Website Content and SEO

If you are designing a website or working on copy for a site you’ve already designed, the content of the web site is one of the most important factors for successful search engine marketing (SEM) and optimization (SEO). The pages you create should provide valuable information that reference specific ‘keywords’ and ‘key phrases’ that are unique to your business and target market.

In most cases coming up with unique information can prove to be a challenge since you’re competing with numerous other websites attempting to do the same thing. I’ve found that creating geographic key words and phrases, specific to the region you’re marketing can eliminate much of the competition.

Example:

General key phrases:

web design, web hosting, SEO

Geographic key phrases:

Temecula web design, San Diego web hosting, Orange County SEO

By adding specific regions (city, county, state) you narrow both your target market and competition, increasing your search engine ranking and your chances of a successful ‘click through’ conversion. This obviously doesn’t work with every business module. If you offer services/products globally you’ll need to change your strategy somewhat and may want to consider breaking your web site into regional markets or segments.

A few SEO Resources

Google Analytics -Free analytics tool from Google
SEO for Firefox -Provides easy access SEO data
Website Grader -Free website grading tool/ competing website analysis.

In next weeks article

I’ll discuss page structure as it relates to SEO