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To Search Engine Optimize, or Not to Search Engine Optimize: That is the Question

by Dina Giolitto

The other day while interviewing a potential copywriting and marketing client, I asked about keywords. Did he know what his were? Did he plan to search engine optimize his website? My client's response was, "Well, I figured we didn't need SEO because most of my clients are going to come from word-of-mouth referrals anyway."

I was a bit taken aback by this. My reaction: Why have a website if you aren't going to bother search engine optimizing it?

My next thought: maybe someone intimidated him into not wanting to go through with this very necessary part of website marketing...

A lot of web design professionals like to spin dizzying tales of keyword density and keyword diagnostics et cetera. It appears they go through a very highly complex and roundabout process, to arrive at the exact same place as someone who consistently applies organic search engine optimization methods would. Seems to me, all that crazy talk does is scare people away from a very necessary step in developing a website: choosing keywords, and adding them in all the right places.

Another curious thing: it seems that many people regard SEO as an "optional" aspect of website development. Indeed, you can just decide not to make use of the built-in features of websites that let you slip keywords in so the web crawlers will know how to index you. But then you only have "half" a website.

It's almost like saying, "Build me a custom automobile, but leave out the engine!" Looks nice, but what's the point?

Why do you need keywords and SEO? Because when people out there search for your services, you want your site to come up high on the list. Mind you, this is different from people "Googling your name" to see what comes up. If they're searching for your name, one has to assume that they already know who you are. But what about all those people who have no idea who you are, but they DO know that they need what you have? You want them to find your website at the top of the search engines. Right?

Search engine optimizing your website is much easier than some would have you believe. You do it by constantly adding pages of new content to your website and including your chosen keywords in the titles, tags, copy, and links of every page. Here's how.

1. Select your keywords. Use the Google Keyword Tool to assist you in this process.

2. Place your chosen keywords and keyword phrases in the page title, description, keyword tags, and image alt tags of every page of your website. If you use a program like Dreamweaver to design your pages, you'll find these under the INSERT menu at the top, under HEAD TAGS.

(Word to the wise: be diligent about this! In my experience, all it takes is a few neglected image tags on a couple of pages to bump you down a few pegs on Google. If that happens, don't fret - just put those keywords back in and you'll be back in good standing in no time).

3. Make use of keyword links when building menus (or categorical lists) for your website. That is to say, use your magic keywords and keyword phrases as the first few words of your live links, so as to describe what the reader will see on the linked-to page if they click. This applies to more than just menus - basically any time you link to a new page requires a keyword. Think of the link as a directional: want copywriting? (Then go here.)

4. Use your chosen keyword/keyword phrase as the first few words of your page headlines. Take note, this doesn't mean that every headline has to be "literal" - you can still have fun with this. Just make use of the colon to connect a category description with a clever lead-in. For example, an article headline taken from my own website: Power Writing 101: Tips and Tricks to Get You Taken Seriously! (notice I managed to fit the word "writing" in there?)

5. Sprinkle your keywords throughout the copy on every web page you publish.

6. Keyword link. When you publish content on other people's websites, keyword-link back to your own website when possible. For instance, the author "sig line" for my Lockergnome articles always says:

Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at http://wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine-friendly Web copy and market your Web based business for free.

(Notice the way I used the words "copywriting and marketing" in a live link.)

7. Publish fresh content on your website EVERY month. Do it systematically - write and publish a new article on your website, develop an offer or pitch to match, package in your ezine with "click to read more" links, then send it out to your readers. Then, archive the ezine issues live on your website. Of course, make sure that every page you publish (including your ezine pages) follows the above format (steps 1 through 6) to assure proper keyword placement.

One subject that has come up lately: should you use the same header keyword tags for every single page of your site? Or should you vary the header according to what's on the page?

SEO experts advise that each page should contain its own unique keywords, depending on the "theme" of that page. If you check the page rank of your homepage (for example, http://wordfeeder.com in my case), and then compare it to the page rank of other pages of your website (for example, http://wordfeeder.com/articles.htm), you may be surprised to find that some pages rank higher than others. This proves the theory that each page of your website stands on its own, competing for traffic and rank on the search engines.

For example, let's say you're a copywriting and marketing expert like I am. The keywords on your copywriting newsletter page should relate to copywriting newsletters... NOT to the generic topic of copywriting.

If you're new to the search engine game, you may feel slightly overwhelmed by all the fancy lingo. Fear not... once you actually "get your hands in it," you'll see that the terminology means nothing. Really, it's all about putting little "signs" in the content and code of your website pages that tell your visitors where to go.

Even if you can't get into this article today, copy the text and save it to your computer. I promise you it will come in handy if you ever plan to build a successful business website that generates real income.

Wordfeeder.com is the home of Dina Giolitto's Copywriting, Copy Editing, Web and Print Marketing Services. Interesting in learning how to market your business successfully using the latest online and offline methods? Eager to master the art of writing copy that gets you more clients and sales? Then keep following along! We publish articles regularly and post them on our home page. Write to dina@wordfeeder.com with comments or for a project quote today.

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