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Status:
Jun
16
2011
Matt Dunleavy
Search Engine Marketing
0
By: Matt Dunleavy
Published by: Excedra
Categories: Marketing Solutions & Process Management
Sub-Categories » Conversion Optimization | Creative
Blog articles when published with a few organic search optimization techniques in mind could play a serious role in increasing your web sites’ page rank on search engines. Below are some simple strategies for on-page search engine optimization that will help get your articles better visibility on the search engines. In this article, I used actual exhibits from my client Hawkeye Management (a leading provider of Unsecured Business Credit).
1. Preliminary Keyword Research
After doing a little bit of Keyword Research you’ll find a good number of high search volume keywords you’ll need to focus your optimization efforts on.
There’s still a few bloggers out there that completely overlook the Keyword Research phase of creating their blog and page content. A groundbreaking research tool released by Google gives you deep insight into behaviors of their searchers. The Google Keyword Tool gives its users the ability to calculate the volume of estimated monthly search inquiries there are locally(United States) and internationally for a specified keyphrase. The tool also makes suggestions for alternative variations of your keywords and keyphrases that may have some healthy search volume. After assembling a group of at least 20 different variations of a keyphrase, identify the small handful of keyphrases that generate the highest volume of monthly searchers, and store these in a text file titled “Primary Keyphrases”, with your lower volume keywords being stored as “Secondary Keyphrases”.
When writing your blog pieces, keep your keyword list nearby and implement different variations of both the primary and the secondary keyphrases into the copy of your blog post a few times. At least once or twice each paragraph. Search engines crawlers perceive any emphasized text to be important with regard to the context of the page’s content. Any header text (html tags <h1>,<h3>,etc.), bolded text(html tags <strong>, and <b>), and text within hyperlinks are considered to be emphasized content and will be taken into consideration by the search engine when indexing your site in their search results for the keyword or phrase you’re targeting.
2. Bolded Keyphrases
Include one of your Primary Keyphrases once or twice in an article with bolded text per the example below.
3. Keyphrases as link text to Products Pages
Link to your products or services pages from within your blog posts using one of the Primary Keyphrases as the link text. For example, in one paragraph I used the keyphrase “unsecured business lines of credit” as my link text, and had the link point to the Unsecured Business Credit page, and in another instance I used the keyphrase “Small Business Credit Lines” as my link text with the link pointing to the Unsecured Business Credit page as well.
Search engines’ crawlers identify link text as one of their primary means of indexing a page for a specific keyword so it’s important that you use multiple variations of your primary keyphrase as link text throughout the blog post in a few different paragraphs.
It’s best to space out links with similar context pointing to the same URL by at least a few sentences. If you take a look at the screenshot below you will see keyphrases similar in context referenced multiple times within the document, linking to the same products page. Search engines don’t mind a good bit of links in a blog, so don’t be afraid if you’ve got a few more than just the one or two minimum every other paragraph. One other important thing to consider is that if the reader clicks one of these links from your blog post, they will land on your product page at the doorstep (hopefully) of your sales funnel.
4. Link Density
Your links should be spread almost evenly throughout the content of your blog post. A good rule of thumb is between 1-2 links every other paragraph or so. On the Hawkeye Management “How It Works” page shown above, I attempt to give you a good visual as to how far apart your links should be. Links should be weaved into the contents of your blog in the same natural order. View the actual “How it Works” page shown above. (Opens in a new window)
5. Blog Post/Content Interlinking
Usability is a big concern for search engines like Google, so inter-linking your blog posts and pages based on the context of page content is important. For example in the second paragraph of the Hawkeye Company page(included below) you will see the phrase “banks approve fewer than 10% of the loan applications”. The page links to a different blog post that explains loan application failures and mistakes made by business owners.
Its important that the content of your blog post draws the readers to other pages within your blog and web site, so you should include content interlinking on every blog post. Remember, the longer a person stays on your site and keeps reading, the warmer they are as a lead going into your sales funnel.
Content Interlinking Example: Hawkeye Management Company Page – Paragraph 2
It’s common knowledge that banks approve fewer than 10% of the loan applications they receive from small business owners. That isn’t a coincidence. Most of these business owners are making the exact same mistakes which prevent them from getting approved.
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