Those following this series now know how to spy directly on their competition and how to develop a direct, aggressive SEO strategy based on that data.
You’ve now laid the groundwork and are targeting correctly in a smart, strategic manner that actually matches how a corporate SEO consultant would analyze your situation. I left off last time telling you that you must make sure your targeted keywords appear 10 – 15 times on each page of your website and that they had to be used in a semantically correct manner to avoid any trouble.
There’s more that you’ll have to do to your website in order to match up and perform like your competition. Everything you’ll read below is super-easy to do if you are using WordPress for your website with a plug-in such as All-in-One-SEO. You can do all this things from one screen at the same time that you create your page or post. If you are not using WordPress, not only are these tops harder to implement, but you may actually have to pay a pro to do it. WordPress is free so if you haven’t started your website or have only taken baby steps in getting it started, switch it today!
These recommendations are synergistic with some of the key things that Google currently looks at on websites that are part of their index.
1. Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords – (Controlled via the All-in-One-SEO WordPress plugin.) Each page’s Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords must contain the keywords you aretargeting. While Google does not really look at the Meta Keywords embedded in the top of each page any longer, other search engines like Yahoo do. Your pages’ Meta Titles are very important as they tell Google the purpose of your website and page. Don’t waste space repeating your company’s name or domain name; just get your keywords prominently in that space. Use the Meta Description to establish your identity and purpose from a human standpoint, and try to use your keywords there as well. In WordPress you’ll create meta titles, descriptions and keywords for EVERY new page or post. Do not skip this step or do it sloppily. Your visitors may or may not ever see it, but the search engines definitely do. The place where your visitors are most likely to see it is in the search engine summary. Check out this example.
These are the #9 and #10 results for “MLM Drop Cards” for a search I did today. (Mine is the #10 result). Notice how the Title is clear, succinct and contains the keywords. Then look at the two lines of text below. Notice that mine is written in complete sentences. This comes from the Meta Description field. This is the place where in 2 lines of text, you entice the searcher to click on your result. The #9 result clearly doesn’t have a meta description. In its place, a random block of text from within the page is displayed.
2. Footer Navigation Links. – (Controlled via the themes section in WordPress.) Develop key paths for Google’s spyders: Remember how I told you in Part 2 that outside links driving to your website should ideally have your targeted keywords as part of your anchor text? Your website should have the same technique for its own internal content. If your website is more than one page and has primary navigation at top or on the side, DUPLICATE that navigation in the footer of each page. However, rename those links to match your keywords and point them to the pages in your site that most closely match. This tells Google a clear path to index and scan content for information tied to keywords and search terms. In my next article, I’ll touch on the challenges facing single page websites or landing pages. Here is a quick screen shot of one of my capture pages. Notice all the small hyperlinks down below the copyright info in the footer. These are not for the visitor, they are for the search engine. Fortunately, if you are using MLM Lead System Pro all of this is done for you.
3. Image, Document and File Names – (Assign names at the time of upload in WordPress) Name your files to match your keywords. Go into your website structure and rename your files to include the keywords from your strategy. Make sure the keyword you use in each filename matches the content and Meta Titles for that page. Don’t just jam the words together in keyphrases; use a hyphen between words. (Examples: Instead of Pic2017.jpg name your file Mount-Saint-Helens-in-Fall.jpg and instead of Video Clip 11 name your file Interview-with-Michael-Jordon.wmv). Get it? Even though your visitors don’t see the names of your images or video files, the search engine does. The names of your files should contain all your keywords and be separated by hypens. This takes only a few extra seconds when you create the pages and will greatly help your search rankings. It’s a pain in the **** to have to undo and redo later so do it the first time.
All of the items above are similar to what a professional SEO would do upon first taking on a project with you. Your website must have the proper foundation for you to ever have any chance of doing as well as your competitors in Google.
This series has now made it clear how you should develop your strategy based on real competitor data. I’ve shown you how to carefully develop your keyword targeting so that you are pursuing good volume keywords that match your products and services. You’ve learned how to adapt your website and content to match up with some of Google’s primary search algorithms.