In today’s market, it’s no longer enough to simply have a website.  Like any store front, success online requires driving your customers to your product or service and getting them to transact.  Online, the equivalent of an A+ location is having your business appear on the first page of Google.  Doing this is the equivalent of business real estate gold.  Which is why today, Search Engine Optimization [SEO] is one of the most important elements of your online success. With this is mind, what do business owners need to know when designing their website?

 

“Writing to ensure your online website is optimized for search engines is a skill. To do it right, you need to pay close attention to what your competition is doing” says Gabriel Shaoolian, founder of Blue Fountain Media, a design company focused on creating profitable web-based business with measurable results. “You also need to write in a way that blends your own intent with an eye for how search engines search.” Gabriel Shaoolian was kind enough to offer some practical tips for SEO on your business’ website.

 

Use Bold, and Italics: Just like a regular old human reader the search engines give more weight to words and phrases that are in bold or italics. However, use them sparingly, or the search engines will flag your work.

Internal Hyperlinks: You are your own best resource, so promote yourself in your copy and text.  Hyperlink to other resources/pages of your site which are relevant to the copy you are writing. This will benefit the reader, increase the amount of time they spend on your site and help you with the search engines.

 

External Hyperlinks: Incorporating links to external resources which will benefit the reader can help you in two ways (a) they provide a third-party validation to a certain extent of your "expertise" and (b) afford you the opportunity to pick up some extra coin if that resource provides reciprocal linking or has an affiliate program.

Content "Mass": Never have less than 400 words on a page. If the content you are providing is in fact valuable you should be able to come up with around 1,000 words.

Keyword Density: Depending on who you speak to, aim for between 5% density of keywords.  That is, 5% of your total text should include searchable keywords.  Too many keywords, and the search engines will pass them by.  Just make sure they fit into the text in a natural manner.

 

To learn more about Search Engine Optimization [SEO] visit www.bluefountainmedia.com.