Website Content Worksheet

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Website Content Worksheet

Date Page /

Article

Name

What is page

about?

Target Audience:

How does this page

solve their needs?

Keyword Phrases:

What’s the main theme or

message? Related words?

Call to Action: What

do you want visitors

to do on this page?

HEAD TAGS

Tags below are basic “SEO elements” that provide information about each page - located in the <head></head> section, above <body> copy. Enter content for each tag in white cells on right.

TAG / ELEMENT TIPS TAG / ELEMENT CONTENT

Page name (URI) - the file name

Use keywords separated by hyphens (NO spaces, NO underscores) - all lower-case, NO stop words (i.e. the, and), NO punctuation, keywords near front. Page name should make sense to people. Keep it short - shortest path possible.

/***.html

<title></title>

MOST IMPORTANT: Each page title shows: 1) at the top of the browser, 2) as the first thing people see in your search result (SERP) snippet, 3) as bold text when people share page on FaceBook or LinkedIn, 4) in visitor’s bookmarks.

Recommend no more than 60 characters, but to avoid the ellipsis (...) in SERPs, <= 65 char max, best if <10 words.

Use 1 major keyword phrase, 3-5 keywords. Don't repeat keywords; use plural keywords vs. singular, if applicable. Words at front have most “weight.”

Capture attention, e.g. magazine headline, elevator pitch. It’s the "main idea or hook" for page. Use keywords that appeal to readers' interest or "Call to Action."

DO NOT start all titles as “Company Name – What This Page Is About.” If page needs company name in title, put it at the end separated with a hyphen, i.e. “What This Page Is About – Company Name”

<meta name=”description” content=” ”>

SIGNIFICANTLY IMPORTANT: Most search engines use this as the page summary. Some social media sites use this when the page is shared, the snippet after the title. Sometimes they use the 1st paragraph of text. Best practice is to have your description be very close to the first body copy of text on the page.

A good description can make or break click through rate in SERPs. Write it like a miniature ad, as a Call to Action. Make it interesting while conveying benefit. DO NOT repeat the title tag. NOTE: Search engines may generate their own summary, partially from this description tag and from content in 1st paragraph.

140 characters preferred, but it page has little content, you can use to 255 characters. Only 140 to maybe 150 characters will display in the search snippet.

<meta name=”keywords” content=” ”>

NOT IMPORTANT: Keywords tag is not used for ranking. However, keywords tag may be used for indexing. Use a couple of main keywords only & misspellings. Use synonyms/modifier related to theme of page. You may decide to use it to place keywords on page as a reminder of target anchor text for page. Only a few, good for misspellings, 5-7 phrases max

<meta name=”robots” content=” ”>

OPTIONAL (more advanced)

“noody, noydir” – Prevents Google from pulling description from DMOZ or Yahoo! directories

“noindex” – if temporary page, maybe under development, you don’t want indexed

“noarchive” – won’t archive page in whois.org – sale, date-sensitive, temp page

“nofollow” – to not pass PageRank out from links

noodp, noydir


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Body Content (Text)

Copy in <body></body> of your page is what visitors visually see and what search engines “spider” to index.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Get to the point quickly! Write to grab readers' attention with target keywords. Use promo messaging in top 300-400 pixels, ABOVE the fold. Develop a sense of urgency by using deadline-sensitive promotions & time-sensitive words, such as “now,” when applicable

Use primary keywords in 1st couple sentences, 1st 100 words. Use bulleted lists, short bursts of relative content. Break text up for short attention spans. Use bold and italic to emphasize keywords. Use <strong> & <em> around keyword targets to bold and italicize words.

VERY IMPORTANT: H1 tag is the main headline of each post, like a newspaper article headline. It should NOT match title tag. Make it compelling with primary target keywords related to content on page. It creates the "juice" for the Call to Action. Only 1 H1 per page. Must be relevant to following paragraphs.

Use H2s & H3s for secondary & tertiary keyword phrases and sections under main topic. H2 & H3 are one and two levels down in importance and structure.

Links. Include links to other pages of the site using keyword-rich anchor text. Link to external authority resources as well.

Mark links as follows:

Internal links: [words to be linked]</directory-if-any/page-name.html>

External links: [words to be linked]<http://www.domain.com/directory-if-any/page-name.html>

Link Title text: Include <title =”keyword phrase”> on links (to page content, assets). Vary title text from anchor text if possible.

IDENTIFY Page Breadcrumb (if any):

Not all sites have a breadcrumb. It’s text that shows at the top of the content area to indicate to visitors where they are in the site.

OPTIONAL: Example “Home > Location > Map”

Home >

Primary Body Content

Think about your audience’s needs, their need. Don’t write in “we” verbiage but in “you” terms to share what’s in it for them.

Each page should have a call to action, what you want them to do – call your office, donate, complete form, sign up for newsletter, subscribe to RSS, purchase product, watch video, etc.

<h1>Primary Headline Relevant To Following Paragraphs

text

key points listed out as bullet points

to explain a series of topics

where possible

<h2>Title of Sub-Headline

text

<h3> if any...

text


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Contact / Location Pages

ADVANCED: Let Google & Bing know more about who you are and your location by using an hcard microformat on your About or Contact pages. RESOURCE: http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

Page Assets (Images, Media)

IMAGES: Tell a story with images. Use quality photos or illustrations. If designing images, use text if appropriate for OCR. Use keyword-rich captions, ALT text & name files with keywords separated by hyphens. Minimum size for images to show in universal search is 400x300 pixels. NOTE: If you want an image to show up for the search “image,” put the word “image” in the file name.

PDFs: PDFs show up in SERPs and should be optimized, similar rules for Title, Meta Description, and body copy. Directions, brochures, white papers, etc. are good as PDF downloads. To optimize PDFs, go to (File > Properties > Description tab) in Adobe Acrobat Writer.

Video: ADVANCED but worth it: Video is extremely valuable for showing up in the SERPs. If you can associate video with your content, do so! File name, title & description and meta tags are key. Include the term “video” in your title if you want to be found for those looking for video related to your topic.

Identify images & captions to go below the images, if any:

Identify other assets on the page here.

Sidebar 1 &/or Call to Action

If site design has a right sidebar, identify item for the sidebars. These may be a graphic or call to action, a fill-in form, related links, links to a Google map to your office, etc.

text or image or form...



Technology

Website Content Worksheet