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Alphabets, Words and Sentences for the Search Engines

Those of you who began using the Internet during its days of infancy in the early nineties will recall how simple it was to search the Net and surf your favorite sites. Altavista and Yahoo! were the only major kids on the block and achieving top rank on search engine results was as easy as opening your site on the hosting server and re-saving it to generate a more recent file date. But those days are gone now and staying ahead of the pack involves as many as 200 variables most of which continue to remain shrouded in mystery and secrecy. However, one major factor has become evident to all-- the importance of content in top search engine positioning. The major search engines continue to make it amply clear through their official blogs, press releases and conference presentations that content is still king and if you wish to rank high and beat the competition, focus on content.

"I have heard all the hype and I now want to know what I am supposed to do" you say. That's why we are here. You are already familiar with the power of the written word and now the spoken word as well in marketing thanks to You Tube and Podzinger. With rare exceptions, most web sites are extensions of marketing initiatives. If marketing collateral can help your company and your web site to generate high ROI, why should web content be an exception? In essence, one doesn't have to be a Rhodes scholar to understand why content is that important. After all, it is central to the communication equation which is critical to any web site's functionality.

There is nothing inappropriate about your writing your own content for your web site. Many site owners do so and do a really great job. However, here are ten things you can do to write top- notch search engine friendly copy for your own site and get really prominent ranking:

1. Become a subject matter expert and write content that is both original and informative. You need to sustain your visitor's interest.

2. Draw a list of those words and phrases your site visitors are using to arrive at your web site and use them in your content. Don't overdo this to a point that your writing becomes dull and boring.

3. Use headings and sub-headings in your content body so that your site visitors can determine at a glance whether or not your site is what they are looking for. Don't worry about losing traffic on this score. The next time your site visitors are looking for the information you provide, they will quickly locate you through their browser's History and arrive at your site. If visitors really like the look and feel of your content, they will even bookmark your web site.

4. Do not overdo the content deal. Site visitors don't have the time to read a treatise. Limit your content to 300-350 words a page.

5. Use simple words. Don't say "regurgitate" if you can say "bring up." Not every site visitor is a PhD candidate at Princeton. In addition to keeping it short, keep it sweet and simple.

6. Provide highly effective customer support features such as live chat so that your site visitors have someone they can ask a question right then and there if they do not understand a product description or something else in spite of all your efforts.

7. Offer a second layer of content help by inter-linking your content pages with one another. This way, your site visitors can go to a support page if they need more information about a product or service you provide.

8. Write grammatically correct English. If you aren't sure what you have written is grammatically correct, it's time to take your high school English teacher out to dinner and show her your web pages while the waiter rounds up a memorable meal for the two of you! It goes without saying that you get to pick up the tab.

9. Try to refresh your site content every 45-60 days so that the searchbots can find something new to index when they knock on your door to spider your web site.

10. Finally, run a spell check program before you post your content. You will be amazed at the number of typos and incorrect spellings there can be in "edited" content.

So the next time you are ready to launch your own web site or are getting ready to update your existing site, follow these simple steps and watch your page rank soar to new heights of prominence!