Strategic positioning of keywords

Even several years ago strategic positioning of keywords on the page and in the source code was the major factor for successful search engine optimization. This situation has changed: in current SEO, remote votes of confidence for the web pages mean more now. I would say that sixty percent of optimization happens off-page and forty percent takes place on the web page.

When I talk about on-page optimization, I naturally need to start with keyword density. Sometimes, it is called keywords weight instead. Keyword density is a measure of how often a keyword is found in a specific area of the Web page like a title, heading, anchor name, visible text, etc. against all other words. Since search engine spiders see web page as HTML code instead of what visitors view through a browser, you must have an understanding of the structure of a typical HTML document.

The title of the page that a webmaster adds between HTML tags is considered to be one of the most prominent places on a web page. Title should not be longer than 8 words and should contain the most important keyword. It is also highly recommended to have keywords in the URL.

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We check these forms and see problems

Another important thing to watch for in the forms of Contact, Services and/or other pages is general look of the form and the logical flow of text fields. I will try to clarify this more. We often hear client’s complaints that although the forms are working fine, he can’t get a single lead out of them. During web usability analysis we check these forms and see problems related to user’s experience.

For example, a dozen of text fields that the visitor is supposed to fill up. Or requests for somewhat private information, that Internet visitor would not want to reveal. Web site owners tend to forget that the forms should not be huge. They should contain a delicate request that supposedly will get the permission of the visitor to open a line of communication and start a dialog. When the visitor completes his site browsing and wants to contact the site owners for whatever reason, he should be guided tactfully to the contact form that does not try to collect all-encompassing information but asks for general data and, maybe offers to subscribe to the site’s newsletter or download a free electronic book or a catalog.

Tactful dealings with the visitor will increase the conversion rates of the web site. And the opposite is also true - if the visitor will consider that the forms are too prying, he/she will experience a major turn off and can even spread negativity about your site and reference this experience to other potential clients, blogs, forums.

Look with a fresh eye

After completing the web usability tasks described in the previous entry, start reviewing all presentation pages of the first level. Usually, when the information architecture of the web site has been built correctly, these pages are called Home, About Us, Contact Us, Services, Products, etc.

Look with a fresh eye at the layout of these pages and figure whether these pages are too cluttered or not. Sometimes even when the navigation is fine, web pages of the first level can be one big mess and it is hard to figure out the usefulness of various sections. Also search for obsolete pieces of information - you will find plenty of it, because owners always have problems with updating textual material and images in an orderly manner. There will be all kind of problems with the copy and sometimes many “read more” links, which are going to be bad for your next stage search engine optimization analysis.

Carefully, go through all web forms and other means of interactive communication with potential clients on the first level. Web forms very often are prone to all kinds of errors. If they don’t deliver information properly to the owner, this may be a big issue. We usually find a gazillion of problems with JavaScript validation of the forms, or MySQL database connection on the page.

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Web site navigation, content and design

It is important to start with general review on overall web site navigation, content and design. At this stage we encounter so many regular problems. Usually any medium size web site with a decent amount of pages has its own share of broken internal links, wrong redirects, unexpected jumps to some folders that are located on the fifth level and other stuff. There will also will be either extremely heavy web pages that take forever to download on a visitor’s computer, or short ones that don’t even contain any textual material.

So many times I encounter small business owners that commit web site “suicide”. Their site is basically consists of one page with embedded Flash multi-tasking application. This is when the client get really upset realizing that he really wasted his money on this alleged web development. Especially, he gets nervous when we explain that search engine spiders don’t read Flash and his site needs to be redesigned completely (if not started from scratch).

Very positive sign

It seems that as the time goes by, many web site owners become more savvy with Internet issues. More and more clients, especially those who invested heavily in the development of the web site, ask us to evaluate their creation and provide them with detailed web usability report. I consider this a very positive sign and big advantage for us as web analytics company. It is much easier to deal with the decent web site that was evaluated and re-worked according to our specs, than to optimize something that does not create great user experience and is hostile to search engine searches.

Recently I got read several interesting articles on approaches towards web usability evaluation of the sites. I don’t agree with every single view on this matter but still would like to point out the steps that are a must when client hires your company to conduct this type of work.

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