Remember, you don’t need to write “War and Peace.”  Each page can be relatively short and to the point.  Give them the 60 second elevator speech.  Imagine you get into an elevator with someone, and they say “Hey, I see you sell such and such, and I was thinking about buying that.  Why should I buy it at all, and more specifically, why should I buy it from you?” 

Your answer is what we’d like to see you write up for your one topic per page.

Describe the problems and pains your typical customer has and how your product can solve it.  Make sure you mention what makes you unique and separates you from the pack! This is something you can do right now!  Write up your 60 second elevator speech for each product or service.  Get it done, and remember, you can always add more later. That’s what blogs and social media are for!

Do it TODAY!

At this point you should have researched and developed a list of keywords that you want to promote. You should also have at least one page on your site dedicated to each keyword or phrase. Now it’s time to make sure the pages you just added are in alignment with the list of keywords you’re trying to promote. We call this process “4-in-1 Optimization.” Here’s how it works: 

For each page on your site, you’re going to take the keyword phrase that page was designed to promote and make sure that phrase is included in four strategic locations:

1. URL
2. Page Title
3. Header Tags
4. Body Text

What is a URL, you ask?  It’s an address on the Internet.  It might look something like this:

http://michiganseogroup.com/searchengine/optimization/best-seo-techniques-one-topic-per-page

Let’s break it down into its component parts:

Protocol

Example: http://

This is the protocol.  In this case http designates the hypertext transfer protocol.  This is the protocol used to serve web pages.

Domain Name / Server

Example: michiganseogroup.com

This is the name of the server that hosts the information you’re trying to retrieve.  In this case “www” is the name of the server and “seoannarbor.com” is the domain name.

Resource

Example: /searchengine/optimization/best-seo-techniques-one-topic-per-page

This is the resource on the web server that contains the information you asked for.  Usually this is the name of a file or folder on the server.

To optimize the URL, you’ll want to make sure your keyword phrase appears in the resource part of the URL. In other words, don’t call your products page this:

/products

Instead, call it something related to your keywords such as:

/bmw-repair-ann-arbor

or

/green-upside-down-discount-widgets

If you can include your keyword phrase in your domain name, so much the better, but that isn’t required.  Just make sure you include it in the name of your resource! Google likes this. Google likes it a lot!  It really helps to clue them in as to what your webpage is about.  So do not pass go, and do not collect $200, until you do this to all your most important keyword pages.

If you’re interested in learning more, read about the process of optimizing a URL here.

By “page title,” we mean the text that’s included between the HTML <title> and </title> tags.  Most web browsers display this information along the very top of the screen, either in the title bar of the window, or the name of the tab that you’re viewing. Most websites use page titles that look something like this:

Those are all well and good, but none of those “titles” do anything to provide Google with information as to what your page is actually about.  It’s great that your company name is “John Doe & Sons, Inc.” and that you come from a long line of plumbers, but that title does nothing to let Google know about your products and services, where you offer those services, or the topic of that particular page.  So make sure that you include the exact keyword phrase you’re trying to promote in the title of your web page. 

Also remember to make sure you’re using the same keywords that people are actually searching for – the ones that you identified in the very first step in this guide, and that may or may not have anything to do with the name of your business.  This is critically important … this alone can have a dramatic effect on your search results.

How do you do it?  It depends on who published your web page and what system they used to create it.  We prefer the old-fashioned way of opening up a basic text editor, finding the <title> </title> tags, and editing the text in between.  But even if you used a pre-fab website builder or software program to create your webpage, they should provide you with some method of editing the title of each page. That’s a conversation to have with your webmaster (or with yourself if you built your own website).  If they don’t provide that functionality, run, don’t walk, to someone else who can build you a website that provides you with the ability to edit page titles.  It’s THAT important!

Header tags are HTML tags such as H1, H2, and H3 that provide structure to your HTML document.  The theory is that anything contained within a header tag is important.  That helps clue Google and your visitors into what’s most important and what the page is all about.   Header tags look something like this:

<h1>Search Engine Optimization, SEO Ann Arbor</h1>

<h1>BMW Auto Repair Ann Arbor</h1>

<h2>Stainless Steel Left Handed Widgets</h2>

The keyword phrase you’re trying to promote (remember, one topic per page!) should appear at least once inside of a header tag. We generally try to include more than one appearance of the header tags on our clients’ sites, but don’t go crazy. Three is probably a good maximum.

The same keyword phrase you inserted into your URL, page title, and header text should also be included at least once (and probably more than once) in the body text of your page.  If you’re writing your own code, you would usually include it inside of a paragraph tag <p> </p> or a bulleted list <ul> </ul>, but just make sure it appears at least once outside the header and title.

Also, make sure you’re using the exact search phrase that you identified earlier.  For instance, if Google tells you that the vast majority of people are searching for “Ann Arbor Massage,” then make sure that’s the phrase you use, as opposed to “massage Ann Arbor” or some other variant.  You can certainly use variations of your keyword phrase if it that’s what’s required to get your point across while following the rules of grammar, but make sure you also include the exact search phrase, especially in the title and header tags.

Remember, there are a few things you can do right now to start getting ahead of your competitors on the internet! The first thing we mentioned was doing your keyword research. If you want to dig deeper, you can request our handy guide that includes the three tasks we’ve shared in this article, as well as four others. It’s called Seven Essential SEO Tasks You Can Do RIGHT NOW!  Request it here (link to our opt-in).

If that’s not enough info for you, you could buy our book SEO and Beyond: Rocket Your Website to Page One of Google! (link to Amazon page).

If THAT’s not enough, we’re happy to help. Give us a call at (734) 619-0736, chat about your needs and goals online, and we’ll send you a copy of the book absolutely free.

We’ve run out of room on this page, so CLICK HERE to get right to One SEO technique to Avoid Like the Bubonic Plague!