Search Engine Optimization Eblog

There is no question that major benefit can be achieved in the search engines through the implementation of quality content plan. We're very fond of pointing out to our clients that, all things being equal, the web site that is composed of the larger bulk of pages will generally out-rank the smaller site. There are definitely ways to work around this "rule" but it is important to keep this fact in mind when working on seo strategy.

A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, Feb 28 - March 3, 2005, New York, NY.

One of the most obvious, yet surprisingly overlooked, components of a search strategy is the creation of quality content. In our search engine marketing practice, the number of companies we encounter that expect high rankings in search engines for Web pages containing pictures, but no text, amazes us. Attaining a top ranking in search on a particular keyword requires that the targeted keyword appear somewhere in the text of the page, and often it requires that the page contain some amount of text (read: content) far in excess of what the design folks think looks pretty.

Make no mistake, this law of search engine marketing is clear: less content, lower rankings.

Jennifer Slegg of Jensense.com was next. Her background is in content creation for a variety of niche markets. Jen identified a set of tools that helps her creating content:

* Comprehensive statistics program to determine good content from search referrals
* Access to customer requests and questions
* Books about copywriting
* Dictionary and thesaurus

Additionally, Jen provided a number of pointers on creating successful content:

* Don't focus entirely on "big money" keywords while ignoring secondary keywords

**Check out the SEO Pyramid article for a discussion of the importance and necessity of targeting these mid-range keywords**

* Include seasonal topics (events or holidays)
* Create catchy titles to increase the click through rate
* Keep the length of pages between 250-300 words
* Generate content ideas from customer correspondence
* Use message boards for additional content inspiration



Following Jen was Anthony Garcia from Future Now. He opened by pointing out that search engine spiders don't have credit cards, but people do. Hence, he suggested that you pay more attention to your users than to the spiders. Anthony critiqued that most people write content to mass audience instead of focusing on individuals.

Anthony sited the example of a blog by Anil Dash who won a SEO contest by achieving top ranking for the non-existent keyword: "nigritude ultramarine" by simply asking his readers to link to his blog. Anthony's point was that you must focus on creating a page to be read by people instead of robots. He then covered examples of over-optimized sites that were very difficult to read and navigate.

mmm... wonder what the solution for this dilemma is??

He then discussed how to sell online:

* No matter how good the content copy is, if you can't find a way to meet customers' needs, they won't buy
* Content should not attract unqualified traffic
* Content should inform and persuade visitors
* Placing trigger words in links can increase user click-through rates
* Wireframe your content to provide an interconnected flow and personality
* Create different personas based on different archetypal visitors
* Define three dimensional personas: Topographic, Psychographic and Demographic
* Create internal linking of the site based the personas
* Identify important keywords through keyword research process



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