Getting the most from your Web Promotion Service

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23 August 2011

For any client (or potential client) wondering about the ability of the Website Promotion Service to get your key phrases into the top positions in search engines:-

Don't just take my word for it...

Here is the absolute PROOF:-

http://www.cms-wales.co.uk/services/website-promotion/web-promotion

On this page you will see that I list my 5 most important phrases I need to be found for when people search for the type of services I offer - and each phrase is linked by a query to Google so you can simply click the link and find the results for that phrase. (I have done the same with the linked phrases below).

As you will see, my favourite phrases are all in the top positions of Google's first page - and indeed for these phrases I have more than 1 listing on the Google first page of results.

In fact, taking them in order I achieve the following results:-

This sort of performance is not achieved overnight - not even within a few months - it has take me YEARS of ongoing promotion and constant new article addtions to my site to achieve these results.

So if you want similar results you must keep the service running long term, because the info in your monthly Ranking Reports is VITAL in ensuring you know which phrases to target and when - and be sure to check that your favourite phrases (and variants of them) are actually in your website - and not just in text copy, but also in the Page Titles and in the META Description and Keywords tags.

Some help on writing good copy to boost your favourite phrases:-

Key phrases for the page/article in question should go into the Title first and foremost, then also into the copy, along with all variants of the phrase providing you can work them in naturally (i.e. always write for your human reader rather than for the SE’s - they will notice your intent and boost you for this), then also add the main phrase for the page into the Description and Keywords boxes too.

If you are not rushed - always put a short "synopsis" of the page in question into that page's "meta description" - as this will then read more naturally in the Search Engine results to the person looking at the search results.

Doing all the above puts more “weight” or “relevance” on the phrase when the SE’s see it.

Official "lengths" for tags:

Official figures from Google and other engines suggest the following lengths to comply with best SEO practices – I’m giving away secrets now ;-)

These are the “ideal” lengths to aim for to achieve best display in the SE results pages and to comply with Best SEO Practices:-

Title: Google shows 69 Characters (Including Spaces) for Page Title.
Meta Description: Google shows 156 Characters (Including Spaces) for Meta Description.
Meta Keywords: Just use the MAIN phrases for the page – don’t “over-stuff” this tag – max length is 250 characters (including spaces & commas). Separate each phrase by a comma then a space i.e. key phrase one, key phrase two, key phrase three etc. etc.

Page Content Length:

Generally considered a minefield – but planning is the way to make the most of this and ensure you give the visitor AND the SE’s what they want to see…

There are two "tents" in your website - "intent" and "content." Before you worry about the SEO, think about your site visitors and the reason for the existence of a given page. This is the "intent" part. What is your intent for this page? What information are you trying to convey to your visitor? That should be your first concern. The internet isn't like any other form of marketing you've ever done. The site visitor has very definite and different expectations when they visit your website than they do when they read one of your print ads. The average visitor:

  • probably got there from a search engine;
  • was looking for some specific information in their search;
  • wants to find what they're looking for in a hurry; and
  • doesn't want to wade through a bunch of stuff to get what they want.

This isn't print: It's clear to the average consumer that what they see in most any print ad is something you're "pushing" at them with a goal of doing business at some point. And most consumers are OK with that, and will still read your ads if they have any interest at all. But, when they visit your website, particularly from a search engine, they arrived with a question or need for information. They're not looking for a sales pitch. They're looking for answers.

What the visitor wants: So, the first decision about content length for a web page should be made with the goal of providing the information that the visitor wants. If 200 words can do it, then that's probably enough. If it takes 600 words, then that's the right page length. If it takes thousands of words, then we get to a new decision and plan. This also has to do with choosing a key phrase for the page for which you'll be doing SEO. If you have a lot of information, and if you're having trouble narrowing down to one important key phrase, then you've got more than one web page of information.

Better less than too much: Suddenly some of the fear of not having a lot of SEO'd pages on your site will die away. The average web visitor is in a hurry, looking for fast access to the information they seek, and doesn't necessarily want extra information at that moment. This works in your favour for your site planning and content development. If you've got lots of information that answers several questions, you've probably got several pages of information. Generally, too much scrolling is not good, so a text-heavy page of information could be perfect with anywhere from around 200 to a bit more than 1000 words for complex topics.

Really, the "content" question is frequently not a question if you answer the "intent" question first. Develop the content of a page around the information you're trying to provide to your visitor.

Finally:

Don't forget, add new content to your website FREQUENTLY - a website with no recent updates is seen as "dead" by both your visitors and the search engines - aim to add new content at least once per week as the absolute MINIMUM. Any less frequently can stop your visitors coming back, and even stop the search engines coming back.

Also - after every new addition to your website, TWEET about it if you have Twitter, with a link back to the page in your website. If you don't have Twitter then you are missing out on this millenium's best marketing tool bar none!

PS - Clients with a Smart Art CMS can have "AutoTweet NG Professional" installed (many have already) - which then automatically posts news of your website updates to your Twitter account for you (Facebook too if required), allowing your Twitter Followers and/or Facebook Friends to know instantly that you have posted new content on your site and they can simply click the link and be reading it within seconds. If you don't have this in your CMS then just ask.

Use these tips, keep your web promotion running, ACT on your VITAL monthly reports (you simply cannot achieve any of this without the data in those reports) - these will identify which of your phrases are not performing well - which is then easily rectified by yourself by adding a new article/page that takes all of the above into account and is targeted at the poorly performing phrase - using my tips, and the VITAL data in your monthly Web Promotion Report (that I send out to all Web Promotion Clients on the 25th of every month), there really is NO excuse for letting your favourite phrases perform badly - you've seen the proof, and I have told you how it is done - the rest is up to you.

If you need more info - please just ask.