8th November 2002
By Kalena Jordan
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any
body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to
your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design
your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and
read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much
else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages
of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not
graphical text that you created in your fancy design software,
but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses
graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from
search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the
text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text
when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and
the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are
loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over!
Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to
rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks
about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks,
then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of
references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr
Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks,
cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better
still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and
services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page
dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords
within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical
search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of
web sites I see selling particular items without once making
reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there
are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design
services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body
copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking
sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design"
in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages
or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include
cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online
brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their
business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be
considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site
design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're
being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely.
What's the point of having a web site if you are going to
sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added
plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the
reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using
WordTracker
or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of
integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So
how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords
without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer
is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that
specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their
site, part of the home page copy read like this:
We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a
personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession
with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an
outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing
reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can
put together packages that include all adventure activities,
accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had
determined that the home page should target the following key
phrases:
· adventure travel
· best adventure vacations
· tailored travel
· overseas adventure travel
· luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to
integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to
disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of
the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialise in providing the best adventure vacations
for people who want a personal and tailored travel
service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with
quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an
outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing
reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure
travel providers. We can put together luxury travel
packages that include all adventure activities,
accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel"
accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The
search engines are happy because the site contains text content
relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because
we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the
visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank
highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
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Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was one of the
first search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is
well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of
her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing,
please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
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