Roy Hunter

September 11, 2009

MyMarketingCompany.com

Keyword Terms

Keywords are what searchers use to find information, they can be single words but are most often short terms specific to the information they are searching for. One of my company’s most popular keyword search terms is “Sarasota Marketing Consultants”.

For part two of this series I want to discuss further choosing keyword terms and their placement within your website that is very important to search robots as well as the beginning of optimizing your website copy for search engines.

When choosing keywords you need to focus on the terms most relevant to your site and variants of those keywords. Google uses a stemming technology that when appropriate, will search not only for words that are your core search terms, but also words that are similar to some or all of those terms. Basically, you don’t want to use the same keywords over and over again. Mix it up a little but stay on subject. A great resource for finding similar keyword terms can be found here: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ This is a visual Thesaurus and a very handy tool for discovering similar terms for keywords that’s NATURAL to your readers and effective for search engines.

Keyword Placement

In part one of this Internet copywriting series I defined the most important sections of your website to include the keywords and keyword terms that are the most relevant to the information on your website. The next things that would fall sequentially in the list I  began in part one are the following:

• Anchor Text: Anchor text are links to more information on your website. If you have a company that provides a kaleidoscope of services such as ours does, your website will be very segmented. Each one of those segments will be linked to, and those links begin in anchor attributes <a></a>.  Here is the basic html code for a link:

<a href=”http://www.mymarketingcompany.com/marketing-plans.html” >Business marketing plans</a>

There are two very key parts of the link, the filename in italics and the description of the link in bold. Search engines use this information to begin to understand the content of the page being linked to. In this case, the link points to our page on developing marketing plans. File names or descriptions that do not use keywords are not of any use in explaining content to search engines. When everything counts, you have to do everything you can to define the content of your pages.

• Alternate Tags: Alternate text is displayed in place of photo’s when your website is being viewed in a text only browser. If your photo’s theme is relevant to your website, it is a good idea to use keywords that are also relevant to the page the image is located within. Here is an example of an alt tag used with the title of the image:

<img alt=”Let us steer your business in the right direction” src=”business-development-image.jpg” />

• Directory Names: Keep your directory names specific. If you decide to break down and file information by category, keep the file names relevant to the information contained within them. We have a page for website development; this would not “fit” in a folder named “brand development”.

When writing effective copy for the Internet, remember the pyramid example from part one. The inverted pyramid style of writing is what is the most effective for of internet copywriting. Focus on keyword terms and their placement, and you will be on your way to having an effective website that ranks well in search results.

Roy Hunter

September 11, 2009

MyMarketingCompany.com

There are some pretty vast differences between writing copy for print articles and writing copy for the Internet. When writing copy for magazines, newspapers, etc., you focus on conveying compelling information to the reader through the introduction of an idea and a follow through of support. When writing copy for the Internet, you have two “viewers” you need to consider, the person who will be reading your website, and the robot that has been sent by the search engines.

Writing copy for your Internet searchers is all well and good if they can find the information you are publishing. If you do not consider how that information is found, your website and its information will be lost somewhere in the Internet abyss never to be seem by anyone.

There are two very distinct styles of writing between print media and website. Think of a pyramid, print copywriting begins at the top of the pyramid. An idea is conveyed and as you progress through the article more substance supporting the idea is revealed and ends with a summary.

Internet copywriting is completely opposite. Invert the pyramid. Cover the most important information first and work your way down to a basic subject. Website readers form an opinion of your website is a matter of seconds, if you can not grasp their attention immediately with the information that is relevant to their search, they will navigate away for your page and find one that will.

Search robots “read” the information the same way. The subject of your website is mined in the first few lines of text in your HTML code. If you do not effectively describe the content of your website in the first few lines, your website will not be indexed the way you hope it is.

HTML copywriting structure follows this hierarchy:

• The page title: This is the information described between the <title> </title> tags found between the <head></head> section of your website. It is also the first line of the search results. You have a limit of 80 characters, including spaces, for your title. You need to include the most important keywords that describe your website content as well as a location if your services are limited to a certain city or state. For example here is the title of the homepage for our company website:  <title>Sarasota and Tampa Florida Business Advertising and Internet Marketing Services</title>

• The page description: This is the information contained in the meta description tag of the <head></head> section of your website. You have 160 characters and spaces to give a little more of a broad keyword phrase description of the content of your page. Here is the meta description for my website: <meta content=”Our company based in Sarasota and Tampa can help your business maximize its marketing efforts through a professional partnership of marketing consultants ” />.

• The heading tag or “headline”: This is typically the first text your viewer will see on your web page and it begins in the <body></body> section of your website. Here is our company headline tag: <h1> Advertising and Internet Marketing Services for Sarasota and Tampa Florida Businesses</h1>.

• Paragraphs: <p>The first paragraph plays a critical role in the optimization of your website. <b>The keyword phrase content, and elements used to display the text are essential</b> to optimizing your copy for the search engines. The first 160 characters of the first paragraph are the most important real-estate on your website and I will often use the same text that is in my “Meta Description” as the beginning sentence of my first paragraph</p>.

If you properly imbed the most relevant keyword terms of your website within those four sections, you will begin to ensure your website will be indexed properly for the terms most relevant to the content of your site. These four sections will be the make or break difference of you being found in search results by people most interested in the information on your page.

In part two of this Internet copywriting series I will discuss keyword optimization and proper placement of keywords throughout your website.