SEO Tips Internet Marketers Can Use To Improve Their Sites

Last time I posted about onpage seo and how internet marketers can apply some simple strategies to improve their rankings in the search engines and make their sites more user friendly for their visitors. Want some seo tips?

Navigation
Studies have been done to track the eye movements of people on the internet. They discovered many things about folks which I won't go into here, but in terms of seo, they did discover a few things we should pay attention to in our internet businesses.

The part of our eye that sees with great clarity and focus is rather small, really about the size of your thumb held out at arms length towards your computer screen. (Really!) The rest of what our eyes see is somewhat blurry. So, we should consider putting the price for our products very close to the "buy now" button so people can find it easier.

For the same reason our navigation links should not have more than 7 links without a break for our eyes. We tend to give up if we have to work too hard at finding our way around a site. So, break your categories up into groups not more than about 7 long.

Links
We haven't talked too much about linking yet on this blog, but we will; I promise. :-) But for the moment, in terms of on page seo, links here refer to links on your site pointing either to other pages on your site or to other sites.

We try so hard to get folks to our site, it grieves us to consider putting links on our site to other sites - but that's just what we need to do. Google likes to see us participating in the internet community. So, here's a tip: look for links to sites that aren't competitive. Government agencies and education sites, associations or other such organizations are great because, they are high PR sites generally, but aren't competitive. You don't have to have a lot of these links, just some.

Additionally, when we can't get around putting a link to a site that is competitive we can use nofollow tags to keep the spiders from leaving our pages, even if our visitors do.

Architecture and Site Design
As you build your pages ask yourself a very important question - what purpose does this page serve? What is your goal with the page? What one action could your visitor take from that page that you intend for them to take? The ultimate point of the page? If you don't have one, they won't get it. It's that simple. Your visitors need to be led through the process. They don't want to think. They already came. They are already interested. Sure they might back out, but that's the risk we always take in business and marketing, right? Take them by the hand and tell them the ultimate point. Lead them to the action you want them to take and then spell it out for them. Make sure they understand it. This is called a "call to action" in marketing. And they expect it. If they are confused in any way they will simply back out. So, what does that mean in terms of seo, architecture and site design?

Simplify every page to be about one thing. One focus. One point. They can like it or not. Stay or leave, but at least they won't be confused. Make THE POINT be THE POINT.

Additionally, in the same vein I want to hit on what is called "selling the click." On page SEO involves writing meta tags (title, keywords and description tags). The title tag is what shows up in the search results that you click on. The description, at least in Google, is what shows up as the little blurb on the search results page under the text that you click. You want that text to be inticing them to click. It needs to be intriguing, or funny, or thought provoking or something that stands out. We are marketing after all. We are competing on the search engine results page with all the other listings. How can we stand out. Sell the click. Get them to click you. There is an art to this - but you need to learn if you are going to be a successful small business. Internet marketing is marketing - not just building a site and waiting for folks to come by from us like a lemonade stand.

This is true on your pages too. Above I discussed narrowing the focus of your pages to be concerned with one and only one main point, one action you want them to take. Sell that click too.

Happy Marketing.

Private coaching and consulting for internet marketing is available. Ask me how.