• Think Of Each Page On Your Site As A Landing Page •
• Provide Your Visitors With The Information They Were Hoping To Find •

In a previous post about how to write compelling copy I talk about keeping it foremost in your mind that whatever you are writing needs to provide the information the visitor was hoping to find.

In other words, they typed in a search term; your SERP listing caught their eye; and click … they were carried onto the page showing up on the SERP.   Now, that content should be of great interest to your new visitor. The content should provide the information they were hoping to find about your services or products.

Side note: Because I know your content is always keyword focused (you have been following what I teach, right? ), and because you always do a great job optimizing your Title tag and Description meta tag, that is why the visitor found you via their search efforts.

Today I just want to drum home the thought that we all should strive to write quality, informative content that sticks to the keyword phrase we have targeted to that specific page.

The Only Thing Separating Your SERP Listing From Your Competitors’ Is …

… a compelling Title tag and Description meta tag!  The SERP listing is your first stab at attempting to attract the attention of your ideal buying audience! If you’ve taken your time to write an interesting and to-the-point SERP listing you’ve got a very good chance you’ll get the click.

Once you’ve gotten that visitor’s trust (you got the click), then you have got to make darn sure the content on the page that visitor lands on is FOCUSED to the information the SERP listing provided them.

That visitor should immediately recognize upon landing on your page that “Yup! this is exactly the information I was looking for!”  If this is the case, then it’s a win-win for everyone.

Remember … in almost all instances, treat each and every page on your website as a landing page.  Make sure your well written SERP listing is in total agreement with the information the visitor will find on the corresponding page.

If you do this with every new page you write, you will be miles ahead from almost all of your online competition.

Is There A ‘Best Length’ SEO Guideline When Writing Content?
Do The Spiders Run Around Counting Up The Words On Your Page?

I have had more than one SEO client ask me how many words there must be for each page of content they write for their site.  I do understand their concern that providing informative content is part of building a successful website or blog, but quite honestly there really isn’t a specific number of words that determines good or poor search engine rankings.  

As a matter of fact, I’ve seen it advised in more than one place that for top rankings, page length really should be between 400 and 600 words (give or take a little, depending on whose erroneous information you read).  Or, I’ve seen it stated to never ever write less than 250 words.  None of this information is correct!

The Search Engine Spiders Don’t Give A Hoot About The Number Of Words On Your Page

You can absolutely positively 100% trust that there are not a specific number of words that your pages or blog posts need to contain in order for your site to have the ability to rank highly and to obtain high quality targeted search engine traffic.

The search engines get smarter and smarter every month, and with that comes the understanding that the number of words on a page does NOT determine it’s value from a ranking standpoint.  But, the number of words you write does matter to your visitors.  Are you providing the information they came to your site hoping to find?

If you are addressing the topic at hand, and provide a thorough, well written page of content pertaining to the topic, then whether you’ve written 200 words or 1,200 words is totally OK as long as what … ?  Right … as long as you provide targeted, keyword focused information.  Your visitors were searching for this information, and you ought to be providing excellent content for those visitors.

How about some free help to narrow down the keywords you ought to be weaving into your content? I suggest this freebie.

Your pages can be as long or as short as you feel appropriate in order to say what you want to convey to your visitor.  Every page or post is different, and in that respect each has a different purpose.  Quite honestly, the number of words on a page is not a search engine issue at all, but really a marketing issue. 

So, do your best to always over-deliver quality content on every page you write.  The search engine spiders know that each page is unique unto itself.  If I may use a bit of poetic license here, I can tell you that as far as the spiders are concerned … “bean counters they are not!”  :-) 

Whether It’s “About Us” or “About Me” …
Your Web Site Visitors Want To Know Who You Are

Are you aware of the importance of well written web site content that is information packed for your “About Us” page?  You’ve probably noticed this page on practically every web site or blog you visit, but what are the key factors you really can’t afford to overlook when writing this page for your own site?  Well, let me tell you …

I often find many omissions of important information on people’s “About Us/Me” web page.  Since I usually view web content with a critical SEO eye, I know that those omissions are also causing the site owner to miss out on a little extra ranking juice.  But this doesn’t has to happen to you.  

It’s important that you do your best to give your web site or blog visitor, who just might be a potential customer, a nice overview of you and/or your company, and what you do.  It’s also very easy to take advantage of optimizing this page for search engine ranking purposes.  The informative content basically goes hand-in-hand with what the search engine spiders are looking for, so it really isn’t hard to make your “About Us” page a good one in all respects. 

Here’s what I suggest you should include on your “About Me” or “About Us” page:

• Highlight yourself and your key staff members – write a little something about each of you.
• Visitors love to see who ”you” are.  Include a nice smiling photo of yourself.  A group shot of your staff works well, or individual photos work great, too.  Make sure to list their names and if they have phone extensions, list those too;

I want to interject a mention of how being creative with the photo(s) of yourself or your staff can really help drive across the uniqueness of what you have to offer. (And in the case of the first photo, can provide a chuckle for your visitor!)

If it is appropriate in your marketing niche, something beyond the standard head shot is a great idea.

In an image search on Google for “about us”, I found some of the most interesting photos and they sure made me understand the “feel” of what the web owner was wanting to get across to their site visitors. 

I’m showcasing these three ”About Us” photos because I think they are excellent examples of how thinking outside the box can make your “About Us” or “About Me” page much more interesting and I do believe an approach such as these will leave a lasting impression in your customers minds!

Please note I have NO AFFILIATION with any of these businesses … I am merely showcasing them to help give you some creative inspiration.  Click on the photo to go to the “About” page of each business:

• Provide a short history of how you began and where your business is now (explain it’s growth);  
• Proudly list your mission statement, or what sets you apart from the competition, as example;
• Any special recognitions, industry awards, etc. that are worth noting; 
• Any business groups or organizations that you or your staff belong to;
• Your street address (or P.O. Box if you work from home and wish to protect your privacy), city, state and zip code;
• Your phone number — it’s preferable for SEO purposes to list a phone number with area code versus an #800 number (but list your #800 too if you do have one);
• Testimonials and/or a link to your Testimonial page if your have one;
• Anything else that you feel would set you apart from your competition and is worth noting on this page.    

Your “About Us” Web Site Content Needs To Be Written As If You’re Speaking To That Visitor

Every bit of web content that I write, even for my www.SEO-Innovation.com site (which is purely an informational site for highlighting my SEO consulting services), is written with my personal flair.  I am a big advocate of writing as if you are literally speaking face-to-face to your visitor.  Why not?  This approach has always served me well, and based on the emails I receive saying “you express yourself in such a nice way … your tutorials are so easy to follow and understand”, etc.  that I encourage you to use the same style when writing the important web site content for your “About” page.