10 Winning Ways To Write Website Content
How terrific would it be to configure your website in such a way that it costs nothing to attract leads from potential clients? There are valid statistics for the response rate of leaflets (between 1-2%) to internet pay-per-click adverts (5% is a considered great response rate) but what if the specific relevance of your website appealed to a niche audience?
Google reads every webpage – Homepage, blogs, products, from the top downwards. Put your most important keywords first.
This excercise helps website owners to understand the top 10 mistakes of website content writers and how to fix them in order to succeed online in search engine results (SERPs).
Imagine you are a hairdresser in Bristol called “Trim Nation”
- Decide on 3 search phrases and 2 geographical areas to target for Google page 1 – For this excercise we have selected: Gents Haircuts, Ladies Hairdresser and Hair Extensions in the 2 areas Bristol and Clifton
- Create a Google cloud spreadsheet document and note them down, then use Chrome Incognito to search for your phrases and areas one by one – you will have a list of 6 like this –
- H1 Headers: Looking at the magazine rack in any store you will see catchy headlines. You’re not going to see a publication where the front cover states “Welcome To Our Magazine” as that doesn’t explain exactly what the magazine niche is. Tip: Don’t have the headline on your homepage which says “Welcome To Our Website” or “Welcome To [brand name] Trim Nation”. If you are a hairdresser in Bristol, then this needs to be a prominent h1 message. Use your target search phrases. Use several H2’s but only one H1.
- Your page Meta Titles: A magazine that says “Our name is Vogue, we are great” leaves you wondering exactly why they are great. Hence you should always avoid your brand name and focus on your products/services. Search engines love title tags and pay a lot of attention but you don’t want to waste this sales Call To Action opportunity. The optimal length of a Meta Title is 70 characters including spaces so use this opportunity to promote your services. People that are aware of your company Trim Nation will always find you at the top of SERPs so there’s no point in using up these few characters with your brand is there? If you have a WordPress website you can use the Yoast plugin to save time, in the Navigation menu click SEO > Tools, here you will see the the Bulk Editor selection. You have 2 options, to bulk change your Meta Titles or Meta Descriptions. Use the “New Yoast SEO Title” section enter your new Page or Post Meta Titles and save it up. Use your most important keywords at the beginning when using your target search phrases.
- Article Content Length: If a magazine is heavily image led, you’ll become easily distracted in the doctor’s waiting room, you’ll flick quickly between pages and get bored easily and put the publication back in the rank. This is why it’s imperitive to spend time composing compelling textual content to keep readers and search engines interested. It’s not easy to write 500 words per page, but these articles and website pages are of the highest interest in terms of keeping your new visitors interested.
- Feature your contact details above the fold as opposed to the bottom, if you want sales leads then don’t force people to scroll down to find your marketing message – hit them hard and hit them early. No one wants to read a magazine with negligible text, the same principle should be applied to every blog post and page on site.
- Say The Same Things In Different Ways: Abstain from repeating the same word time and time again, it’s a poor experience for your readers that quickly drains interest, the magazine will get dropped back in the rank. The equivalent to this can be measured with a Bounce Rate in Google Analytics data. A ‘Bounce’ is when someone visits any page on your website, gets bored and exits without exploring any other page, a hit and run if you like. Trim Nation would describe hairdressing in a wide variety of ways: Kid’s Haircuts, Gents Trims, Ladies Perms, Cut and Blow Dry, Hair Extensions and Hair Colour. Essentially they are the same thing (hair styling, hairdresser in Bristol) but said in a variety of different ways. What you personally search for online is going to be slightly different than other people, and this is what encourages search engines sit up and take notice and rank your website higher in results.
- Use internal linking with keyword anchor text. Anchor Text is the “clickable” word of a link, anchor text should be used with skill when writing content on any webpage. Useful anchor text would be “Hair Extensions Bristol” which links to a blog post which you have written about a customer with before and after photos. You are encouraging customers, visitors and search engines to explore your site deeper. This lowers Bounce Rate and is an indicator of Engagement and Conversion Rate increase.
- Rename ALT Tags on your images – Essential – use your target search phrases. This is easy on WordPress from the Dashboard > Media > Library you can copy and paste your search phrases in the ‘Alternative text’ area. Use your target search phrases for ALT tags – Note: Avoid repeating your keywords so the best ALT tag example would be “Gents Haircuts Bristol Ladies Hairdresser Clifton Hair Extensions”
- Submit your page URLs to Search Console for a Google inspection – If you are not verified in Search Console then this is an SEO must-have. Remember to link Google Analytics to Search Console. Login to Google Search Console and paste your URL into the grey box at the top and follow the on-screen instructions. If the result is grey then request a crawl. If the result is green “This URL is on Google” and you have SEO optimised the content and it’s changed, this is also the time to tell Google you need a recrawl. Then recheck your search phrases rankings the next day.
Broaden Your Horizons – Use Long Tail Search Terms
It’s a technicolour dream of small business owners to wake up every day to find 5 leads in their email inbox, each enquiry being relevant to the services they provide; or for an eCommerce site to receive sales notifications of the purchases from their online store. It’s a dream many people share, and a website that demonstrates a high presence in search engine results by being on the first page takes zero financial investment – apart from your spare time.
If you are a hairdresser in Bristol, whilst it’s correct to target “Hairdresser in Bristol” as your target search phrase of course the competition is going to be fierce to angrily territorial. Other companies have been working hard at thier SEO for years before you’ve even thought of starting so sometimes learning DIY SEO isn’t enough to outwit and outrank your competitor’s websites. Once you have tried your best then your next decision would be to either hire a marketing agency or an SEO freelance individual.
How Does Your Website Make Money?
Website owners always have a specific reason for their website to be live, and as a rule it’s a gateway to making money. Whether a company wants to generate leads for local services (dog walking, plumbing and heating, carpet cleaning or building work that’s in a geographically targeted area) or in contrast to sell their products and goods directly online. Both instances have something in common – the purpose of the website is to make money.
Small Business Budget Challenges
Sole Traders and Small Business owners often have little to zero marketing budget, whilst the situation of ‘spend money to make money’ would ring true for a high percentage of SME’s, especially start ups and enterprise entrepreneurs.
Google Page 1 – How Long Will It Take?
I’m top of Google for the search phrase “SEO FREELANCER UK” and this is not local results, this is UK Nationwide. As a Google certified freelance sole trader you can be assured all work is carried out my myself. I do not use subcontractors, all tasks are completed from my home office in Weston-super-Mare where I have been working from home for 12 years.
“SEO FREELANCER UK” hit Google page 1 in April 2019 and this was after 2 years of concerted efforts, especially with on-page SEO and using WordPress blogging tags and categories, H1’s Alts tags and more.
My domain is over 10 years of age which is a substantial ranking factor in search engines including Bing and Yahoo, a new website will not rank to the top of Google in 2 years when the domain is only 6 months old to start with. It’s important to start local and widen your net as the years pass and choose the right target search phrases and stick to them.
Targeting Your Spending Cusomers With The Right Search Phrases
It’s a fact that the shorter a target search term is, the higher the volume of traffic, a large volume of clicks to a website means more income. However, here relevence is a strong consideration.
Mistakes by businesses include the instance of a global tech targeting the single word “Ruby” instead of the phrase “Ruby On The Rails” which is clearly going to have thousands of hits however the majority of clicks will be people searching for jewellery – not development services.
This an actual documented instance whereby logic evaporated and a blind faith was given priority.
FREE Google Analytics and Search Console Audit + Fixes
SEO Lady Contact Form – Free Audit – 5 questions
- What is the domain address and how old is it?
- Have you had any previous SEO work carried out?
- When people use Google what search phrases would you like clients to use to find your website?
- Do you rank in Google already for any of these search phrases?
- What top 3 geographical areas are you wanting to target?
