Creating Titles and Headlines that Draw Traffic to Your Website

Jacob Hodgson    Search Engine Optimization     keyword selection, optimize website, seo houston, title optimization

When you see people perusing magazines on racks, when they find one they want to read, they are not reading every article inside. They look for headlines and titles that catch their eye. The same goes for websites on the Internet. You can learn to write titles that will have visitors stopping in for a spell.

Title Basics

A title is not just a little blurb at the top of your content. That title can be used to further optimize your page. Here is an example. If your website page is about chocolate (a sweet and reoccurring example), the content needs to relate to confections. But, your title doesn’t have to be simply “chocolate.”

A well-optimized title will include some or all of the following:

• Keywords – You have yet another place on your webpage that keywords can be used to help improve your rankings. If you choose keywords carefully, you can match a phrase that most people are going to use.
• Hook – What is going to entice people to keep reading? Tell them what they will get. “How to Make Chocolate Strawberries” is interesting. Readers know just what they will be learning. Using numbers is even better. “5 Ways to Melt Chocolate” let’s readers know that they don’t have too much to read and that you will lay it all out for them.
• Focus – Don’t take up two lines with your title. Use as few words as possible that will appeal to readers and also include a keyword or a keyword phrase. To reinforce that title, use that keyword again in the first sentence of the opening paragraph.

Even if you have titles on articles you would also benefit from a headline on your webpage. The article is just one portion of the information contained on your webpage. Don’t forget that headlines can be optimized as well.

• Font size – Your headline needs to stand out from the rest of the information on the page. Use a larger bolder font but nothing too flowery. You want readers to see it not grimace at it.
• Use keywords – What is the page essentially about? Use that keyword so readers know what all of the information will pertain to.
• Use a link – When someone runs their mouse across the headline they will realize that it is clickable. It can link to the homepage, your site map or anywhere else on your site that would be helpful to visitors.

Titles and headlines are front and center on your page. Make them eye-catching and enticing so visitors will stay and read more.

How to Trick Out Your Entire Website Using Stats

Jacob Hodgson    Search Engine Optimization    

Your website is a gold mine. It can take your business from so-so to WOW! All you need to do is learn how to use your statistical information to help you get it done.

Website stats tell you a variety of things. You can find out where your products are booming and busting. You can learn what visitors like and dislike about your site. Are your keywords working? That can be explained also.

The sum total of your website is not content. While content is still king when it comes to providing useful information, it is just one aspect that can be optimized on your site. So much has been written about keyword optimization in content that some might wrongly believe it is the only important part of website optimization.

That is what we are really talking about here – website optimization. Start with the content but don’t leave it there. Search engines bots will crawl the entire page for keywords not just your content. Let’s take a look at other options for tricking out that website and making it sell itself.

1. Anchor Text – Anchor text is the text that is displayed over hyperlinks on your content. If your article refers to information found elsewhere on your site, don’t just say “click here” to find more information, use keywords from that page as your anchor text. Not only are you getting credit for the keyword but it links to another page that also is keyword optimized (or it will be once you are done).

1. Picture Text – People love pictures especially on websites and shopping carts. It can be a big mistake to buy sight unseen. Each picture can have a tag associated with it. When someone runs across the picture with their mouse, they can again see relevant keywords for that page.

1. Links to Other Website Pages – One technique for creating your webpage is to list what services you offer or what your product can do on the homepage. That homepage can be doing more. If you have dedicated a separate page to each unique feature, place those links on the homepage as well. In your list of product features, use keyword-rich anchor text to describe them and have each description link to a different page. Search engines love that.

Are you getting the idea? Your website can be more exciting to the search engine crawlers with just a few changes.

5 Things to Avoid When Optimizing Your Website Pages

Jacob Hodgson    Search Engine Optimization    

Search engine optimization can be one of the hardest and most rewarding tools in your business arsenal. It helps with marketing, advertising and selling your products or services. Because it is a wide category, there are plenty of places where you can go wrong with it. Here are just five of them.

Under-Using Your Website – Optimizing your website involves every aspect of your site. Most people think that the only important part is the content. Optimizing content is only one piece of the pie. When you concentrate on content and not on leveraging all areas of your site, you are robbing your own pockets.

You will get visitors if your content is on point, but the search engines can rank you even higher if you used keywords in other places. Articles have titles, pages have headlines and pictures have captions. Learn to use them all to your advantage.

Keyword Overload – Search engine bots are smarter than most people give them credit for. Using keywords too much will cause them to just skip over your content and thus give you a lower ranking for those keywords. It seems like you could use as many as you wanted in an article and that would make you more visible but it’s not true.

Search engines recognize when people are cheating by overstuffing their articles with keywords. Content that is well written will stay within the allowable keyword density. And, those keywords will show up naturally throughout the article so it doesn’t sound like it was thrown together just for the keywords.

Keyword Density – You can have too few keywords as well as too many. Some people write their content without even thinking about keywords. You might have a strong article that talks about cutting edge information but without something to help the search engines look upon you favorably; no one will ever read it. Using the word once or twice in an article is not going to cut it.

No Variety – For better optimization, a website doesn’t use just one keyword. If you started with the word “chocolate”, your entire website wouldn’t be based on it. People use a variety of similar words alone or in combination to find what they are looking for with search engines. If you make and sell chocolate fudge, there are better words to use: fudge, Candace’s fudge, how to make fudge, etc. it’s like throwing all your eggs in one basket if you don’t diversify your keywords.

Reciprocal Links – While it is true that backlinks can increase your search engine ranking, all links are not equal. And search engines like organic links better than simply offering reciprocal link sharing. You want others to link to you because they like your product and what your website presents to others. Using quality content on your site, in article directories and on social bookmarking sites can increase your quality inbound links for higher ranking.

Start out on solid footing with SEO. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that first-timers make.