So my day starts like this. I wake up, drink coffee, get ready, drink more coffee, leave for work, drink even more coffee (yes there is a pattern here), after arriving at work, I start reviewing my emails and creating my task list for the day. Inevitably I come across an email that goes something like this:

Dear Brian (no they are not always this formal, but it’s a nice touch)
I just launched my new website that I spent the last 6 months building. I see that you offer SEO as one of your services. I am concerned over my site because it is showing up as number 1034 in the search results. I was wondering what you would charge to increase my rakings. [Insert Web address]

So out of curiosity, more to see their new web design, I click though. With the blink of an eye I discover why their search ranking is so low. There is no content.

It doesn’t matter which search engine you look at, they all require one thing to work, words on your webpage. Without them, the search engines have nothing to read, digest, interpret and ultimately return the next time a potential customer types in your keywords.

“But I do have text my site, its right there and appears with my nifty 3D animated logo”.

Your logo may be pretty dynamic and the animation may border on a Oscar, but if everything is delivered through flash, it is not being read by search engines. The search engine bots are blind to the contents within Flash (at least at the time of this writing) and there is not indication that will change.

So how do you fix this? Take a look at your site. Using your web browser, turn off the entire plug in support, all the images, and all the sound. The look at your site again, that’s how the search engines see it. They see only the text, and the live text, that appears on your site.

So know this hidden bit of information, here is how you can maximize the content on your site.

1. Develop page level key words. Before writing content for a page, or reviewing existing content, determine what 6 keywords would be appropriate for this page. A few of these keywords should be part of your overall site keywords but not always.
2. Remember content is KING. Design is Queen. When developing content for your page, keep those keywords in the front of your mind. You will want to use them multiple times as naturally and relevantly as you can. Typically, 3 to 5 times. Sometimes it may seem redundant, but if the words are not on the page, how can a search engine know to look for them? And if they don’t appear multiple times, search engines might not realize that they are important to you.
3. Content Formatting. HTML has built in ways to format your text, much the same way as Microsoft Word. Take advantage of them, they will not only allow for easily to read content but also it allows the search engines to understand the hierarchy of your site as well.
   1. H Tags. Don’t just make headlines bold on the page, use the series of H tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) built within HTML. Using them in proper read order will also allow readers and search engines to understand the flow of you content easier. Also, remember to use your keywords inside your H tags. Search engines have been rumored to give more importance to keywords in H tags.
   2. Bulleted list. Just like bulleted list make it easier for the reader to view your content, it makes it easier for search engines to determine what is important as well.
   3. Images. Images not only add visual interest, but also add an opportunity to add more targeted content. Utilize the ALT tag and write a description of the image. As an added bonus, your site is one step closer to meeting accessibility/usability standards.
   4. Calls to Action. The content on your site should always be rounded out by clear calls to action. After explaining a product or service, include something like “click here to place your order now” or “learn more about this service here.” Links within the calls to action will lead people to the next step in the process, which should be simple and streamlined. This also creates linkages to more important areas of your site.
   5. Make it easy to connect. As your review your copy, make sure someone is able to connect with you at any time. This also ensures that search engines pick up your contact information.
   6. Links. Links are crucial to every website. Not only for the visitor, but also for search engines. They utilize the links to navigate your site in order to discover the content. To facilitate this, make sure to use your keywords in the names of the links. And utilize the title attribute to provide a longer description of the purpose for the link.
      1. Page Navigation. No matter how many whiz-bang features you place on your site, people will visit your site because they are looking for something. Clean simple navigation is key to encouraging visitors to move around your site. Not necessarily a SEO item, but worth mentioning
      2. Inline navigation (links within your copy). After your write the copy for your page, go back and reread it. Looks for places where you can link words and terms to other pages on your site. Search engines give more importance to words that are links than words that are not.
      3. Never, ever, utilizes words like “Read more.”, “Learn More”, or even just “More”. These words have absolutely no meaning to a search engine. Make sure your links are descriptive. Even though it seems redundant, a link like “Learn more about our widget” or “Learn more about the process of widget creation” will gain more importance with the search engines and aid in the readability of your content.
      4. Remember to use the Title tags on links. This tag allows you to add more descriptive content.

The language that you use in your site’s copy has a profound effect on how visitors and search engines react. Within seconds of landing on your page, visitors need to be enticed into exploring further. And the same goes for the crawlers sent by search engines. With as much detail being applied to the content of your site as being applied to the architecture and design of the site, you will quickly see your rankings rise.

Next up, Inbound and outbound linking.