Articles: Marketing & Sales

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Dave LaLonde is Senior Vice President and Search Engine Optimizer for Auto Credit Express. The ACE Group is a special finance total solutions firm offering their dealership partners entry level and advanced sub prime training, an easy to use online software, and an expert auto sales lead system.

Each year hundreds, if not thousands of chili cook-offs take place all over the country. Most chili recipes have the same basic ingredients; chopped meat, diced vegetables, tomato sauce, paste, garlic, chili powder, and other seasonings. In their pursuit of the winning edge, competition cooks spend an incredible amount of time altering the proportions of these ingredients until they have what they believe is the perfect mix of spices, meat, and sauce that will grab the judge's attention. With hundreds of competitors, it's rare that the winning cook's concoction gets a unanimous decision amongst the judges. In fact, the winning recipe may not have received a single 1st place vote. The top recipe, however, consistently ranks high with all the judges.

Web design works the same way. Most web pages have the same basic ingredients; it's the mixture of these ingredients that webmasters hope will attract the attention of the search engines. Rarely, however, will they find the perfect mixture to win a unanimous 1st place decision amongst the various engines for a specific keyword search string.

My Recipe

I have several web design recipes in my cookbook. Most are designed to satisfy the taste buds of a specific search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN. This month I would like to share with you one of my easy to prepare web page design recipes that will please the taste buds of most search engines.

Ingredients

URL / File Name Webpage Title Meta Description Meta Keywords Body Text Section Headings

Outbound Link Anchor Text Link Destination URL / File Name Image Alt Text Incoming Links Time

URL / File Name

Include your targeted keyword phrase in the web address of the page. Separate words with a dash or underscore. For example:


Webpage Title

This is one of the primary ingredients of the recipe; if you leave it out your dish will not be very appealing to most of the judges. Include your keyword phrase in the title, preferably in the beginning. Add a few other words that go well with your keyword phrase. Use between 6 and 11 words but do not use all capital letters, use sentence or title case. For example:


Meta Description

Using sentence case, include a slight variation of the keyword phrase in the beginning of the Meta Description. Add words that work well with your keyword phrase at the end of the description. Make sure your keywords are less than 25% of the description. If your phrase has three words, your description should be at least twelve words. For example:


Meta Keywords

This is an optional ingredient, for most judges it adds no flavor to the recipe. But if you add it to your mixture, make sure the words you use here also appear in the Body, or ALT Text of your page. Use all lower case and separate each word with a comma, for example:


Body

The ingredients below are all contained in the Body of the webpage. As a general rule include your keyword phrase in the first sentence of the first paragraph on your page. After that use your keyword phrase sparingly, it should compose less than 10% of the words on the page.

Do not create numerous pages that are virtually identical except for the key phrase you are targeting. The body is also where you add the secret ingredient, original content. Do not copy content from other sites that rank well, write something original.

Section Headings

Use a section heading in the beginning that includes your keyword phrase. Use another heading near the middle or end of the page that does not contain your keyword phrase.

Link Anchor Text

Include your keyword phrase in the anchor text of at least one link on the page. You can also break up the phrase and use it in multiple links. Your keywords should comprise less than 15% of the total words used as link anchor text.

Body Text

Example of adding the three ingredients above:



Link Destination URL / File Name

If possible include portions of your keyword phrase in the destination address of the outbound links. For example, place links on your page to the following pages:



Image Alt Text

ALT text is alternative text that is displayed in lieu of images. With some browsers the alternative text is displayed when the user mouses over the image. Use an ALT image tag in the beginning that includes your keyword. Use one or more ALT image tags near the middle or end of the page that do not contain your keyword. For example:



Incoming Links

Using your keyword phrase as the anchor text, get another website to place a link to your newly created page. This was discussed in previous articles so I won't get into the details here.

Time

Once you are finished mixing the ingredients let the page marinate on the web for at least a month. If the judges do not take notice of your page alter the ingredients slightly, stir the pot, and let it simmer it for a while. If you are still not receiving recognition from the judges, try targeting a less competitive keyword phrase.

This recipe may not always win first place but it normally receives a top ten ribbon from all the judges. A top ten finish in the search results means your site will be displayed on the first page of thousands of results. Recent data released by AOL shows that a staggering 90% of web searchers click on the first page of results. These statistics vary with each search engine; however, it is a clear indication of the power of keeping your site on the first page.

To keep the search engine at your dinner table you'll have to add additional recipes to your cookbook. If you don't the search spiders will look for tasty dishes elsewhere. Variety is the spice of life; nobody likes eating the same meal every day. Before you spend allot of money to hire a Web Site in a Box firm to cater your meal, using the same dish served hundreds of times for competing dealers, try a little home cooking first with my recipe. You may be surprised who shows up for dinner.

Published in World of Special Finance Magazine
October Issue 2006