A lot of my business
comes from the Web. Which means a high Google ranking on relevant search terms,
is incredibly important to me. The search term I care about most is "Email copywriting."
CLICK HERE and you'll
see that for that search term ("Email copywriting") I actually come up in first
position . . . number 1 out of 1,260,000 entries.
How did I get this
terrific first-place Google ranking?
I'll tell you the answer
in two words . . . Mary O'Brien.
Mary is the founder of
the B2B Search Strategy Conference which takes place next month in San
Francisco on June 23. She is, in my book, the
expert on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and has taught me everything I know
about the subject. If SEO is important to you,
and I think it should be, CLICK HERE for conference details. NOTE: I have no
financial interest in the B2B Search Strategy Conference; I just think it's a
"must attend" event.
I told Mary that I was
going to focus on SEO in this issue of the Levison Letter and asked her to
answer this question. "If someone wants to optimize their Web site for the
search engines, what's the first five things you'd tell them to do."
Here's her advice in her
own words . . .
#1. Develop a Relevant
Keyword List
Developing an effective keyword strategy for B2B SEO can be very
challenging. Start with a brainstorming session and pull together
as large a
list as you can. Try to include every term possible that a
potential
prospect might search on. Focus more on broad keywords and don't
get caught up in industry or company brand lingo. Think of all the types of
products and services you sell.
#2. Decide which phrases to target
Once you've created your list of potential keywords, you need to
discover
how popular those terms are. Use a tool like Wordstream or Google's Traffic Estimator to find out the historical popularity of those keywords
or take
the data from your AdWords campaign and extrapolate, based on
searches and ROI. This will give you a better idea of the most relevant terms
to target for your SEO.
#3. Create content to
match the keywords
Develop pages that specifically focus on each term you have
selected with
good site architecture around each one. Try to speak to prospects'
needs in
your copy, but also consider the search engines and what they are
looking
for when they crawl your site. Watch your word order, singulars
and plurals
and the length of your copy. Longer copy is typically better for
B2B
prospects as it allows you to provide education on your product or
service.
Search Engines also appreciate longer copy and you have an
opportunity to
position your keyword more frequently within it.
#4. Focus on your
external links
Establish a good linking strategy by thinking of all the ways you
can reach
your audience through your content. Post on article sites, tweet,
blog, have
company members appear as guest bloggers, distribute white papers,
create webinars and case studies around your articles and products, etc.
Anything that can position your company as a thought leader is a good thing especially if it provides a link back to your site.
#5. Focus on your
internal links
Work all of these extra content pages into your navigation. Some
of these
pages will be accessible through your site-wide navigation while
others may
be in the sub-navigation of a particular section or only be
available
through text links in the body copy of a page. Keep the content
pages for
your most targeted and highly searched terms closest to the home
page with the least amount of clicks to get to them. Content pages related
to less relevant, more obscure, or niche terms can be accessed from deeper
in your site.
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