Meta Tag and Website Optimization Process
1. Research the most commonly used search phrases using Google tools.
2. Research what the most common terms are used by shoppers and buyers when they are referring to the product or service they are shopping for and use those terms in text and tags.
3. Review the competition for those search terms and phrases. If it is very heavily stacked, ie the search term “yachts” with literally hundreds of thousands of searches, suggest search terms and phrases that may have 20 – 30,000 searches, such as sport yachts or luxury yachts.
4. The first word or phrase in text and the last word or phrase in text is the most heavily weighted by search bots, so the first word or phrase in the title tag needs to be the search word or phrase that is your primary target.
5. Complete the title tag accordingly, as I did originally with Jefferson Yachts:
Luxury Yachts, Custom Yachts, Sport Yachts, Motor Yachts by Jefferson Yachts
After those secondary search phrases gain strength, you can add in the “big” search phrases and you’ll probably see nice results, as I did with Jefferson Yachts:
Yachts | Luxury Yachts, Custom Yachts, Sport Yachts, Motor Yachts | Jefferson Yachts
6. Complete the meta description tag using those same primary and secondary search terms and phrases, first word or phrase and last word or phrase have the most weighting. The key is writing the description properly is that the description makes sense and is readable.
7. Complete the meta keywords using those same search terms and phrases with the same weighting structure.
8. All alt tags have to be complete but the description must be weighted with search phrases and terms, i.e. if you have a picture of Jeff Nash, don’t just type in Jeff Nash as the alt tag. Use “Yachts shown by Jeff Nash”.
Optimizing Page Structure
1. Create a landing page that is text rich for each product the client is marketing. Link it internally and externally wherever possible. Pepper it with primary key words and phrases. Name the page, using Jefferson Yachts as the example – luxuryyachts.htm or sportyachts.htm.
2. Create a landing page for each primary and secondary search phrase.
3. Create a landing page for each product category.
4. The goal is 100 – 200 text rich pages that have real significance to a viewer and are linked internally. You can’t just throw a bunch of keywords onto a page because the Google crawler doesn’t like that and considers it spamming.
Body Text and Headers
1. All site text should be rich in search terms and phrases, including the h1, h2 and h3 tags.
2. Look for opportunities to insert those search phrases and terms, i.e. a designer created this headline for Blitz Builders – “Designed for YOUR success”. I replaced that with “Pole Barns, Post Frame and Metal Buildings Designed for YOUR success”
3. In the body text, instead of “Blitz Builders builds custom buildings on your site”, use “Pole Barns, Post Frame and Metal Buildings from Blitz Builders can be built on your site.”
Links
1. Create links for the products you are trying to sell and develop your link architecture accordingly. For example, instead of a link that says “products”, make three links that say “dog biscuits”, “dog treats”, “cat food”, etc.
2. Build your pages using search terms and phrases. For example, name the dog biscuits page “dog_biscuits.html” or the cat food page “cat_food.aspx”.
3. Use text links at the bottom of each page, linking to the sites pages.
4. Within the body text of all pages, create internal links and external links whenever possible. Too many links messes with readability, but you need some.
5. Internal links help with weighting somewhat. Internal links would be within a sentence like “Our products are approved by the FDA.” So, link “our products” to the websites own products page. Then link the “FDA” to the national Food and Drug Administration.
6. Reciprocal links –
a. Submit each website to DMOZ and create a link at the base of the website’s home page.
b. Research other free reciprocal linking opportunities for the client that are relative to their industry – there are many if you take the time to look.
c. One technique that I’ve used is to go to Google and enter the entire URL of a competitor with high search rankings. The results will show who has links to them. You can then approach those people seeking reciprocal links to your client.
7. There is much more, but these are the basics.
If you’d like to chat about how your company can benefit from our search marketing program, contact us at any time!
