cheap hotels sydney’ is closer to making an accommodation purchase, than the person who simply types in ‘hotel’ – the former is more motivated towards a sale than the latter.  Hence, it’s best to employ ‘long tail’ keyword combinations.

To work out which keyword combos are best, it’s a useful exercise to try and emulate your customer’s behaviour when settling upon keywords – if I were a customer, what would I plug into a search engine to find my products?

Be aware that it’s a lot easier to optimise for combinations of 4-5 words, than combinations of 2-3.

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Action List: Write quality copy

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

penGood copywriting is critical to getting your message across to your audience.  Good copy will make a connection with the reader, arouse emotions and potentially provoke a response – if you run an online store, the response that you are seeking is the purchase of a product or service.

It’s difficult to write your own copy.  No matter how many times you go over the text you have written, there always seems to be areas that you don’t quite like or wish to refine.  It’s doubly hard to write copy for the reader, rather than writing about ‘you’.  The first rule of copywriting is that the text needs to be tailored for the audience – it’s not all about you.

Here are some tips for writing good copy:

1.  Heard of the acronym WIIFM?  It stands for ‘what’s in it for me?’.  This the attitude that your website visitors will have when they read your copy – you need to write from this perspective.  What benefits will I get from using this product or service?

2.  Know your audience.  You can only hope to write good copy once you have established an excellent understanding of the customers that frequent your website.  What types of people are they?  Male or female?  Young or old?  Each demographic group is different and will respond to different tones in your copy.

3. Write in a conversational tone.  Don’t fill your text with big words.  Write as if you are conversing with your visitor in plain, simple English.  Read your text back to yourself and punctuate it as if you are talking to a prospective customer.

4. Keep it short.  It’s proven that most people only skim websites for key words, rather than reading the whole text.  Your copy should be short, succint, to the point, and arranged in bite-size chunks (short sentences and small paragraphs) so that it can be easily absorbed by visitors.

5.  Convey key messages.  Identify up to three key messages that you want to put across to your visitors – and no more.  Most people can’t absorb any more than 3 messages and any attempt to convey more information will result in confusion or indifference on the part of the visitor.

6.  Don’t use weasel words.  These are words that don’t mean anything or are ambiguous – my favourite one is ’synergy’.  Use plain English and tell it how it is, rather than using fluffy, flowery ‘motherhood statements’ or long, technical words.

7.  Change the subject of your sentences from ‘we’ or ‘us’, to ‘you’ – instead of ‘we offer’, use ‘you’ll receive’.  Remember, WIIFM!

8.  Make sure your grammar and spelling are correct – get someone to check for you.  Nothing will turn off customers more than poor spelling.

9.  Use a call to action at the end of your copy asking the visitor to respond in some way – eg. ‘Buy the book now…’

10. Use humour in your text – Australians particularly enjoy humour and this may serve to endear them to your website and brand.

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