Optimising Content for Key Phrases: Important Factor of Search Engine Marketing(SEO)

Once keywords and phrases are selected, we need to ensure the site contains

content to target those key phrases. We must ensure that the content is

properly structured and that it sends signals of relevance. Content is the most

important part of your website. We must create relevant, targeted content

aiming at our selected key phrases.

Content already has several roles to play on your site:

• It provides information to visitors.

• It must engage with them.

• It must convince them to do what you want.

Now it must also send signals of relevance to search engines. You need to use

the keywords on the content page in a way that search engines will pick up, and

users will understand.

Each web page should be optimised for two to three key phrases: the primary

key phrase, the secondary and the tertiary. A page can be optimised for up to

five key phrases, but it is better to have more niche pages than fewer unfocused

pages.

Here are some guidelines:

1. Title tag: use the key phrase in the title and as close to the beginning

as possible.

2. H1 header tag: use the key phrase in the header tag, and as much as

possible in the other H tags.

3. Body content: use the key phrase at least three times, more if there

is a lot of content and it makes sense to. You should aim for about 350

words of content. But don’t overdo it! That could look like spam to the

search engines.

4. Bold: use <strong> tags around the keyword at least once.

5. URL: use a URL rewrite so that it appears in the URL of the page.

6. Meta description: use it at least once in the meta description of the

page. It should entice users to clickthrough to your site from the

SERP.

7. Link anchor text: try to ensure that the keyword is used in the anchor

text of the pages linking to you.

8. Domain name: if possible, use the key phrase in your domain name.

Optimising media

Images and video should also be optimised with the relevant keywords. Search

engines cannot see images or view videos, so rely on the way that media is

described to determine what it is about. Screen readers also read out these

descriptions, which can help visually impaired readers to make sense of a

website. Lastly, media such as images and video are sometimes also shown on

the SERPs. Proper optimisation can give a brand more ownership of the SERP

real estate, and can also be used effectively to target competitive terms.

Just as an image or video can help emphasise the content on a page to a visitor

to that page, they can also help search engines in ranking pages, provided they

are labelled correctly.

Here are some ways to optimise media with key phrases for SEO:

• Use descriptive filenames.

• Use specific ALT tags and Title attributes for images.

• Meta information can be supplied in the image or video file. Make

sure this information is relevant.

• Use descriptive captions, and keep relevant copy close to the relevant

media.

• Make sure the header tags and images are relevant to each other.

• For video, consider converting the script to text and making this

available to search engines. YouTube offers an autocaptioning service

that makes this easier to do.

SEO is both a science and an art. Focusing on writing quality content while

sticking to a few guidelines on tags and URLs is the best way to ensure results.

Remember, you want search engines to rank you highly for your content, but

you also want to ensure the content is a pleasure to read.

Regularly adding fresh content which carries brand values regularly to your

site will also encourage the search engines to crawl your site more frequently.

Use your website and its pages to establish and reinforce themes. Information

can always be arranged in some kind of hierarchical structure. Just as a single

page can have a heading and then get broken down into sub-headings, a large

website can have main themes that get broken down into sub-themes. Search

engines will see these themes and recognise your website as one with rich

content.