Here is the way to set up website text to give yourself a head start with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
How the search engines find out if you’re site is relevant to a search is by checking many things. Two of the most important are:
1. Keyword Density – Repetition of a keyword or keyword phrase
2. Popularity – How many other sites refer to your site.
It isn’t as simple as just these two factors but these two are major contributors to how your site ranks.
Please note that there are right and wrong ways to go about improving these two main factors. So if you want to do this yourself be sure that you know what you’re doing. It’s not unheard of for Google to ban sites or degrade site rankings if the Google algorithm detects unnatural looking popularity and keyword stuffing.
I’ll cover only Keyword Density in this article so you can get an idea of what to do.
Table of Contents
Guidelines on How to Structure Your Site’s Pages
(By the way, I have not written this article so it gets ranked. This post is only for your information. I will give you an example of a page emulating these traits at the end of this post)
It becomes easier to rank for keywords that have under 10,000 Competing Pages when you structure the text on your website using the keyword phrases you want to rank for.
I will use the keyword phrase “Orange County Tennis” as an example.
As you read notice how the keyword phrase is repeated.
PUT THE KEYWORD PHRASE IN THE URL
If you’re starting from scratch you could purchase a URL that has the keywords you want to rank for. Preferably buy .com .org or .NET as they are preferred by search engines as of 2011 (if you can get an .Edu that’s great too).
For Example: www.orangecountytennis.com
If you’re creating or renaming a page on your existing website then use the keyword phrase in the title of the page
For Example: www.yourcompanyurl.com/orangecountytennis
PUT THE KEYWORD PHRASE IN THE TITLE TAG
The title tag is the text people see at the top of their browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) when on a website.
For example, when you look at the Title Tag of this page (click on the heading to see the unique page) you’ll see “Make It Easy for Search Engines To Find You Marketing Help for Small Businesses” as the Title tag. (remember, don’t use this page as an example though, read the next sentence)
The title tag needs your keywords first followed by secondary keyword phrases.
For Example:.
Orange County Tennis | Tennis Lessons in Orange County| Tennis Coaching for Beginners in Orange County
Often those secondary keyword phrases also get ranked if there aren’t many competing pages.
PUT THE KEYWORD PHRASE IN THE FIRST WORDS ON THE PAGE
This is really important. You no doubt have a header with a picture so you have a few options to get your keywords into the first text of your site but you could write the phrase above the header or below the header.
The important thing is that your keywords are the first words on the page.
I have seen a few people using the technique of tagging their header like they tag pictures (tagging is when you have named an image using a keyword phrase, which is another important SEO strategy).
THE TITLE OF YOUR PAGE, ARTICLE, OR BLOG POST
This is not the title tag, this is the title of an individual page within your site. Same rules as above, just put your main keyword phrase first, such as…
Orange County Tennis for All Ages
THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR TEXT AFTER THE TITLE OF PAGE, ARTICLE, OR POST
Again, ideally put the keyword phrase first, as long as it makes sense to have it there (be careful not to write just for SEO in case your article doesn’t make sense) For example this would be fine…
Orange County has a large tennis community…
The keywords ‘Orange County’ and ‘Tennis’ are close to each other which is fine. It’s ideal to keep them together but not always necessary to do so.
KEYWORD PHRASE REPETITION IN THE FIRST 250 WORDS OF THE BODY TEXT
Anywhere between 3-6% keyword density is perfect. There is argument out there is that only the first 250 words the search engines scan but I can’t verify this but I know many SEO experts use that technique.
Obviously make sure your writing makes sense and don’t sacrifice your information just to make it keyword or keyword-phrase rich.
A rule I like to follow is to try to put the keyword phrase three places of an article – the beginning, somewhere in the middle, and near the end.
PUT THE KEYWORD PHRASE IN THE META TAGS
Be sure to put your main keyword phrase as a meta tag along with other keywords too (keep it to a minimum of three keyword phrases per page). Your web designer can do this for you.
If you’re writing on a blog or writing for articles to be published online don’t worry about metatags because they’re done automatically when you list ‘Tags’ for your post. So, just remember to choose 3 pertinent keyword-phrases for each post.
REPEAT FOR EVERY NEW PAGE
There are some right and wrong ways to improve these two main factors. If you want to do this yourself, be sure that you know what you’re doing. If you want guidance with SEO, seek help from the Igloo agency.
EXAMPLES
Keyword Phrase ‘History of Football Games’
http://www.insports.us/history-of-football-games
Keyword Phrase ‘Choosing the Top Credit Cards’
http://www.400articles.com/finance/choosing-the-top-credit-cards-by-comparison
