Optimizing content for search engines: Its not about the keywords

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Optimizing content for search engines Its not
about the keywords

• Martha Newport
• October 3, 2003

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What not to do

• Jam keywords into your meta tags
• Doesnt get your page found
• Meta keywords most often ignored
• Need a new approach

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Keyphrases are key

• Identify keyphrases that your audience will
  search on
• Go outside your organization
• Narrow down and make more specific
• Fewer users means better users
• Next step develop content that corresponds to
  keyphrases

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Example Dog collars

• Nicoles company if it barks.com
• Sells dog collars
• Lets try a Google search

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Developing relevant content

• Search engines use algorithms to determine
  relevancy of pages
• Most relevant pages come first in a search result
• Key to success make your pages relevant to the
  search engines

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Developing relevant content cont.

• Location and frequency of search terms
• Assumes if a page is relevant, search terms will
  be at the beginning of the document
• Page title is your first opportunity

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Developing relevant content cont.
Page title
ltHEADgtltTITLEgtDesigner Martingale dog collars
for greyhoundslt/TITLEgtlt/HEADgt
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Developing relevant content cont.

• Title should have as much keyphrase content as
  possible
• Keyphrases should also be in page content
• Correlation between title and content matters
• Keyword density how often do the search terms
  appear on the page?
• Avoid overuse

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Coding counts tips and tricks

• JavaScript and CSS bad for your relevancy
• Clutters the ltheadgt tag adding non-relevant
  content
• Use linked style sheets and JavaScript includes

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Coding counts cont.

• Meta tags description still matters
• Use as many words from your page title and body
  content as possible
• Correlation helps your ranking
• Description sells your page on some search
  results

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Coding counts cont.

• Images beware!
• Avoid using an image to display text content
• Looks good but ranks low
• Always use an alt in your image tag
• ltimg srccollar.gif altmartingale dog collar
  for greyhounds /gt

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Coding counts cont.

• Frames, Flash, dynamic content red flags
• Spiders have a hard time reading
• Need more advanced strategies to get your page
  found

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Link popularity

• Get more pages linked to you
• Go for pages with related content
• Try search on your keyphrases and ask
  non-competitor

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References

• searchengineguide.com
• submitexpress.com
• marketingprofs.com
• searchenginewatch.com

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First page!!!