Having a website is not enough. If you’re a small business trying to get more organic search results, then you need to think about developing great SEO content. Not keyword stuffed content, but words that clearly — let me emphasize, CLEARLY — say

the things you offer. It’s so simple, yet incredibly overlooked! Pictures are great and tell a story, but are you relying too heavily on graphics, is your content too vague?

Strong keyword phrases lead great content

Developing strong keyword phrases first will help you find opportunities for ranking — for example, if you are comparing two very similar keyword phrases and discover the plural version gets 5x the search volume and has a better opportunity (less noise and competition) on the search results page, then you would optimize for the plural version. But I think developing keyword phrases is even better for developing great content, because it gets you into the rhythm of clarifying exactly what you are or what you’re offering. Clear communication through specific keyword phrases helps your potential customer find you through search engine ranking, and once there, helps them clearly understand your value proposition.

• Keyword phrases work best with two to three words, but don’t forget long tail keyword phrases can be a better match for driving sales and finding your actual customers.
• Think in three to four word bursts.
• Start by taking inventory of your vague keywords: Do you say that you’re a “great photographer” or does your site say you’re a “great photographer specializing in outdoor family portraits” — one will bring more targeted search results to your website; the other will be thrown into the ordinary vague bin. Beware of other vague words: this, we, our, this, that, they.
• Think about your customer first, how would your ideal lead describe your product offering? Ask friends if you have trouble defining it.
• Look at your competitors — what language do they use? What could they improve?
• Remember keyword developing great SEO content is for your customers first, search robots second. What’s good for your customers is also good for robots. Robots crawlers are trained to think like humans (Scary thought huh!?).
• Refer to David Frey’s, 12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Template for expanding your content to hit all the corners of your offering.
• Think specifics: unique brands, unique offerings, etc. STATE THEM!

Let’s talk about specificity

Consider this Legoman.

How many ways can we describe this image? You could quickly say this is a picture of a Legoman. However you’d probably say this is a picture of a Legoman dressed as a unicorn, and you could also say: this is a white unicorn Legoman, smiling Legoman, smiling Legoman dressed as a white unicorn with stars on shirt and blue hands in a closeup shot with a white blurred background. There’s a range of detail and some are much more specific. Determining the level of detail is up to the flow for your readers.

Measure to determine SEO quality

Data & Analytics will help you determine if you have great content on your site. High bounce rates, low duration, and pages per session most of the time will show you that there’s low quality content and on what pages the content needs to be improved. Consider going beyond words and utilizing video to expand average duration. Infographics are another way to engage your visitors and get those oh-so-important backlinks.

Internal links

Keep the flow going with internal links to other content on your website. Want to show your visitors that that can contact you? Lead them to your contact page with a link. Internal links keep your visitor engaged and you help search engines crawl your site.

Summary

Developing strong keyword phrases and integrating that into clearly readable, well-suited content, for your potential client/lead is just plain good business. They can’t find you if you don’t say it — meaning, your potential lead uses search phrases to find you; does your website contain that language in a way that adds value to your customer; does it answer their question? Again, it’s so basic and fundamental to good business, but I see it all over the place. Invest the time to clearly define your product or service offering and you will no-doubt boost your search position!