For Good Onsite SEO, Think Like A Search Engine

Sorry for the late post, but Gustav has played with the power off and on all day. I took the opportunity to take a nap. lol

While I am not one to design a site just for the search engines, I always keep them in mind. When it comes to onsite SEO, I like to think like a search engine. Keyword stuffing is not the way, but I do not want the search engines to have a hard time figuring out what each and every site and store page is about.

I have had several PMs of people asking me to look at their store pages and rate their onsite SEO. What I am seeing is definitely some confusion on this. Some examples of what I see include paragraphs totally unrelated to what that page SHOULD be about. Explanations about why you chose a certain domain or why someone should shop your store has only one place on a niche site and that should be on a "About" page, not on the front page or a page selling items. You will only detract from the SEO if you do this.

Think long and hard about each and every page on your site and the phrase or phrases that page is trying to rank for. If you have a site page that is nothing but news headlines for the New York Jets, the top 100+ words on that page needs to tell the surfer and the SERPS that.

Below would be an example:

Welcome to our New York Jets news section, where you will find all of the New York Jets news headlines from various sources. We list headlines from the New York Post, New York Daily News, Newark Star Ledger, Jets Official Website and New York Newsday newspapers. We also carry news from all of the Jets blogs as well. Check back often as our news feeds update daily so you can keep up with Jets player news and press conferences.

Now the above was 79 words I just thought of off the top of my head and surely it can be expounded on. This will definitely let the SERPS know that that particular page is about New York Jets news. Get the drift? And that was for a mere news page. The same concept should be applied site wide for permanent pages and store pages. Make it easier for the SERPS by applying relevant LSI terms as well. If it is not pertinant to the overall direction of the page, leave it out of the text. You want no confussion for the SERPS to easily identify what each page on your site is about. Couple this with great meta tags and great offsite keyword text links and there will be no doubt in the mind of the SERPS about what each page on your site is conveying.

What ways do you like to use to think like search engines?

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