Optimizing Your Website: 7 Tips to Optimize Your Current Content
When many of us started an online business we knew very little, if anything about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While I immediately understood that one could not create a blog or any other type of website and expect it to be found among the millions of websites online, understanding how to make sure that my site was found was not clear.
If you have been online for sometime you may be a little more than just curious about how to optimize your website's current content.
Wordtracker.com provides an excellent report with a section on how to “Optimize Your Current Content.â€Â Below are 7 key points I’d like to share from the report to see what improvements you can make to increase search engine traffic.
1.         Optimize Your Home Page:
- Since your home page is your most important page, you should optimize it with around three important keywords.
- Your home page should have internal keyword rich links to category pages, which provide easy access for people doing more specific research. Everything on the category page should relate to that topic only and should be optimized for around three keywords.
- If you have a page that offers products then your category pages should link to specific product pages with keyword rich links. People who come to your website and get as far as your product page are likely serious buyers and are looking for something specific. Your product page should be optimized for two keywords.
2.        How to Optimize Specific Pages:
- After you’ve decided on the specific subject/s you’re going to write about and your reason for writing, pick a primary and secondary keyword phrase around which you’ll optimize your content.
- Meta tags:Â Definition – Meta tags are HTML tags that help you control how some search engines may index your site, by using the keywords and descriptions you provide. Your title meta tag must include at least your primary keyword and may include your second and third if possible.
- Your description meta tag should include all three keyword phrases with a limit of 200 characters.
- Your final step is to work on the structure with keyword rich subheadings that help you organize your material. You’re now ready to write persuasively to people and not to search engines.
This all sounds like a daunting task, doesn’t it? And it may be for many of us who are technically challenged. However, when you consider that according to royalpingdom.com January 2010 report there were 234 million websites as at December 2009 and 49 million of those were added in 2009 alone, almost one year later these statistics would have changed significantly. Can your website be easily found?
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1I am a big believer in taking the time to do SEO. And yes it was a daunting task at first. But it has gotten easier and easier the more I actually put it into action.
Yikes! that is a lot of new blogs to compete with.
2Great tips! You pretty much covered it. The great thing about doing these things is that most people with blogs do NOT do them, so you’ll have a distinct advantage when you do implement them.
3Sheila, As I read your blog I know that what you say is so real. You’ve obviously taken the time to optimize your content and it shows. I also loved the tips you shared in your Special Report which I read today. As we approach 2011 one of my goals for my blog is to spend some time doing just want I wrote about and optimize current content.
That number is almost terrifying, isn’t it? 🙂
4You are so right, Tristan, when you said most people won’t do them. Mainly because it takes a lot of time. One has to be willing to make it a part of their schedule and set it as a goal, which is what I’ll be doing. I have 164 posts and will not work on everyone, but the ones that attracted most readership and comments, I will.
Thanks for visiting. I’m going over to your blog to learn more about you as well.
5I’ll be right off the cuff, Yvonne – when I even just ponder the notion and importance of SEO, my head starts to hurt.
I think I’ll just hire Sheila to optimize my pages. 🙂
I went so far as to install an All-in-one SEO Pack plugin on my blog but it doesn’t seem to be functioning. Go figure.
Great topic, though, and it really needs to be on everyone’s high priority list.
Melanie
6I hear you, Melanie. After reading through the Wordtracker document and scanning through the SEO Starter Guide by Google it is truly a huge task to have your website optimized. Sheila does a beautiful job and in my post today I referenced a post she did.
Do you have a lot of plugins on your website? Sometimes they conflict with each other. Did you uninstall and install it again? Hope you resolve that soon as that’s a really great plugin.
Yvonne
7Great advice, Yvonne, and I hadn’t thought of that! I will uninstall and install again (with my fingers and toes crossed for good luck). 🙂
8Thanks for stopping by, Virtual Assistant Philippines, and leaving your comment.
9Hi there, just become aware of your blog via Yahoo, and found that it is truly very informative. I am gonna be looking for updates. I will be grateful in case you continue this in the future. Numerous folks will likely be benefited out of your writing. Thank You!
10Thanks for stopping by, Francisco. I visited your blog and see that SEO is your niche. It took me quite a while to understand SEO to the point I’m at now, and I still have a long way to go. All the best. Yvonne
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