If you have a flick through our blog, you’ll know how much we believe in SEO for small businesses – your website isn’t going to be the asset it should be, if no-one can find it! And this is how we arrive at the difficult part of writing the content for your site – you need to write for two audiences, the search engines that deliver your site to your potential customers and the customers themselves – the problem is they both want different things. In an ideal world, you hand over your basic idea to someone who knows what they’re doing and let them do the hard work, but in the real world, this costs money and it’s not always an option, so we’ll try to shed some light on how it’s done.
So what are the search engines looking for?
Essentially, the search engine spiders ‘read’ the code behind your website and try to pick out words or phrases that appear frequently throughout the text – your keywords. The trick is guiding the search engines through the text and make the occourences of your keywords seem natural – they’ll very quickly pick up on people trying to ‘stuff’ their page with keywords, so if your text looks anything like this, you need to be having a re-think:
“If you need big trousers, come to the Big Trouser Emporium for all your big trouser needs. The Big Trouser Emporium has all the big trousers you could ever need, so if you need big trousers, the Big trouser Emporium is the place to be.”
So that’s the over the top, wrong way to do it. Unfortunately, the right way to do it isn’t so black and white. There are many theories about what the search engines are looking for, and they vary a lot, but using the SEO work we’ve done and a lot of research, we’ve got a few pointers that should get you on the right track. Firstly, make sure that your keywords are in the heading of the page (h1 tags) – not just the keywords, but also not too many other words. Next, make sure your keywords are mentioned within the first 50 or so words in the first paragraph, they don’t have to be first, but the search engines give more weight to the first few lines of text on your site. Use the rest of the text to naturally include your keywords where they make sense to a human being and, finally, try to make sure that your keywords are included in the last sentence or two.
Afetr writing a lot of content for a lot of sites, the main advice we can give is not to become obsessed by numbers – if you really want some, then the smart money is between 300 and 500 words with a keyword ‘density’ of between 3 and 5% – so if you write 500 words, including headings, you would want your ‘big trousers’ keyword in there around 6-7 times – but the point is, you’re also trying to write for your potential customers and to give them a reason to buy from you, if you get obsessed with getting keywords in the right place, chances are it’ll be awful for real visitors to read.
Give it a try
It’s not easy to write really good content for websites, but it’s also something that you can get better at. Try writing something, put it on your site and see what happens – wait a few weeks and see if your search engine ranking has changed, if not try a few small changes, then wait another few weeks. Have a look at competitors websites to see how they’ve done it and adapt it to your own style - like everything to do with search engine optimisation, it just takes a bit of time and patience.
[...] Small business SEO – writing for robots [...]
Great advice. I have found that writing for robots is like talking to a friend – just make it natural. If it reads well, sounds natural, and has a light peppering of your keywords than you should be fine.
I find the best way to write copy, is for the site visitor, then go back through it and SEO it up a bit.
I find that using the keyword in the h1 and h3 tags seems to work well, but use related but different words in h2, but also as the first thing in the title tag and to use it as the page name. A few backlinks thrown in and away you go
Content is always king. I’d agree with the previous comment, always write relevant content that your users/customers will find interesting. By doing this you will create a site full of natural and appealing content, good for your web users, the search engines and also make your site an authority on the topic, which in turn can generate valuable links pointing into your site.
Take a loom at your page title tags also, as this is a big factor for the search engines.
Unique articles are an important part of an SEO strategy. Whether your looking for content for a blog or intend to market your articles it can become expensive. I started using a software to help the writing process, really worth it
There are many qualities that you need to possess and develop in order to run/build a successful online business. Self-discipline is one of these key qualities. Becoming an Online Marketer or Business owner/builder (being your own boss) it is easy to fall into bad habits like doing other things rather than working on your business. It is important to develop self-discipline to keep yourself on track.
Blogging is one of the most effective ways of constructing a responsive and growing list. With every niche, you can get your prospect’s attention and make them react to what you offer. It won’t be long that they will recognize the importance of doing business with you that they will respond in such a way that will generate profit to your business. And the cycle goes on. Article writing is considered as one of the most powerful tools to promote your website.
If you put your heart on your small online business,be patient,it will take time to see how your efforts work.Most of time,it’s long.But you should stick to it,don’t give up.
Doing small business SEO is not easy,you need to do a lot site promotions by yourself.Just don’t give up,it’s usual.Just be patient to wait.You can make it.
Always write for the visitor, then put it through a keyword density checker and adjust accordingly