~~~High Search Engine Rankings~~~
From: charles
Hi, Jill, this is my first post to the 'RoundTable.'
I have a question on regional portals. I'm trying to establish my
site as a regional portal for businesses. What I do on my site is
sell 10.00/month web site ads for businesses. I've noticed that to
get a higher search engine rating you should have good, meaningful
content on the first page. However, the description keywords I use
(to try and cover as many areas as possible) just do not lend
themselves to well written copy, i.e., too many different keywords
trying to cover as many bases as possible.
How do portal operators write good copy that also reflects their
keywords?
charles
~~~Jill's Response~~~
Charles,
Great question! We recently optimized a local business portal site,
such as the one you describe, and ended up with great results. Here's
what we did (without going into the exact keyphrases to protect our
client's site and rankings). I think you might be able to apply a
similar strategy for your site. And for those of you who do not have
a business directory portal, listen up anyway, because as you will
see...there are many lessons for success in this little tale.
This client's "portal" was exactly as you describe yours to be, a
regional portal for businesses. For purposes of this answer, let's
just say he was in the Boston area (he wasn't). He had been trying
to rank high for phrases such as "Boston business directory" and
that type of thing. However, a quick Word Tracker report
showed that people weren't searching for that phrase. So I looked at the type of
phrases relating to "Boston" that people were using in their searches.
It turned out that people were always looking for information on the
"Massachusetts Lottery" plus "Boston weather." They were also
searching for information on the "Boston" zoo, the Boston airport,
Boston classifieds and Boston restaurants.
On the surface, it seemed like it would be a daunting, if not
impossible task to optimize for keyphrases that would actually bring
in traffic. However, this was truly a dream client that we were
dealing with. He totally understood the importance of optimizing for
phrases people were using, and he was prepared to alter the focus of
his site in any way he could to maximize its potential. Together, the
client, Heather and I brainstormed an optimization plan for this site.
How could we integrate phrases like "Massachusetts Lottery" and
"Boston Weather" and some of the other important keyphrases into this
business portal, without *tricking* the engines and the visitors? It
was a lot easier than one would think!
First, the client found (or created) a script that showed the
up-to-date local weather report and added that to the main page of the
site. He also found a programmer to create a script that would
integrate local lottery results into his main page. He already had a
category section for local restaurants, as well as a section for free
local classifieds. All that was left to do was create a links page
that had links to the most sought-after local sites, such as the zoo
and the airport!
The next step was for Heather to rewrite the main page, focusing on
the fact that this site now offered information on the "Massachusetts
lottery," "Boston weather," and "Boston classifieds." The Business
Directory itself was still prominently featured, however, it didn't
get the same focus within the copy as it previously had. We also
helped him put together the links page, and Heather wrote the copy for
it, heavily focusing on the most important keyphrases within the copy.
Once everything was in place, I optimized the tags and other HTML code
accordingly, and began the submittal process. Luckily this site had
not yet been submitted to the major directories such as Yahoo! And
Looksmart. Using their business express services, I was able to get
the keyphrases "lottery," "weather forecasts," "restaurants" and
"classifieds" into the descriptions, because these were now a major
focus of the main page of this site! Yahoo! did give us a bit of a
problem at first by chopping the description, however, a simple email
appeal worked wonders and they added our keyphrases back in!
It's been three to four months since submittal, and the site is doing
terrifically in the rankings. The key to success with this site was
truly the client's willingness to listen to our expert advice and do
whatever it took to make it succeed. I really admire this client. He
was not making much (if any) money on this site, yet he was willing to
spend some money up front; first on our SEO services, and then on
programming the necessary scripts he needed to put in place. He
realized that if he was going to make his business venture successful,
he would need to spend some money to make some money. It's still too
early in the game to know for sure how profitable he will be, but
something tells me this particular client will eventually realize a
tidy profit.
As I said at the beginning, there are many lessons in the above "case
study" for many of you in the search engine optimization game. It's
your job now to go back and figure out how can you put some of them to
use for your own site(s)!
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
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that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
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