Chapter 7 SEO on your pages
If you have done some homework on the internet you will have heard the phrase “content is King” and this is very true. It keeps the humans flicking through your website and it tells the search engines what your site is about, how to rank it and of what quality it is. Here are my tips for writing good pages.
The meta data: Any website building software or content management system will give you full control over page title, description and probably keywords too. The relevance of keywords has faded in recent times so don’t worry about them too much. Google made it known some time ago that it ignores keywords. Page title and description are important and give you a great chance to tell the search engines all about the page.
Keep the page title short and to the point with a maximum of 70 characters, if it is a product get the brand, model and type in there so the page will work for people searching specifically for that product. For example “5 litre Optimal duck egg blue kitchen and bathroom paint”
If it is a blog post offering a “how to strip your Border Terrier’s coat” guide then call it that. Be descriptive and use good english, do not attempt to disjoint the sentence to stuff an extra juicy keyword in there. The engines can detect wobbly grammar.
The description allows for more text, up to 140 characters is recommended so add a product specific like the material, category of product or what the product is known for. For example
“5 litre can of Optimal kitchen and bathroom paint in duck egg blue, a leading waterproof coating”
For the blog post example try this sort of description “The best way of stripping your border terrier or other wiry haired small dog’s coat and the stripping combs and tools we recommend”
This will net more traffic as it expand search terms to include “wiry haired dogs” and “recommended stripping combs”
If you need help with your title or description then use the google keyword checker tool within adwords, this will make suggestions and tell you which keywords get the traffic. Use it, it is quite surprising where the search traffic is!
On page text or copy is also read by the search engines as long as it is not trapped in a frame! On setting up a new website make sure you don’t trip over this most elementary website disaster, no frames!
Keep the text natural and relevant, you can use a keyword density checker online to avoid being penalised for accidental keyword stuffing (current thinking is no more that 2.5% of the same word or phrase on a page to avoid looking like purposeful keyword manipulation). Be descriptive and tell all you can about the product, service or information you are sharing.
Remember you are writing for human readers not machines so make it friendly, original and don’t be afraid of being jovial.
When I am writing copy for the web I make sure it is authentic, I’m not a salesman and I don’t think people really enjoy being sold to anyway. Long term it is better to be accurate, informative and genuine. This builds trust and manages expectation. Also remember that you are writing for someone who probably knows nothing about the subject matter, so start with the basics and work up.
Test your written content on friends and family who are separate from your business, ask them their opinion on the piece and if it was useful and informative. Invest time in this stage as once your content is published it may be a while before it is refreshed.
Blog posts can be even more friendly and casual as you are really talking to your audience with blogging, sharing your expertise and offering help and advice.
My blogging is chatty and informal, easy to read and friendly. I find publishing helpful blog posts one of the most rewarding types of content marketing as blogs are there to help and inspire as well as draw traffic and social engagement. Remember there are people out there who know nothing about your skill set so this is your chance to help them. People search the internet for the help they need, you can be that help and you’ll be appreciated for putting you answers out there.
Rich snippets, schema and micro data
At the time of writing this rich snippets, schema and micro data are still relatively new. They are however all designed to improve search engine results and are easy enough to implement. If you run a wordpress blog you will already be familiar with adding rich snippets. This simply allows you to add a page type be it an article, product review, recipe, etc. From there a set of drop down boxes will appear that you can then fill in with nice specific data that helps the search engines deliver good results (which is what they are all about).
This is why when you select a platform or a web design company you need a supplier that is currently up to date AND more importantly has a good track record on adopting new web technologies as they arrive. Don’t let your website gather dust.
schema.org is a set of protocols the leading search engines agreed on as a way of presenting micro data in a uniform manner that would benefit search engines and publishers alike. If you search on “schema creator” you will find help creating your schema data and guides on adding it to the suitable pages of your site. I have found web publishing immensely enjoyable and rewarding but you must stay current to get the best results.
If you get involved with a web designer that insists on hosting your website (usually with shaky reasoning involving unique server technology or other such twaddle) you are entering into a marriage of sorts that can be hard to leave. If the design firm get lazy with updating their platform your once gleaming website can slip into obscurity through not keeping pace with new technologies as they emerge. I have experienced this with a web company continually taking the “it doesn’t matter line” when of course the major search engines value websites that keep up! If your website is slipping in the search engine results pages, not adopting new technologies could be a factor.
Your platform being up to date is one of the most obvious SEO “easy wins” out there and it is really a no-brainer, this is why I would recommend a web design firm that uses an open source e-commerce platform like magento that has updates released continuously rather than their own white label platform that they may be reluctant to improve.
Again my aim here is to highlight these risky, high impact areas before you take the plunge as making a U turn is expensive and time consuming once all the effort has gone in.
Each page should be a technical and contextual strength to the website it is part of, don’t be afraid to delete old content as obsolete pages will make your website look like a shop with dusty old goods on the shelf.
They are there, but no one is interested in them and they drag the place down.