I’ve written a few times about where to put your keywords on the front (the copy your readers see) and the back (the HTML that searchbots see) of your Web pages. Looking back at those posts, I think I could have done a better job of talking about keyword placement and optimizing your copy on the front of your Web pages. I’m going to take care of that right now.
Here are a few things about search engine optimizing copy to keep in mind:
- When people talk about keywords, what they’re really talking about are keyword phrases.
- Blithely stuffing the front of your pages with your keywords isn’t going to work. Searchbots look at keyphrases and sequences of keywords, the proximity of keywords to each other, where they appear on the page and at synonyms that are contextually related to your keywords.
- Repeating your keyphrases may be search-engine friendly but over doing it will make your readers seasick. Vary your sentences and work on making your writing compelling. You can keep the reader in mind and make your Web design and blogs search-engine friendly without being a bore.
Here are a few tips for keyword integration and SEO:
1. Titles
Your keywords should be on the top shelf, where are the good stuff is always displayed in liquor stores (or “packies” as we say here around Boston). Put keywords into the titles of your post but don’t forget you’re just as interested in writing compelling, descriptive titles that pull in readers as you are in feeding searchbots.
2.Headlines
Also use your keywords in headlines and put them first when you can. The head should express one complete idea or thought, which is what Sister Mary Agnus taught me in parochial school. If I didn’t think so, she’d whack me with a ruler, so it must be true.
3. Subheads
Subheads break up long blocks of copy and give readers some white space to help them scan. It’s always better to be clear than cute. I’m not always terrific at practicing what I preach, I’ll admit.
4. Body copy
Put your keyword phrases toward the top of pages and in opening paragraphs. While you’re at it, anticipate the sequence of words someone might enter into a search engine and make sure those on your site match up.
Your pages should be keyword rich but not keyword dense. Searchbots tend to suspect too much of a good thing is bad. Some researchers claim keyword density should vary between 5% and 20% of the words on a page. A searchbot could interpret pages that exceed those numbers as spam and ignore them, they say. Sounds good to me.
I believe searchbots give more weight to bold, italic and underlined fonts. Not many writers underline copy because readers might confuse those words as links. “You pays your money and you takes your choice,” my old man says way too often.
Omit “Welcome to…” and “Our company is…” and other needless words. Get busy and start with keywords related to those products and services you sell.
Put your keywords into press releases, buyer’s guides, how-tos, instructions manuals—everything you can get your hands on. Use HTML and PDFs.
5. Numbers and bullets
6. Links
Use keywords in your links and make your links descriptive. You need more than click here and continue
links. Links also break up blocks of copy and help the reader skim.
7. Images and graphics
When you can, use keywords in the file names of your images and graphics (and your <alt> tags). That’s another thing I need to pay closer attention to. Recently, Google and Adobe announced they collaborated on a new algorithm to search text and URLs embedded in Flash. That’s one more place to put your keywords.
8. Call to Action
The profs in every ad-writing class I enrolled in in college hammered on the need to include a call to action in my copy. What do you want the reader to do? Send money to you in Nigeria? Marry your sister? Whatever it is, point them in the right direction. Reinforce your call to action with your keywords.
Conclusion
Keyword-rich content matters most. The trick is to use keywords to guide readers and to feed searchbots. You can do both simultaneously but if I had to choose, I’d say the reader comes first–always.
