page content is king

for search engines:

find pages to optimize for primary and secondary keywords or keyword phrases (see below how to optimize those keywords)

for readers:

• write for your audience (use a persona)
• write to acheive a goal (focus on benefits)

theme:

• subject of the page is important to SE’s
• words that describe that theme = keywords and keyword phrases

phrases:

• people target their searches using 2-3 word phrases
• pages should target keyword phrases and single keywords

incorporating keywords:

• primary keyword phrase and context
• in the first paragraph and in throughout copy
• balance copy b/t purpose for human reader and keywords for search engine results page

emphasizing a theme into semantic page elements:

• title element
• meta description
• meta keywords
• h1 & h2 headings (page title)
• page body, text
• image alt text
• linking

(note: he doesn’t mention keywords in the URL)

keyword density:

• ratio of # of times your keyword phrases appear on a page
• no hard and fast number, some suggest 2-5%, or as little as one mention of the keyword in the first paragraph
• don’t go overboard repeating

“latent semantic indexing”

• search engine looks for other related words on a page to know what a page is about
• so make sure if you’re talking about “bass” (the fish) for exampe, that you also mention words that relate to the meaning you are going for (examples for “bass” would be fishing, lakes, other names of fish…)

formatting:

• based on eye tracking studies
• guide the eye with headlines and bullets on a page
• use images on the page when necessary to emphasize a point

beginning middle end:

• headline
• opening paragraph
• additional paragraphs
• end and refer back to the beginning
• call to action

expertness

• web content establishes expertness and provides info
• become the expert linking out to others who know more
• well-written, quality pages will attract links
• use quotes from other people to establish credibility

review copy after time - come back later to ask….

• achieve the objective
• capture attention
• summarize at end and have call to action
• written for your audience
• clear and concise
• have primary keyword phrase from top to bottom
• establish you as an expert

titles - description & keyword meta tags - headlines

the rationale:

• seen & unseen
• standing out from the crowd

browser titles

• try not to lead with company name
• different web page, different title
• keep it short

keyword meta tags

description meta tags

• may be used in results page
• use a different description for each page
• use keywords and keywords phrases in the description

headlines

• use one high-level tag
• emphasize attributes
• duplicate the browser title keyword being emphasized

lunch…