We all know that you’re going to have a real hard time ranking for a keyword if it’s not in the body copy of a page. But you also won’t get very far with a page full of one keyword phrase repeated 500 times. So what are the subtle tricks to writing copy that will emphasize the right keywords to the search engines? Here are a few that come to mind:
- Make it original! No matter how well-written a piece of content is, if you copied it from somewhere else on the internet you’ll fight an uphill battle to get it in the search results.
- Start with some light keyword research. There might be a slight variation of the keyword you were initially going after that gets more search volume. After all there’s no sense ranking for something that nobody is searching.
- Make sure that your target keyword phrase appears within the first 100 words of copy… the closer to the beginning of the page the better.
- Depending on the length of the page, add a few other mentions of the keyword in the copy. Preferably the mentions of the keyword would be as evenly spread over the copy as possible.
- Don’t overdo it! Search engines are savvy and can sniff out an artificially heavy piece of content with relative ease, so don’t think that adding a few more “SEO copywriting” keywords to a post about SEO copywriting will improve your chances of ranking well for SEO copywriting… quite the contrary. If you read it back and it sounds awkward, you’ve overdone it.
- Make your keyword the thematic subject of the page. Search engines are also pretty good at making associations with semantically related words, so ideally you should make whatever keyword you’re targeting the subject of the page.
That ought to get you started. Some experts are still pushing some golden ratio of keywords to total words, but I think that ultimately sacrifices quality and readability for what may or may not help your chances in the search results. My rule of thumb is to share the piece with a few friends or colleagues and ask them what they thought it was about. If their answer is the keyword I’m going after – mission accomplished.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
So you’ve done all this great on-page SEO work. You’ve even put effort into building a nice incoming link profile with mentions from relevant and authoritative sites… time to sit back and wait for your rocket-like ascent to the top of the search results right?
Of course not. You have [...]
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On Thursday last week I had the honor of presenting some general internet marketing tips to the Lean Startup meetup group here in the Denver metro area. Here’s the slide deck:
Let me know if you have any questions related to this presentation, and thanks again to Greg and Jeremy at Lean Startup.
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Alright… I admit the blog has gone dark. Us internet marketing consultants ought to walk the walk. I’ve got no excuse… except that I was preoccupied by my destination wedding down in the Caribbean!
Now that’s Elation! My heart is exploding with joy and gratitude. Many thanks to:
Beaches Turks & Caicos for their over-the-top service and [...]
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OK, you’ve all been warned ahead of time: this is a steaming hot rant. Don’t like it? Change the channel…
I understand that as an internet marketer, my expectations may be a bit higher than most… but when it comes to something as important as healthcare providers I’d say this is an example of a huge [...]
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Yesterday I dropped off the first 10% check for There With Care up in Boulder, Colorado. I walked in wishing I had more to give. They were quick to inform me that Elation just fed 4 families for a week! Awesome…
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In the next installment of the Internet Marketing 101 series, I’m going to touch upon an area that is often overlooked in the grand scheme of marketing strategies. Conversion optimization is so crucial to the overall success of your online marketing efforts, it’s amazing to me that so many clients haven’t even heard of it.
Here’s [...]
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I have to share this thought right now because I just came upon Ford Fiesta’s YouTube channel and it made me say “YES!! You get it!”
Check it out and see for yourself at the Fiesta Project, and see the example of my favorite video below:
A Fiesta versus a Lamborghini??? Brilliant!
Here’s what I love about this [...]
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It’s not all business here at Elation! Here are some tidbits from my camping trip last weekend…
One of my favorite parts of Colorado is near Montezuma, a small town near the Continental Divide. The area surrounding that is full of old mining properties and Forest Service land. My family used to camp out and go [...]
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It’s a blessing and a curse in this industry: there are so many marketing channels to promote your business through on the internet. It’s a world of possibility that can easily overwhelm.
I’m often asked where the best places to start are. It’s not an easy question to answer since every business is going to have [...]
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