Benefits of Optimized Pages

discussed in detail the concept of "optimized" pages way back in September of 1997. After receiving the following e-mail and others, I realized it was long overdue to re-visit this crucial Web marketing concept. Optimized pages can make or break any business that�s struggling to be "seen" on the Web. If you�ve already memorized all the standard "optimized" page techniques discussed in past issues, you can skip on down to the next topic.

"Brent,

WebPosition has been a God-send to me! One year ago I created my home page for my children�s clothing store, and it was just sitting there, doing almost nothing for months. I purchased WebPosition, read the manual, and started re-vamping my page, making optimized pages, and submitting to search engines, and now we can't keep up with our orders!!

I would have to say the best tip I received from your program was the "optimized page" technique. Since I am in a highly competitive category it felt near impossible to get a high ranking. I was very frustrated. I took your advice, and made 33 optimized pages, for each of our individual brands, as well as specialty areas, including half-size dresses. The response has been overwhelming!!! So many more people have been able to find us, (& place orders!) because these pages each rank high within each sub-category! They bring in an extra 400-500 hits per week, and it is growing everyday! Thanks for your great product! Best $99 I've ever spent! Check us out at:

http://www.connieskids.com/

Connies kids childrens clothing"

Sincerely, Connie.

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Perhaps you are currently experiencing the problem Connie once struggled with six months ago?

You've submitted to the search engines, but you're still waiting for that traffic to start flooding in? Unless you know how to create pages that target specific keywords, you may be in for a long wait. There are so many pages on the Web now that just submitting your URL to the engines will likely just throw you into the middle of a very large search list for just about any keyword you try to search on.

I have good news. Increasing traffic to your Web site using "OPTIMIZED PAGES" is quite simple and really is effective.

The secret is NOT simply making use of Meta Tags (although, they can help somewhat) or trying to include every keyword under the sun on your home page.

The secret is to create very FOCUSED pages, commonly called "optimized pages." That's because you create these pages to act as optimized to your site. The more optimized pages you create, the more traffic you're likely to bring in. Now remember, some directory oriented engines like Yahoo normally accept only a single URL submission or optimized page per Web site. However, most search engines will accept as many pages as you wish to submit.

This means that for most of the others you can customize as many optimized pages as you have keywords, so long as each page contains different content. It is common to develop one customized optimized page for every important keyword you have. Some people, like Connie, have used literally dozens of optimized pages, each one working to get a higher ranking in a particular search engine for a particular keyword.

Am I advocating that you create dozens of duplicate pages and "spam" the search engines? Of course not! What I am saying is that if you want to be seen when people do a search for say "Los Angeles real estate", you must create a page that specifically targets that phrase and has content specifically geared toward that theme. Follow these general steps as a rule of thumb:

1. Include your keyword phrase in the title tag (the MOST important thing you can do!), repeat it in the meta keyword tag. Also use it in your Meta Description tag.

2. You should repeat your targeted phrase, or small variations of it, in a heading tag like <H1>Los Angeles Real Estate: Complete Listings Found Here!<H1> at the top of the page.

3. Repeat it again in the first paragraph of the page, trying to use it naturally in at least two or three sentences near the top.

4. Include the keyword phrase within one or more hyper links.

5. If you include a graphic, repeat the keyword in the ALT IMG tag. This tag displays text to the user if they have graphics turned off and is also indexed into the keyword list by many of the big search engines. This is because we�ve found that some search engines include words they find in the ALT IMG tag as part of their relevancy scoring system.

"Follow the recommendations in the Page Critic for the most accurate suggestions based on the engine and keyword you are targeting. Also be sure your Knowledge Base is up to date for the most accurate advice."

On some engines, a short, one paragraph page will often rank higher than a long, wordy page even though the longer page may include the phrase MORE times. That's because many search engines divide the number of keywords by the number of total words on the page to score the page for "relevancy." Therefore, it�s often the concentration of that phrase/keyword that matters more than the sheer frequency. Search engines will then take this score and add additional weight to keywords found in the title tag, heading tags, and the first 200 or so words of the page. (All words are generally indexed, but those near the top will carry the most "weight"). Try both a long and short page and see how you do, since sometimes a longer page may do better for certain engines.

Use the keyword early:

With most engines, having your best keyword at the BEGINNING of your title tag will raise your rank considerably over simply putting the keyword in the middle or the end of the title. The same general rule applies to the location of the keyword in the content of the page. The sooner in the page it appears, the better. This is called the "prominence" score for the keyword.

Real world example of using optimized pages:

OK, so you've done this, now you want to double your traffic? Create a new optimized page but this time target "LA real estate" rather than just "Los Angeles real estate". If you sell real estate in more than one area, target optimized pages for each area. Obviously this technique applies to you, regardless of whether you sell real estate, information, or widgets. Just about everything has multiple phrases and keywords that people will use to find that item or service.

Create REAL content on the page that talks about the great things about XYZ area Real Estate. However, avoid too many words on this page that don't relate to your specific topic or target audience. Otherwise, your page will become diluted, you'll score poorly, and nobody will find you in the great frontier of cyberspace.

Your next step should be to add links on this optimized page to other parts of your site to find more valuable information. Don't try to say it all on this one page or you'll dilute your effectiveness for the page in relation to the search engines. Keep the copy exciting and upbeat so they'll feel compelled to click on YOUR next link. This is crucial or you'll get traffic to that optimized page, but you'll not get many who proceed on to the rest of the site. Draw them in deeper!

Optimized pages are an easy way to take control of your search engine position. Go on, give them a try! Anybody can do it, even a mother of two from Virginia selling childrens clothing who is still learning her way around Windows!

This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from FirstPlace Software, the makers of WebPosition Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry with the introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the major search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A free trial of WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.