Optimization Versus Usability – Guidelines for Web Content

Websites must satisfy two types of users: searchers and search engines. It can be difficult to satisfy both because they want different things. Search spiders visit pages with the express aim to identify key areas of the page and indexing it for a search engine. Human visitors are usually looking for specific content, and many times they scan quickly, until they find it. The intentions are very different and it makes good web friendly content difficult to write.

How to write content for Searchers

Website content must persuade visitors to take action on a page by highlighting the best features and promote them. All pages should be focused and treated as if they were the only visitors will see. Here are some tips for writing content for users:

Keep pages short with links to more information

Write pages between 250-500 words long

Use bold headings to break up white space and help users find what they seek.

Use bullets and numbering for easy scanning

Edit your grammar and spelling errors.

How to write content for search engines

Your job is to interlace search terms in the page's content so that search engines rank your website for them. Since you have to use the search function phrase several times on a page, it may seem hard to do this without losing the website style or appear inept. In many cases there will be more than a keyword phrase you want to optimize, so good. Here are some useful guidelines for writing keyword rich copy:

Keyword method. Focus on the primary search phrase first, and then alternate the other keywords throughout the page. It is very difficult to optimize for more than three search phrases per page, so strive to keep the sides focused, and add more pages if more keywords you need.

Length of page Copy. Write about 250-350 words on each page. Search engines can easily distinguish page focuses on this length.

Honours & Meta Tags: Page titles should be 60 characters long - the same as a Google search title. Meta descriptions should be 150 characters. Meta keywords tag is optional, but many writers use it to keep track of the phrases that they are optimizing for. This tag should be about 250 characters long, without duplicates.

Links to other pages. Hyperlinks to other pages on the website should contain full or partial search phrases. These are important for search rankings.

Where to Put Search Phrases: Title, meta description, meta keywords, headings, bold, text links, the first two paragraphs of text, last word on the page, if possible, and all tags to images.

Number of pages. Search engines such as robust content on websites, and the minimum content for a brochure site should be about eight pages optimized copy. Adding a blog really helps to develop more pages and keep content fresh, especially if the blog is a part of the website.

Keyword Density. Writers should check their pages for keyword density. Here is a free keyword density tool to existing pages: Here is a free keyword density tool for text: Keyword density search phrases should be around 2-7%.

Single and plural Search Words. Use both singular and plural forms of words will help search engine optimization too. You must use the plural in the first position and then switch to the singular.

Vary the words prior to the sentence. If you do not do this, search engines index the page using the word before the sentence too.