SEO Tip 5: Body Copy

In the early days, the META Tags are the most crucial factors to optimize in order to get good rankings at the Search Engines. Today, together with the Title Tag, the Body Copy or content of your web page is one of the most important (if not the most) ingredients for Search Engine Optimization success.

Some of the recommended SiteSell tips for the Body Copy are as follows:

• Write your Body Copy for both humans and robots
• Scatter your Specific Keyword, General Keywords (i.e., a variation of but related to your Sepcific Keyword) and common synonyms througout the page
• Your Specific Keyword must be in the first 150 characters of your copy
• Weave the Specific Keyword throughout the page at least two times but not more than three times
• Also refer to the Heading Tag tips before the start of your Body Copy
  

SEO Tip 4: Heading Tags

Another important strategy for Search Engine Optimization lies in the content section of your web page. Most top Search Engines have taken into consideration the page's "Heading Tags for Headline" in recent times as an important factor for good Search Engine Result Placement (SERP).

The following are some useful SiteSell tips/strategies for the Heading Tags:

• Always start a page with a "H1" headline (i.e., <.H1>your headline<./H1> )
• Some SEs (e.g., most notably, MSN)doesn't use your description tag but use the 1st 150-200 characters that appear on your web page
• Heading must contain your Specific Keyword
• Recommended under 80 characters (best under 40)
• Use the first part of your Description Tag for the Headline
• Use the second part of your Description Tag for the for the first paragraph of your Body Copy that will follow the Headline
  

SEO Tip 3 - Keywords Tag

The META Keywords Tag appears like the following in HTML:

<.META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="your keywords here".>

The Keywords Tag is regarded as not much use nowadays in Search Engine Optimization. Many SEO experts believed the fact that the SEs do not take into account at all the content in the Keywords Tag as the Title and Description Tags are the two key elements for the SEs to rank a web site higher.

However, the Keywords Tag still plays an important role as far as second tier Directories and SEs are concerned. It is still better to have the Tag than not having it at all.

The following are several SiteSell "rules" for the Keywords Tag:

• Always enter the Specific Keyword first
• Separate each keyword with a comma followed by a space
• Enter 1 to 5 Keywords only
  

SEO Tip 2 - Description Tag

The META Description Tag can also be regarded as an important element in Search Engine Optimization. In HTML, it looks something like the following:

<.META NAME="Description" CONTENT="your description here".>

Although some SEO gurus may opined that the Description Tag does not carry that much weight nowadays as far as SEO is concerned, no one can verify this 100% in any case..., unless they work for Google or Yahoo!

Regardless, it must be noted that most Search Engines will still carry this description in their Search Results. A terrible description or one that makes no sense has the potential to put searchers off (i.e., they won't click on to your site).

Some of the useful SiteSell "rules" for the META Description are as follows:

• Use Specific Keyword at least once, twice if it's natural, but not more than twice
• Keep the Description under 200 characters (best if under 150)
• Do not repeat your TITLE in the Description
• Do not put more than one space/hypen/etc. between sentences (i.e., save a character in the valuable "word real estate")
• Never put quotes in your Description (i.e., mess up the SEs listing)

SEO Tip 1 - Title Tag

For Search Engine Optimization, one of the most important META Tags in your web page is the Title Tag or in HTML. Some of the basic SiteSell "rules" as far as the Title Tag is concerned are as follows:

• Must make sense to real people (i.e., those who search the Search Engines)
• Must please the Search Engines (i.e., at least the Top 3 of Google, Yahoo! and MSN)
  
• Must be under 80 characters (best if under 64)
• Should include the Specific Keyword (i.e., the main keyword your page is optimized for) at least once but not more than twice
• Best if the Specific Keyword appears once near the beginning of the Title (2nd or 3rd word is ideal) but not more than the 5th word
  

Say, I'm targeting the Specific Keyword "ebusiness", then, an ideal title tag is:

<.TITLE>SiteSell eBusiness Philosophy for eBusiness success<./TITLE>

Most Wanted Response - the single most important part of your site

"A web site without an Most Wanted Response (MWR) is like an amusement park without rides... what's the point?" - Ken Evoy

Many netrepreneurs started their online business the wrong way. They write, design and build their web site first before setting (or even knowing) what's their Most Wanted Response (MWR).

MWR is the single most important part of your entire web site. If you didn't set one, there is almost no chance for your web business to succeed. In fact, your web site exists to get the MWR.

What is an MWR?

Simply put, MWR is what you most want your visitor to do, or your most desired "visitor-must-do" action. What does your site exist for?

For example, the no. 1 MWR for my non-SBI! site is for visitors to make a travel inquiry/request (i.e., our main service is as a trip advisor or vacation planner). The more inquiries I have, the more sales I will make.

But I know travel is not an easy thing to sell directly off the web. There is so much planning involved - for both the traveler and the planner. So, I have several other MWRs as complements to my no. 1 MWR such as:

• subscribe to my free newsletter
• download a free travel e-brochure
  

As such, before you write your first word, before you worry about your site design, graphics, etc...

It is most important for you to SET your Most Wanted Response (MWR).

The reason?

Setting the MWR will make you totally focus to design an effective web site - a site that sells!

Once you have set your MWR for your product/service, it will be easier for you to design the entire part of your web site towards getting your MWR.

Every content you write, every web page you add from the opening to the closer page, every graphic you include, every form you design, every breath you take (?), will be chosen to steadily increase your odds of getting the MWR.

If you make "getting the MWR" your overriding goal, your web business will have greater chances to succeed.

If you don't, your web business is doom to fail.

It's the words that sell, not the picture

Many netrepreneurs are still obsessed with graphics, audios, videos, and other gizmos, instead of crafting effective content.

They want their web site to look cool and "professional".

Today, with videos (i.e., window media player, mpeg, etc.) starting to make a lot of waves on web sites, many webmasters are getting even more puzzled.

I was too..., when a lot of "gurus" started to recommend adding videos on web pages and/or advocate the fact that videos are the next big thing in Internet marketing.

Until I came across a little experiment as recommended by Ken Evoy to do a "reality check" on whether graphics/videos/etc. will be more effective than "words" in site selling as follows:

STEP 1 -- Go to any sales-oriented web site.

STEP 2 -- Imagine the site without any graphics or videos. Could it sell?

STEP 3 -- Imagine the site without any words. Could it sell?

Yes..., words SELL! I mean..., the RIGHT words.

Even the right graphics or videos can't sell as well as words.

Maybe in the year 2020, videos will rule the Internet. But not in the immediate term.

Until then, I'll stick to words for the main content of my web site.