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Keyword Search

Identify the keywords that you believe your target audience would use to search for your product or service.

Look for words and phrases that are the most relevant to your product or service versus how much potential traffic they bring.  For example, the keyword phrase “minnesota lawyers” may be too generic for a Minneapolis law firm that only specializes in criminal law.  A better search engine phrase may be “criminal lawyers Minneapolis,” because it’s more descriptive and relevant to its target audience.

Focus on finding two to three keyword phrases per page of your website’s content.

Below are the most agreed upon approaches by SEO experts to help improve your rankings. Use the keyword phrases you’ve selected as you write your meta tags and website copy.

Meta Tags

• Title Tag- The most critical tag in your website code that tells the search engine what the website/page is about. This is the text that search engine visitors ultimately click on to view your website.  Limit your title tag to 8 words or less.

• Description Meta Tag-  Found underneath your search engine listing and thus people will read or skim it before clicking on your search listing.  This tag is not required by most search engines; however it does improve the likelihood that a potential visitor will click on your listing.  Limit your description to 190 characters and try to repeat your keywords.

Web Copy

• H1 Headers- The top text header before a paragraph of content.  Header tags are typically labeled in the order of hierarchy they are presented in the website.  Therefore a second header in a page is usually labeled as H2, H3, etc.  Use your keywords in the headers.

• Keyword Density- Refers to how frequently the keyword presents itself in a page.  As in the example of the criminal lawyer, consider using the keyword “Minneapolis criminal lawyer” in the web page copy for every hundred words of text.

URL

• URL Structure- Refers to the actual URL address that the web page / website reside.  Purchasing a domain name that has keywords embedded in it like “criminallawyersminneapolismn.com.” may help improve your rankings.   If you wish to keep your company name or domain, you can change your internal URL to reflect your keywords such as: www.mycompanysite.com/minneapolis-criminal-lawyers.html.

Link Popularity

Increasing your website’s link popularity is the second component to the search engine optimization campaign.  I’ve attached the two links below to provide more detail.

Places To Promote Your Website for Free - Part 1

Places To Promote Your Website for Free Part 2

If you are unsure how to deploy these optimization techniques, you may prefer to outsource these services to a firm that specializes in search engine optimization.  As you may have gathered, small changes in optimization strategy can greatly influence the results.  As such, it’s important to find a supplier that upholds the most current optimizing techniques.  To find a highly ethical and reputable provider of SEO, the Better Business Bureau and the SEO Consultants Directory provide easy look-up options.  For more information regarding search engine optimization techniques or best practices, be sure to check out other posts on our online marketing blog.