February 2, 2010

1. Understanding and Choosing Keywords for Optimum SEO

What are the key words, terms, and phrases that people use to find your product, service, or business when searching online? Have you thought about that? Does your website reflect it? Have you made sure that your page title, page content, image tags, all share a common theme for keyword density? These are among the most important components of a strong website for organic web searches.

Let’s say you own a flower shop. How will users search for florists online? They will go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type in something like: flower, flower shop, flowers, florist, florists, flower delivery, or florist Shop.

But they also may search for a florist based on what they plan to purchase such as: roses, lilies, bouquet, wedding flowers, sympathy wreaths, best deals on flowers, best flower prices, discount coupon for flowers, online florists, blooms, or ftd florists.

2. Writing for People and Search Engines

When writing webpage content that is search engine optimized, it’s critical to take the time to think about how others will describe your business and the words they will use to search for you as shown in the example above. You may want to create several key landing pages based on different keyword terms. Once you have determined this, then write each page copy in a way that uses a variety of these terms.

Remember, you are writing for both people and search engines, so your page content needs to be conversational while implementing this SEO technique. It’s also important to strike the proper balance for keyword density (which search engines like) while avoiding keyword stuffing (which search engines dislike).

3. SEO Page Structure

The third step is putting it all together for a cohesive SEO webpage strategy. Write a page title that includes your top keyword, write your image name to reflect your keywords, and remember to include an alt tag that also has a keyword. Meta data is still key for search engines in matching sites with user searches.