DMN3 Blog

Is your existing Web site or Web site design optimized? Web site optimization means both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Conversion Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization: Getting Qualified Traffic to your Web site is the first part of the equation for achieving your Web site’s business objectives. The emphasis should be on qualified, because not all traffic is created equal. SEO is considered an essential first step in getting qualified traffic to the site.

As someone trained in conversion optimization, I don’t understand why organizations recognize the need for SEO and not conversion optimization. SEO brings in traffic to a Web site, but conversion optimization takes the traffic from there to convert them into consumers with buyer behavior.

Having said that, SEO is still an essential part of the equation for an optimal site. Without traffic there are no people to persuade to take the actions we desire. SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are often used interchangeably. To avoid any confusion, I am defining SEO as those things we do to the Web site itself (so called “on-page” elements) that make the site search engine-friendly. They also enable search engines to associate specific keywords or search terms with the Web site.

Once we have the site itself optimized for search engines, SEM utilizes strategies to increase search engine rankings and traffic by creating inbound links from other quality Web sites. SEM might also employ search engine advertising strategies, e.g. using Google’s AdWords (pay-per-click) advertising in the search results. These efforts are “off-page,” meaning they typically don’t involve making changes to our Web site itself. It should be noted that different Web site landing pages would be typically used for different keyword searches or advertising.

The creation of inbound links associated with specific keywords is very important in achieving high search engine rankings for those keywords. The more competitive the search keywords, the more high quality inbound links are needed to rank such terms.

So what does a search engine optimized site look like? It should have key Web site elements optimized for the keywords that you want to rank. The following are what most SEO professionals believe are the most crucial for high search engine rankings:

Title Tag: The most important of these “on-page” elements for SEO is the Title Tag. This is the Web page title. The keyword term/phrase must be used in the page title. It is better if the keyword or phrase is used as the first word(s). The use of the keyword term or phrase as the first word(s) has the best correlation with high rankings.

Keyword Use in Root Domain: The closer the targeted keyword(s) to the domain the better. For example, if you are a Houston, Texas plumbing supply house you would want to target “Houston plumbing supplies” for rankings.  The URL www.houstonplumbingsupplies.com will correlate with higher rankings, than another domain. Creating subdomains with the targeted keyword(s) does not appear to increase rankings versus the utilization of subdirectories.You can view Matt Cutts of Google post on this subject here.

Keyword Repetition: A certain number of repetitions of the keywords and keyword variation is important to achieving high search engine rankings. However, the keyword(s) should only be used no more than what makes sense in the context of the copy. Keyword stuffing (deliberate overuse) could actually hurt your rankings and should be avoided. Keyword density is not the way search engines measure relevance. Remember that search engines are looking for relevance of the page content to the search query. Creating highly relevant content with the keywords repeated within that relevant content is your goal.

Keyword Use In H1 Headline Tag: While there is some controversy in the importance of the headline tag in page rankings, my recommendation would be that you incorporate the targeted keyword(s) in your H1 Headline. I would also recommend that the headline be written to gain attention and generate interest in the page copy. These two things are not mutually exclusive.

Keyword Location in Page Text: Important keyword(s) should be featured in the first 50 to 100 words of a page’s text content. The sooner the better, preferably in the first few words of the text. It is a good idea to repeat the keyword(s) and their variations several times in the page copy, but beware of over-use that could lead to keyword stuffing.

There are many more on page elements that can be optimized for certain keywords. For a more in-depth review, I suggest you consult the many SEO references that are available.

The following elements are also part of the conversion optimization process:

It’s Not All About Keywords: There are other very important attributes of a Web site that will contribute to high search engine rankings. If you do the following with the few elements listed above, you can achieve very high rankings without doing all of the more thorough on-page optimization strategies suggested by SEO experts.

Site Architecture: Your site architecture should be search engine friendly. Accessibility of your Web site’s content is crucial. Make sure that your Web site is accessible to site crawlers so your content can be indexed.

Content: Quality and unique content is exceedingly important to search engine rankings. High quality content that is updated periodically will attract interest and will likely be shared by visitors. Today’s social media environment facilitates sharing of good, quality content. Sharing generates links generates better rankings.

User Experience: If the Web site is well designed and provides a good overall user experience, it will generate more links and citations, thus contributing to higher search rankings.

Getting people to take action requires that the site provide a good user experience, have good persuasive content and have intuitive architecture and navigation.

You can do both search engine optimization and conversion optimization with each contributing to the objective of the other.