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WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

The Marketer’s SEO Guide to

DEVELOPING your company’s

WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION is the foundation of youronline marketing strategy. It's the critical first step inmaximizing your online marketing efforts. On-pageoptimization is all about relevance- for both thesearch engines and your visitors. To have yourcontent considered relevant with the searchengines, you must make it clear what yourparticular page is about.

On-page optimization boils down to two key things:

1. Choosing the best keywords to use on each page.

2. Making it as clear as possible to both the searchengines and your visitors that your page is relevant to

the keywords you are using on the page.

THE EVOLUTION OF OPTIMIZINGON-PAGE CONTENT

In the early days of search engines, keyword density was the focus of on-page optimization.To optimize for the search engines, keywords were stuffed everywhere — in titles, the URL,images, Meta descriptions and tags, and throughout the content. This led to content thatthe search engines ranked, however it didn't deliver useful, relevant information to readers.

Recently Google released new guidelines regarding On-Page content:

"Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in the field."

Is SEO now dead? No, it’s simply more challenging. Your content can no longer appeal to a searchengine robot. It must catch the attention of the search engines AND offer value to real human readers.

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1. KEYWORD FOCUS

Rather than repeating or stuffing a single keyword phrase, use natural variations of thekeyword phrase. For example: "website optimization" is the focus of this article. Variationsused throughout the content are "on-page optimization", "optimize your website","optimizing on-page content", "how to optimize your website". This attracts long-tailkeywords rankings in the search engines and sounds more natural to readers.

2. WRITE YOUR CONTENT

Write your content first of all to add value to your reader around your keyword theme. Apage should be at least 250 words so there's enough to add value to the topic, but under1000 words so the keyword focus isn't diluted and it is easily consumed by the reader.

3. EDIT IN EASY-TO-READ FORMAT

Make the content web-friendly. Make your content easy for humans to read. The user-experience and conversion is key to making sure you're getting maximum value from yourcontent. Here's what is important:

• Use short sentences and paragraphs

• Use bullets and numbered lists of points

• Use sub-headlines to break up the content and allow skimming of the page for important, relevant information

• Provide keyword and keywords related links to both internal and external pages to add value.

4. SOCIAL SHARING AND MOBILE ACCESS

How quickly, how often, who, and where your content is shared is a ranking signal for the search engines. Be sure to consider the guidelines from Google. Make the contentunique, valuable, engaging and stand out from other pages. Readers will share usefulcontent. Include social sharing buttons to make sharing easy.

Your website must also be mobile friendly. Google Analytics will reveal the number visitorsusing a smartphone or tablet. Here are 9 Tips to Optimize Your Website for mobile.

5. MAKE YOUR "SEARCH JUICE" TWEAKS

Now, after you've done the above five steps in creating your content, now it’s time tomake sure this content is optimized for the search engines. Below is what you need to do.

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE:

THE PROCESS

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SPECIFIC ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION On each web page or blog post you add to your site, follow these practices.

PAGE TITLE

This is the single most important SEO element other than the content itself. The page title shows atthe top of the readers browser, in the search engine results page, and on other sites when they lookto link to your page. Keep your page title under 70 characters, make sure to include yourkeywords, and make sure the H1 tag is used to signal the search engines.

URL STRUCTURE

Keep your URL structure simple and include your keywords. One of the first things the search crawlerwill notice is the URL of your page. Be sure to separate your keywords with dashes, and avoid pageswith deeply nested URLs (lots of slashes) or non-keyword based URLs (look like gibberish).

Don't Do: http://yoursite.com/about/pageid=3?product=3

Do: http://yoursite.com/website-optimization

Also, pick either http://www.websitename.com or http://websitename.com. If you use both, be sure tohave a 301 redirect from one to the other.

META DESCRIPTION

This is your 'ad" for the page that is displayed in the search results. In less than 160 characters,provide a concise summary of the page. Include keywords and keyword variations, but don't stuffkeywords. Create a compelling reason or call to action to encourage the click to your site.

While the Meta description isn't a search engine ranking factor, it is critical in getting traffic toyour site. Make both your page titles and Meta descriptions are unique for each page and blogpost on your site.

HEADINGS AND SUB-HEADINGS

In addition to your page title, use headings and sub-headings for both the reader and searchengines. Headings make your page easier to skim and using keywords and keyword variationssignals to both the reader and search engines what the page is about. Use H2 and H3 tags in yourheadings and sub-headings

IMAGES/ALT TEXT

Since search engines can't determine the text content of the Image, you must provide it with the Alttext. Use the keyword in the Image File Name, Image Name, and the Alt Text that describes theImage. In addition, descriptive text around the image helps both your readers and search engines.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKS

Link building is a key ranking factor. You activate this process in linking to other relevant pages onyour own site and pages and posts to external relevant authority sites. Make sure to use keywordsand mix up the variations, including use of generic links, such as "click here" to make the linkingappear natural.

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RESOURCES

CONTACT US

CHECKLISTReview RESOURCES

Develop URL structure

Draft web page content

Optimize on-page SEO elements foreach page with targeted keywords

Develop fresh content regularly on your website

Blog Post: Website Optimizer

Article: The Ultimate Guide to On-Page Optimization

Video: SEO Checklist For New Websites

eBook: Introduction To Search Engine Optimization

KEY SITE STRUCTURE

ITEMS

These items apply site wide and are not somethingyou need to do on each and every page. They arewebsite optimization practices you want to be awareof and either monitor or build into your site.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

The length of time you choose to register yourdomain name is the topic of disagreement amongSEO best practices because Google has beenunclear in the answer of its importance. Domainage certainly matters. It's best to register yourdomain for multiple years.

CASCADING STYLE SHEETS (CSS)

You want to use a website design that includes"clean" HTML code that loads your site fast and is easier for search engines to crawl. If you are usingWordPress as your content management system,this is an important part of the theme you chooseto use that many people overlook.

PUBLISHING FREQUENCY

You want to consistently add fresh content to yoursite, whether it's new posts or pages, or comments,additions or changes to current pages. This sends asignal inviting Google to crawl your site and indexyour information in search. How often Google crawlsa site indicates how much they value the site.

MOZ RANK

This is your link popularity score. On a scale from 1-10, your page or post is ranked based upon thenumber and popularity of links pointing to it. Youcan measure both your internal and external MOZRank links.

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