Over 75% of web users skim the text on a website instead of reading the content word for word.
How can you optimize your text for web readers?

• Write small chunks of text or make lists.
• Create headings and subheadings.
• Write about 50% less than you would on printed material, such as a brochure.
• Italicize or bold key words or ideas.
• Each page on your website needs to serve a specific purpose and have specific content. Don’t clutter your content.

Statistics say web users spend as much as 80% of the time “above the fold.”
First things first!

• Put the most important and keyword-rich information first. This isn’t an essay that needs an introduction before getting to the “meat” of the content.
• Avoid incredibly long pages of content. Most people are not going to read it!

Search engines need to know what your business is all about!
What good is your website if no one can find it?

• Anticipate what customers and potential customers will search to find you!
• Use geographic key terms as well as traditional key terms about your business.
• Make a keyword list before writing your web content.
• Extra tip: Update your content frequently! Search engines wants to know your business is still around!

The web is an active medium! Keep your user engaged!
Web users are fickle. They go from web page to web page and usually have something specific they are looking for.

• Predict what your customer will want to get from your website and be precise in providing that information to them.
• Write actionable content. That is, content that allows for action to be taken.
• Use contextual links. These are links within your content that link to other pages on your website or blog. Whenever you write “contact us,” link to the contact page.

Keep an appropriate tone and use effective language!
Don’t eliminate potential customers.

• Keep in mind that most of your website visitors aren’t experts in your field; try not to use too much technical jargon.
• Use simple language and short sentences.
• Avoid cliches, sarcasm, or sayings as it may confuse some.
• Use active verbs.
• Be personal and direct. Keep a conversational tone rather than a formal one.
• Extra tip: Remember to check your site content for spelling and grammatical errors. This will give you less credibility!

If you need help writing effective, search engine friendly content for your website, contact us on our site or give us a call at 478-390-6770!

This post was inspired by a panel I was a part of earlier this year at Digital Bridges to evaluate the effectiveness of local business owners’ websites in Milledgeville, GA.

Here are some of the things we looked for that can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your own website:

• Usability
  Your site needs to be easy for your customers and potential customers to use. They should be able to find the information they are looking for quickly and navigate throughout your website will ease. Links need to be labeled well and generally, users shouldn’t have more than 2 clicks before reaching the content they need. Every page of your site needs to have a “Call to Action” so the user knows what to do next. Your site should also be cross-browser friendly and load quickly, which are things your web designer should ensure.
• Design
  As most of you know, your website should be aesthetically pleasing; you need a consistent color scheme that suits the “personality” of your business and the field you are in. For example, it wouldn’t be effective to have a black and gray color scheme for a daycare’s website. However, that same color scheme may work for a fashion website. Your font(s) need to be easily read and an appropriate size as well.
• Effective content
  Your website’s content should consist of concise but informative text. It should be broken up into small paragraphs and headings and subheadings should be used and clearly labeled. Most web users don’t want to come to your business’s website and read a lot of information. They want to get the information they are looking for quickly. Your content should also include keywords about your business and field to help search engines and users know what the site is about. Include relevant contextual links to help search engines and users understand how different pages relate to each other. Last but not least, make sure to regularly update the content on your site!
• Easily found
  As we always say– What good is your website if no one can find it? You could have a great looking site with excellent usability and good content, but it needs to be easily found by your target audience in search engines. Although some of the things I have mentioned thus far should help with this, here are some other tips. Make sure to make your title tags, description tags, and H1 tags relevant to search terms your target audience will use to find you. If this sounds like foreign language to you, this is something a web developer can help you with. Make sure to include a site map with links to all of your pages listed in a logical way. It is definitely important to make sure your website is indexing in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Visit these search engines and type in your URL to see what pages are and are not indexing on your site.

For a one-on-one consultation on your website’s effectiveness, contact us via our contact form or give me a call at 478-390-6770!

I wouldn’t base any SEO or internet marketing campaign only around website directories, but there are some essential directories that I think every business website should be listed in.   These are all free directories that are pretty simple to get listed in.  I have included my favorites below:

-DMOZ - Great directory, but it takes a long time to get listed.
-Jayde - Very quick and easy submission process
-Kudzu - Instant approval
-Merchant Circle -Instant approval and very quick indexing in Google.
-Yelp - Based around user reviews
-Turnpike -Simple design but a good free directory
-Little Web Directory - Easy and fast submission process

It is important to understand the basics of search, including the difference between paid and unpaid search, before starting any SEO campaign, especially a campaign that has both paid and unpaid elements.

Terminology To Know:
Organic: Un-paid search results
PPC: Pay-per click
SERPS: Search engine results page

Pay-Per Click Results:
PPC results are advertisements.  If you run a PPC campaign, you pay everytime a user clicks your ad and follows it to your website.  You usually choose relevant search terms to bid on, and your ad is displayed when a user searchs that term within Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. PPC results are displayed above and to the right of organic listings in both Yahoo and Google.  Google calls these ‘sponsored links’ while Yahoo uses the term ‘sponsored results’.

Organic Results:
Organic listings are un-paid results that are typically displayed in the main column of the serps.  These results are ranked by a number of factors used to determine their relevance to the search term.  Some of these factors include: keyword density, title tag relevance, incoming links, Google Page Rank and meta tags.  Organic results can contain map results, product results, blog results and video results.

The Above Image Shows How Google Displays Organic & PPC Results

There is a lot of talk lately about business and corporate blogging.  To a small business owner who just wants to sell more, a blog may not at first appear like a great idea.  I want to take a minute to go over the very basics of how business blogging should be done and how it can drive more traffic for your business.

How To Blog For Business:
When blogging for business, it is important not to come across like a desperate car salesman. Write posts answering common questions your core customer has. Do not write posts that say nothing more then “buy this product” or “you need this.”  By answering questions and writing other posts that help people, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Once the customer reading your blog sees how knowledgable you are in your field, you no longer need to say ‘buy, buy, buy’ because when the customer is ready to purchase, they know who you are and will come to you.

How Can A Blog Drive More Traffic To My Website & My Business
Blogs can drive traffic and increase sales in number of ways.  Your blog should have a prominent link to your website and should contain your contact information.

Blogs tend to have more content and newer content than traditional websites.  Search engines like constantly changing content and sites that have lots of good content.  This will help your blog and your business get into the search engines for important keyterms for which your traditional website might not rank. 

Blogs also tend to have a certain social quality that traditional websites don’t have.  You may be missing customers and sales because you cannot be found on social and bookmarking sites like Facebook, Digg & Delicious.

You may have noticed the way that Yahoo, Google and other search engines serve up content is different now than how it was a few years ago.  In fact, it is ever changing.  Whereas once there was a seperate engine for web, images, blogs, products and video, now they are all appearing in the main web results.  To be really successful within search engines, we have to attack this from all angles.  Blogging is just another angle that will help your business.

In order to get your business on the web and see results, you are going to need four essential things:

• A Domain Name
• Web Hosting
• A Site Design
• Maintenance

Domain Name

Your domain name is your company’s address on the web. An example would be www.example.com. Short domain names are generally better than long ones. You can check for available names at www.ConnectivityPro.com. You can also purchase them there. If you need help purchasing a domain name, we can help you.

Hosting

After you have a domain name, your website cannot be accessed until you have hosting. When you buy hosting, you are buying space on the web. It is important to put your site on a reliable server. Our hosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means your site will almost never go down.

Design

A strong site design is important to the success of bringing your business online. You want a website that reflects your company image. The design needs to be clearly organized and have accurate information that is easy to understand. We offer a variety of design options for small businesses, ranging from simple online storefronts to complex sites with shopping carts, forms, and just about anything you can dream up. Our rates are extremely reasonable, and we pride ourselves on excellent client support, both during and after contract.

Maintenance

After your site goes online, you should have it updated regularly. Whether you want to update information or add pages, it is important that your website have a current feel. Updates are also an important factor in search engine optimization. Search engines favor sites with content that is regularly updated. You can pay a little more initially and have us develop an administration area where you can easily manage your site and update it yourself, or you can pay per update. All e-commerce sites come with an administrative backend that allows you to add products and to manage orders, payments, and shipping.