If you are creating a website
or working on a site you've already created,
the content of the site is one of the most important
factors for successful search engine marketing. The
pages you create should provide valuable information
that references very specific terms and concepts that
are unique to your website.
Text is one part of the content that
is important for being found in search engines. Search
engines usually read and index the first 500 words
from each page they successfully crawl. The text within
that span of words is one factor that helps to determine
your relevance for a particular search term.
If you are successful at weaving your
keywords into compelling copy (remember humans are
your primary reader) you are more likely to be relevant
for keyword searches. Once your site has been up and
running for three months, run a report on your log
files to determine what keywords people are using
to find your site.
You might be surprised if the most
popular keywords that do find your site don't
match up to keywords you already had in mind and were
using. The web is a great educator about how to succeed.
Your site might be very popular for search terms that
you hadn't thought of when you built it.
When people use search engines, they
aren't typing in generic terms that are hard
to define and measure like "business"
or "software". People use search engines
for very specific names and phrases, terms like "Inkjet
printer cartridge refills".
You wouldn't have thought to include
that specific phrase in your content because it doesn't
read very well. But if all those words are located
in a web page carefully constructed to highlight keywords
that are known to produce traffic, the likelihood
that you will appear in a search result for a very
specific search improves.
You must be diligent in understanding
how people are getting to your site and focus on providing
quality content that is geared towards the audience
that is trying to find you. Be as specific as you
can. You'll improve the quality and quantity of visitors
you get from search engines.
It's also important to understand
that you cannot trick the search engines. Flooding
the engines with multiple versions of the same page,
repeating the same term over and over - these
tactics will only lead to negative traffic from search
engines and the likelihood that your site could be
banned from being listed in a search engine.
We mentioned earlier that the text
on your website was one part of the content that's
important for being found at search engines. Another
important part of the equation is your link popularity.
By focusing on quality content, your website becomes
more likely to have someone naturally link to it without
having to request it. You can read more about link
popularity here.
