How to Write Effective Web Pages for Top Organic Search Engine Placement (Part 4)  by David Larner

Tone and Readability

Before beginning the writing process, it is best to think of yourself as a prospective client who is searching for information. Pose questions to yourself and then provide the answer. By anticipating their questions and profiling your target audience, you will be able to offer quality content that directly targets their needs and helps them to feel comfortable that you understand situation.

Let customers see a more human side of your company. Keep your tone casual yet professional. Tell your firm’s story. A company history or timeline is a great way to highlight achievements in a subtle manner.
The vast majority of pages are simply boring, stiff, and do not appeal to their targeted audience. Reflect your company's passion and personality. This will help your visitors identify with your company and will make them more likely to use your services.

Optimizing your content for how and why your customers search is a great long-term strategy, because, if you optimize for how people search, you are in effect also optimizing for search engines. If you think about how and why your customers search and create your content based on that thinking, then you help your customers. And, if you help your customers, you help yourself.

The vast majority of people come to your website to do something specific, and they want to get in and out as quickly as possible. Identifying the most important tasks that people come to your website to complete, and helping them do so as quickly and efficiently as possible, will be critical to the success of your website.

Once you’ve gotten their attention it is time encourage to them to act. Visitors want their questions answered in a clear and palatable manner that is easy to obtain. Use compelling stories or examples that communicate clear messages. You may even want to include one or more case studies.

An informational page is just what the title implies. It's a Web page that contains straightforward information about a particular topic. You aren't trying the hard sell approach, but rather you're giving visitors basic information about topics that are important to them. Informational pages give you the chance to be the expert and give visitors information they can't get anywhere else. Once they're comfortable with your knowledge and expertise, they're far more likely to buy your products or services.

Be succinct as you're writing for the Web. Visitors have different expectations when they read online than they do when reading printed materials. It's also more tiring to read online, so make it easy for visitors to find and digest the information they want.

Remember that it's not so much about "your business" as it is about how “they can benefit by from using your products or services". Use "you" and "your" to make things a little more personal. Remember to use positive action-oriented language that a prospective customer will easily understand.

Think of yourself as the person whom you are targeting. Not only would you want to know the features of the product or service, but just how it relates to your needs and how it will benefit you.

Do not use run-on sentences. Remember that this information is being viewed on a variety of screen sizes and types and that it helps to provide valuable, concise information.

Keyword Phrase Usage

Whenever possible, use your targeted keyword phrases: in titles; at the beginning of the document; toward the beginning of paragraphs and in proximity with other related keyword phrases.

Sparingly mix in the use of both the singular and plural if applicable such as “Attorney, Attorneys, law, laws, etc.

Do not use any keyword phrase more than 3 – 5 times per page.

Search engines crave quality content. As such, each page should contain unique content related to a specific subject or keyword phrase.

Frontloading Your Pages

Search engines strive to offer the best results possible for any given query. As such, they rank content using a variety of criteria. For example they often give points to sites that use their targeted keyword phrases at the beginning of the document, in headings and at the beginning of paragraphs, etc.

As such, it is often advisable to Frontload paragraphs and links with the most significant words and phrases. The first words should be used to emphasize the subject of the headline or paragraph.
When you frontload your writing, especially at the top of the page, key information is easily viewable by the reader and is often given higher priority and often yields better results.

Page Structure

Start each page with a unique, descriptive, meaningful headline. The headline should include three to ten words derived from the targeted keyword phrases. Follow the heading with a summary, description or key message related to the page.

Clearly define sections of each page using titles and subtitles where appropriate. This helps visitors to identify and focus on the items that are most important to them. Use frequent subheadings; write them like headlines.

Ensure your marketing copy follows a logical sequence and that you don't bounce around from point to point as it will only serve to confuse potential visitors.

Remove all redundant, extraneous and outdated material.

Don’t duplicate information that is already on another page. Instead link to the page containing the referenced content.

Subdivide long documents into multiple pages .

Since visitors may come to different pages on your site from a variety of sources, it is best to consider that every page may be viewed as a landing or “home” page. As such each page should stand on its own.

Search engines start looking at your documents from the beginning of the source code. Don’t get hung up using Flash, Java script and other coding methods that will hamper your efforts. Don’t forget to use the tables trick in order to ensure proper priorities for the top search engines.

Style

Use plain English.

Frontload headlines, paragraphs, links and lists.

Use short sentences (approx. 20 words maximum).

Use short paragraphs (approx. 65 words maximum).

Limit your page content length to approx. 350 – 600 words.

Write a targeted paragraph of approx. 30 to 75 words for the top of each web page. Weave your keywords within this text being careful not to have them so close together that your copy reads unnaturally to your visitors.

Make your major point early in each paragraph.

The content should be easy to understand and appeal to potential clients so as to cause them to identify with your service offerings. Make sure your content is written in a natural conversational tone.

Don’t write exclusively for the search engines; write for the benefit of your target audience.

Be concise and reduce or eliminate any extraneous text.

Testimonials

Don’t forget to include testimonials and intersperse them across your site. This can add tremendous credibility in a very subtle manner. If possible, obtain brief, one to four paragraph testimonials and include the first letter of the individuals name along with their last name, city and state. Be sure to obtain their permission to use this information on your website and in your promotional materials. In addition, some sites offer audio or video testimonials. These are relatively easy to setup and carry even greater impact than plain text examples.

Summary

Never loose track of your website’s goals and objectives. Show your knowledge by anticipating and answering questions that are important to your prospects. Gain credibility by including testimonials along with sufficient depth and quality of content. Target your content to your average visitor’s level of understanding, not to your peers. Use action words and show them that your firm has the resources, dedication, experience and staffing to aggressively fight their claim.

Good luck and have fun!
 

Mr. Larner is an accomplished speaker, trainer and marketing consultant who has earned an outstanding reputation as a leading authority on Internet marketing. He has lectured and taught classes for a variety of organizations including The Direct Marketing Association, Learning Annex, Deloitte and Touche, Microsoft, etc.. He speaks regularly on a number of subjects including: Putting Your Business on the Internet, Target Marketing on the Internet, How to Create a Successful Website, Creative Problem Solving and Customer Service.

His clients regularly generate new business using organic search engine optimization. This process takes extensive effort, analysis and time to implement. However, by selecting relevant keyword phrases that drive targeted traffic to a well designed, action oriented website you can obtain similar results.

He can be contacted at dlarner@pcqreview.com.

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